Asian American demographics by city

[Agitprop]

Sikhs in British Columbia are the exception that proves the North American rule of the Confucian West versus the Dharmic East.

[Docere]

Data on the US Sikh population is scanty, but it seems like California is home to most US Sikhs.

[proghousehead]

Queens has a massive Sikh population as well - most notably in the Richmond Hill neighborhood. They must be 30-40% of the population there at least.

[Crawford]

Those Queens Sikhs are Guyanese, though, I think? South Asian ethnically but hailing from Guyana. Richmond Hill is probably the largest and most prominent Guyanese community in the U.S. Not sure how they fill out Census forms. It's even more complex in that some Guyanese have African background.

[AviationGuy]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

I meant to post this last month being that May is AAPI Heritage Month, but it slipped my mind:

From In the Know:

Filipino American Woman From Texas Says She Wants To Move To L.A. And Be Among ‘LA Filipinos’: ‘I Just Wish We Had That Here In Houston’

Article by Neia Balao
Fri, May 19, 2023 at 4:48:33 PM EDT

A Filipino American woman from Texas talks about finding comfort with other Filipinos while in a popular West Coast city.

On May 15, Melannie Millan Keys, (@longanisaarms) took to TikTok to talk about a recent experience she had while in Los Angeles. Keys, who is Filipino American and lives in Houston, went to a bar with some friends in West Hollywood. Feeling uneasy in a densely populated venue, she felt an anxiety attack coming on — but what she heard next brought immediate comfort.

“I was notified that it was a drag queen gay bar, and I was really excited, but when we got there I was a little overwhelmed with the population. Like, there was, like, a lot of people, and I was like, ‘I gotta go,'” Keys explains. “I went to the bathroom fully prepared to leave from anxiety but then I stopped myself because I could hear people singing in Tagalog.”

“I had to listen because I was like, ‘That can’t be Tagalog,’ but it was. It was a crowd of people singing in Tagalog, and I was wondering, ‘Am I in my homeland? Like, am I back in the Philippines? Like, where am I?’ she adds.

Keys then surveys the bar and realizes something else — that she’s actually among a ton of Filipinos.

“I look around and I’m like, ‘Oh s***, 80% of the people here are Filipino,'” she claims. “And, like, the Filipinos that I witnessed were a different breed. Like, think Bretman Rock, but, like, all the genders. The shoes were on point, the fits were on point, the hair was immaculate … and just everything, the energy was so good.”

Living in Houston, Keys notes that the Filipinos she’s surrounded by are quite conservative.

“I’m from Houston where, like, you know, it’s very conservative, and so the Filipinos that live here are here to build a family,” she says. “So we have a lot of, like, Christian, like, Catholic, Methodist Filipinos that are nurses. You know, I’ve only seen, like, one model of Filipino here, so I’ve never felt like I fit in.”

Keys was born in New York City and raised in Manila. She relocated to Houston with her family around the time she started high school.

“I’ve only known a certain brand of Filipino. May I even add super judgey. Like, I’m a tatted up b****, like, I never get complimented by other Filipinos because it’s just too much. I’m a lot for, like, the average Filipino,” she says. “But in LA, people complimented my outfit, people were complimenting my sleeve, they were like, ‘Oh my god, b****, who did your tattoo?'”

This warm welcome has Keys contemplating a move to Los Angeles.

“And I’m, like, low-key wondering if I need to move to California and be with my people because Houston is not giving,” she admits.

What Keys desires from the place she lives is the ability to be immersed in Filipino culture, to be surrounded by art in an LGBTQ-friendly environment and to live in a bustling, metropolitan city.

“I feel like LA Filipinos are all of those things, and I just wish we had that here in Houston,” she says.

With 3.8 million people, Los Angeles has the largest Asian population of any county in the United States, according to the U.S. Census 2021 estimates. Per the same estimates, Filipino Americans are the largest Asian American subgroup in Los Angeles, with 129,754 residents. Los Angeles County is home to the second-largest Filipino immigrant population in the world, surpassed only by the country’s capital city, Manila.

