Discrimination Experiences Shape Most Asian Americans’ Lives
Most Asian adults in the U.S. have been treated as a foreigner or experienced incidents where people assume they are a “model minority.”
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Most Asian adults in the U.S. have been treated as a foreigner or experienced incidents where people assume they are a “model minority.”
About one-in-ten Asian Americans live in poverty. Pew Research Center conducted 18 focus groups in 12 languages to explore their stories and experiences.
32% of U.S.-born Asian adults have hidden a part of their heritage, compared with 15% of immigrants.
Burmese (19%) and Hmong Americans (17%) were among the Asian origin groups with the highest poverty rates in 2022.
Among Asian Adults living in the U.S., 52% say they most often describe themselves using ethnic labels that reflect their heritage and family roots, either alone or together with “American.” About six-in-ten (59%) say that what happens to Asians in the U.S. affects their own lives.
Across 49 focus groups with Asian immigrants, daily challenges related to speaking English emerged as a common theme. Participants also shared frustration, stress and at times sadness in dealing with cultural and language barriers, and described support they received from others.
Around three-quarters of Asian Americans (78%) have a favorable view of the United States. Majorities of Filipino, Indian, Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese and Vietnamese adults in the U.S. have a favorable view of their own ancestral homeland. By contrast, fewer than half of Chinese Americans say they have a favorable opinion of China.
About half of Asian adults who have heard of affirmative action (53%) say it is a good thing, 19% say it is a bad thing, and 27% say they don’t know whether it is good or bad. However, about three-quarters of all Asian adults (76%) say race or ethnicity should not factor into college admissions decisions.
Of the 24 million Asians living in the United States, about 2.3 million live in poverty. This short film explores their diverse stories and experiences.
In a new analysis based on dozens of focus groups, Asian American participants described the challenges of navigating their own identity in a nation where the label “Asian” brings expectations about their origins, behavior and physical self.
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