"Build a wall!" The mind set of the Elite. For generations the
Wealthy American kept themselves safe by building gated communities.
Now Trump and company want to keep the entire nation safe by the same
method.
By the way, wasn't it the Chinese immigrants who were imported to bend
their backs building our railroads? And of course, the Mexicans bend
their backs to keep food on our tables. But Donald Trump will get rid
of them all, build fences between us and Mexico, and then one Hell of
a big wall between us and China. Donald and Friends just can't get
their heads around the fact that populations change. Look at the
people living on this continent 500 years ago. No White folk back
then. Trump cannot stop the movement of people. Even behind his big
gates he will find himself overwhelmed.
Maybe we should call all people, "Brother and Sister" and embrace them.
Carl Jarvis
On 12/23/15, S. Kashdan <skashdan@xxxxxxx> wrote:
China surpasses Mexico in sending immigrants to California
High-tech industry, California colleges driving growth in Asian influx
By Phillip Reese
preese@xxxxxxxxxx
Sacramento Bee, December 18, 2015
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/article50609105.html#storylink=cpy
About 33,000 immigrants came to California from China last year
Just over 30,000 came from Mexico
Emigration from China and other Asian countries has grown largely because of
increased demand for highly skilled workers, particularly in the
In a reversal of a decades-old trend, China has replaced Mexico as the
country sending the most immigrants each year to California, new data show.
About 33,000 immigrants moved to California from China last year, roughly
triple the number who came in 2005, according to data from the U.S. Census
Bureau and the Public Policy Institute of California. The number of
immigrants coming to California from Mexico fell from almost 100,000 in 2005
to just over 30,000 in 2014, a roughly 70 percent decline.
Last year marked the second in a row that more residents arrived in
California from China than from Mexico. India, which sent about 29,500
immigrants to California last year, also is poised to overtake Mexico. Some
of California’s recent Asian arrivals are college students or long-term
workers who eventually may leave the country; others will stay permanently.
The change comes as politicians debate immigration reform--who gets to come
and who gets to stay--at all levels of U.S. government. Several presidential
candidates this year have called for restricting immigration for economic or
security reasons.
Donald Trump, who is leading most Republican presidential polling, has
proposed building a massive wall to fortify the U.S. border with Mexico.
Such a measure today would not affect the bulk of immigration to California:
Less than a quarter of the immigrants arriving here last year, whether
legally or illegally, came from Latin America, census figures show.
"One thing is for sure: The era of mass migration from Mexico is over," said
Karthick Ramakrishnan, professor of public policy at the University of
California, Riverside, adding that more Californians are likely returning to
Mexico each year than coming.
Emigration from Mexico has plummeted in recent years in response to several
factors: the deep economic recession of 2007 to 2009; falling Mexican
fertility rates; increased border enforcement; a rise in deportations; and
declines or limited growth in the California jobs traditionally held by
Mexican immigrants, including construction work and service-sector
employment.
"For the next 10 years, there will be a shrinkage of new Mexicans in the
workforce," said Giovanni Peri, professor and chair of the economics
department at UC Davis. "That trend is clearly set."
Meanwhile, emigration from China and other Asian countries has grown largely
because of increased demand for highly skilled workers, particularly in the
technology industry. Arrivals from Asia have disproportionately settled in
and around Silicon Valley, census figures show.
Many Asian immigrants have come to America on H-1B visas, which allow
companies to temporarily hire foreign workers when there is a labor
shortage. Some immigrants who obtain those visas eventually secure
sponsorship from American companies and are able to stay permanently.
Supporters of the H-1B program, including many Silicon Valley companies, say
it is vital to finding specialized talent; detractors have countered that
the program takes jobs from U.S. workers.
"Our labor market is increasingly demanding more highly educated workers,"
said Hans Johnson, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Public Policy
Institute of California. "Employers are increasingly finding those workers
abroad."
China also is sending many more students to America, and particularly
California, to attend college. The state’s public colleges have dramatically
increased the number of foreign-born students on their campuses. The number
of international freshmen enrolling at University of California rose almost
sixfold from 1,048 in 2009 to 6,071 in 2015, system data show.
Those students pay a higher rate of tuition than students from California.
At UC Davis, international students pay about $39,000 in tuition and fees,
compared with roughly $14,000 paid by in-state students. University
officials have defended the higher foreign enrollment and fees, saying they
help bolster funding after years of budget cuts.
In addition, the state’s prestigious private universities draw thousands of
Asian students. Stanford’s undergraduate international student enrollment
increased by more than 40 percent from 2005 to 2014, university statistics
show.
About one-fourth of emigrants from China from 2012 to 2014 were between ages
18 and 24 and enrolled in college, census figures show. About a third of
these students stay in America after college, Peri said.
"Most of these students do the science, tech, math degrees," he said.
At UC Davis, the number of international freshmen rose more than tenfold
from 91 in 2009 to 1,073 in 2015.
Samuel Yu, a junior majoring in chemistry at UC Davis, said his parents came
to California from China in 2004, largely so he could attend an American
college. He said it is hard to find a spot in a prestigious Chinese college
because space is limited and the pool of applicants huge.
"The U.S. has a better education system than what China is developing," he
said.
Kenneth L. Lee, CEO of OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates, formerly called
the Organization of Chinese Americans, said many Chinese "families have
saved everything to put into that one child" coming to the United States to
study and earn a valuable degree.
"If you have one child, and you want to have your child do well, you say, ‘I
am going to do everything I can to get in,’ " he said.
Thousands of Chinese immigrants coming to California, though, are not in
college or working in Silicon Valley. They are family members of
Californians who have been in America for years. More than a quarter of
Chinese immigrants to California from 2012 to 2014 were age 50 and older.
The reunification visas that allow them to come and stay are in limited
supply and can take more than a decade to obtain, Lee said.
U.S. census numbers do not distinguish between immigrants who are here
legally and those here without authorization. Demographic experts said the
majority of Chinese immigrants have gone through the immigration process;
but "you have seen a pretty significant jump in undocumented immigration
from Asia," said Ramakrishnan. These immigrants typically overstay their
visas.
The growth in Asian migration is a relatively young trend. Hispanics still
far outnumber Asians in California, and likely will for a long time. About
5.3 million Asians live in California compared with 15 million Hispanics,
census figures show.
But Chinese and other Asians increasingly lead the state’s cities and hold
statewide offices. They own a growing number of businesses. And Asians were
the largest ethnic group in the University of California’s 2015 in-state
freshman class.
"If this persists, it will change California," Johnson said. "The
fastest-growing group would become Asian."
The trend also may change the national conversation about immigration. The
same trend playing out in California--more immigrants arriving from Asia
than Latin America--is happening across the country, according to the U.S.
Census Bureau.
"We are so used to thinking about what immigration looked like," Ramakrishan
said. "We just assumed the past would look like the future."
MOST POPULAR DESTINATIONS
Chinese immigration to California is heavily concentrated in the Bay Area
and Los Angeles. The number of Chinese immigrants who moved to the state’s
12 largest counties from 2005 to 2014:
County
Chinese
immigrants
Rate per
1,000 residents
San Francisco
21,900
25.7
Santa Clara
33,000
Phillip Reese: 916-321-1137, @PhillipHReese