Should Keys move to Los Angeles, in particular, she would be in close proximity to the city’s Historic Filipinotown, which in 2022 was granted a new landmark: a gateway arch spanning 82 feet across and 30 feet high along the neighborhood’s eastern entrance designed by Filipino American artists Eliseo Art Silva and Celestino Geronimo Jr.

Fellow Filipinos are urging Keys to make the move and prioritize her mental health.

“CA has the highest population of Filipinos in the entire US. Come visit the Bay Area too. Much to love and feel connected,” @stephaniequilao wrote.

“California Filipinos are different period. I am in Dallas & it’s different here too. You are beautiful,” @kiane1965 commented.

“Move to California! LA or the Bay Area! Be with your people! It’s so good for your mental health,” @shevallreads urged.

Nevertheless, the Los Angeles Filipino diaspora continues to fight for visibility within the city itself.

“One reason we don’t have ethnic enclaves is that we’re not dependent on an ethnic economy to survive,” activist and historian Joe Bernardo told NBC News, while noting that because Filipinos are fluent in English, employment can be found anywhere in the city. Another reason, Bernardo explained, is the fact that establishments within Historic Filipinotown don’t look distinguishably Asian — which is due to the “legacy of U.S. and Spanish colonization in the Philippines.”

Should Keys decide to move to Los Angeles, it seems she’ll be among a more like-minded community of Filipino Americans.


Link: https://www.intheknow.com/post/filip...re-in-houston/


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Photo I took last December:

sopas ej

Houston is not conservative, unless she meant the Filipinos are conservative. Even the entire county has gone blue.

[mrnyc]

cleveland has 5k filipinos around, or maybe had in the 1970s.

ie., macaria mabini was a family friend and we had her over for dinner a few times. she was rather locally famous and supported a lot of charity work around the whole cle metro. in the phillipines she was very famous as she was i think a grand daughter or niece of apolonario mabini, its first prime minister. i remember i asked how it went when she went back and she said they rolled a red carpet out to the plane when she visited. as a kid that was very impressive.

outside of that and as i recall there are a at least noticeable amount of filipinos in the medical profession in the area. so by far not so many filipinos vs nyc or the west coast, but maybe surprizing for the cleveland area.

[proghousehead]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Those Queens Sikhs are Guyanese, though, I think? South Asian ethnically but hailing from Guyana. Richmond Hill is probably the largest and most prominent Guyanese community in the U.S. Not sure how they fill out Census forms. It's even more complex in that some Guyanese have African background.

Nope. They’re Punjabi. There are no Guyanese or trini Sikhs. Maybe Hindu or Muslim. These folks are from India. There are a plethora of articles documenting that community.

[Docere]

Originally Posted by Docere

Wikipedia puts the US Sikh population at 472,000, using the same ratio of Punjabi speakers to Sikhs in Canada. About half are in California.


Top 10 counties, Sikh population

Sacramento CA 26,639 1.68%
Queens NY 23,936 1.03%
Alameda CA 21,226 1.29%
Santa Clara CA 20,221 1.07%
King WA 15,739 0.7%
Middlesex NJ 13,038 1.51%
Nassau NY 12,847 0.92%
Los Angeles CA 11,934 0.12%
San Joaquin CA 11,020 1.4%
Sutter CA 9,726 9.76%

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikhis...United_States#

*

[mrnyc]

for nj carteret is known for its sikh community. i think its around 2500. monroe has a sikh heritage museum and there are other sikh temples in the area. middlesex county has a lot of indian in general.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by proghousehead

Nope. They’re Punjabi. There are no Guyanese or trini Sikhs. Maybe Hindu or Muslim. These folks are from India. There are a plethora of articles documenting that community.

Interesting. Wonder why Punjabi Sikhs are especially concentrated in the most Guyanese neighborhood in the U.S.

