Evidence Matters: Immigration Trends among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders
By Karthick Ramakrishnan
As we approach a second Trump administration, the topic of immigration remains a top community concern among Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. From proposed legislation that would vastly expand the number of immigrants who can be deported for nonviolent offenses like shoplifting, to vigorous debates about the future of employment visas like the H1B program, our communities stand to be greatly affected.
Our By The Numbers: Immigration resource guide provides interactive charts and critical insights on immigration trends, policies, and public opinion as they relate to Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities. We will be updating this resource over the coming weeks and months, including with new public opinion data.
Immigration is a contentious topic where public narratives are often at odds with reality. For example, election-year rhetoric around immigration in 2024 left an impression that there has been an unprecedented deluge of immigrants coming into the country.
Immigration is a contentious topic where public narratives are often at odds with reality.
Data from the Departments of Homeland Security and the Department of State reveal, however, that levels of immigration under the Biden administration were not unprecedented. They were largely returning to levels prior to 2016 ( Figures 1.2 and 3.1 from our resource guide are included below).
Additional insights emerge when we examine data from sources such as the American Community Survey (ACS). For example, Asian Americans are the only racial group that is majority foreign born. About two-thirds of all Asian American residents, and over three quarters of Asian American adults, were born outside the United States. By contrast, only a third of Hispanic/Latino residents were foreign born (Figure 1.1). And, even though most Pacific Islanders are born in the United States, about a quarter of the NHPI population is foreign born.
Another critical insight is that nearly 1.5 million Asians are stuck in family visa backlogs (Figure 7.1). The Philippines, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, China and Pakistan are among the top 10 countries with long waiting lists for family visas. Indeed, for some family visa categories, wait times exceed 20 years for married sons and daughters of U.S. citizens (F3 visas), and it exceeds 17 years for siblings of adult U.S. Citizens from India and China (F4 visas).
Given the difficulty for many Asian immigrants to enter the United States legally, it is not surprising that the number of undocumented Asian immigrants continues to increase. Estimates from the Pew Research Center show that the number of Asian undocumented immigrants grew to 1.7 million in 2022, up from 1.4 million in 2010, even as the overall undocumented immigrant population remained stable. (Figure 6.1) The biggest growth occurred among undocumented immigrants from India, who are now the third largest group of undocumented immigrants in the United States (725,000), behind Mexico and El Salvador.
Finally, our immigration resource guide also includes information on where Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders stand on various immigration-related issues, including public opinion data from various AAPI Data/Associated Press-NORC surveys. Thus, for example, our survey reveals that most AANHPI adults view legal immigration as essential for economic growth (79%) and scientific innovation (73%), far outpacing the general public on these metrics.
Reducing green card wait times is also a top issue for AANHPI adults, with 44% considering it a high priority, and about another third prioritizing other legal immigration policies such as expanding family visas and providing green cards to college graduates.
As the United States grapples with important questions about the future of immigration and its potential effects on the American economy and society, it is critical to make sure that policy debates, news coverage, and public perceptions are based on the realities of immigration today. And it is critical to ensure that the voices and perspectives of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are included in news coverage and policy conversation about immigration.
Karthick Ramakrishnan is the founder and executive director of AAPI Data