Poverty Trends for Southeast Asian Immigrants in the United States, 1990 to 2000

Julie Park, University of Southern California

This paper will focus the dynamics of poverty for the Southeast Asian population. Southeast Asians have been among the fastest growing groups in the past two decades within the U.S. Asian population and they have challenged conventional thinking about Asians as a homogeneous, “model minority” group. Beyond a static snapshot of poverty rates, the double cohort method will be used for a nuanced, longitudinal analysis based on the 1990 and 2000 census. This method allows for the examination of poverty trajectories of immigrant arrival cohorts along with birth cohorts nested within them to gain insights about what happens as immigrants age, and their duration in the U.S. increases. Within the Southeast Asian group, there are different ethnic groups as well as distinct waves of migration to the U.S. that warrants separate analysis. Furthermore, this approach allows for the examination of poverty for the 1.5 generation as they come of age.