I just assumed that whole Richmond Hill South Asian population was from the Americas, given all the roti places and the like.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by Agitprop

Sikhs in British Columbia are the exception that proves the North American rule of the Confucian West versus the Dharmic East.

Canada is now 2.1% Sikh, which makes it a higher proportion than India!

There are almost as many Sikhs as Hindus in Canada, showing how over-represented Punjabis are.

[Docere]

And Hindus surpassed Sikhs in the 2021 census.

In BC, Sikhs still dominate the South Asian population.

[Capsicum]

Originally Posted by Agitprop

Sikhs in British Columbia are the exception that proves the North American rule of the Confucian West versus the Dharmic East.

Interesting that there isn't spillover of this BC trend to the Pacific Northwest (e.g. Washington state)? Given there was shared timing in migration to this part of North America.

History of 20th century immigration restriction? Or that any Punjabi presence from the same time/period source, plus much later tech industry immigrant South Asian presence was not enough to outweigh the long-standing East Asian one.

[Capsicum]

Originally Posted by Docere

Indians are the largest Asian group in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit and Washington - and by quite large margins.

How recent is the change of Indian rising in numbers above other Asian groups in much of the Midwest/South? Early 21st century? Or earlier? 90s?

[Capsicum]

Originally Posted by eschaton

I think it's also worth noting that, historically speaking, Japan had a very different attitude toward emigration than a lot of other Asian countries. Essentially, if you left your home and nation, you were seen as having turned your back on it, having become "an exile." This is in contrast to say China, where there was a long-standing attitude that Chinese communities abroad were still Chinese.

I think this matters because the large-scale rejection of Japanese migrants by Japan as being "truly Japanese" meant connections to Japan, and even connections within the Japanese-American community, became attenuated more rapidly, leading to quicker assimilation.

Writing off emigrants as gone for good, was not unique to Japan.

This was a quite a big deal for some (and features prominently in Indo-Caribbean, other British empire-era Indian emigration).

Plus, when it comes to China, it's been inconsistently off and on, understandably given all the politics, for the 19th, 20th and 21th century.

There have been views of emigrants ranging from traitors, exiles, dissidents to representatives of the pride of their civilization. And also indifference (particularly in times when the old country itself was too poor to worry about international affairs). I'd certainly imagine attitudes are going to differ if we're talking about, I guess for China in particular, people who left since the time of the last dynasty, the first Republic, the period of Communism, Cultural Revolution, dissidents, or modern times.

I think this is going to be true for many countries, Asian or not, depending on what the state of politics was like in the old country vs. the receiving one. How did for instance, those staying behind in other famous emigration sources like Russians, Germans, Italians, Irish etc. see their own diasporas? I'm sure it also has ranged from "special relationship (e.g. birthright citizenship or "return to roots" program type arrangements, most famously Israel but I think there at least some other countries with special privileges for diaspora)", "we don't care about them, or don't think about them" to "they're annoying cousins who've lost touch in anything but surname (e.g. the "Plastic Paddy" critique).

[Docere]

Originally Posted by Capsicum

How recent is the change of Indian rising in numbers above other Asian groups in much of the Midwest/South? Early 21st century? Or earlier? 90s?

Illinois (1990)

Filipino 64,224
Indian 64,200
Chinese 49,936
Korean 41,506

Texas (1990)

Vietnamese 69,634
Chinese 63,232
Indian 55,795
Korean 31,775

Virginia (1990)

Filipino 35,067
Korean 30,164
Chinese 21,238
Vietnamese 20,693
Indian 20,494

[Quixote]

There are also more Vietnamese in London, a comparable number of Filipinos and Japanese, and a Malaysian-born population of 75,000 in the U.K.

London doesn’t have the Chinese or Korean populations of NYC, but NYC doesn’t have the Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, or Sri Lankan communities that London has. I will say that the small Chinese population is odd, especially considering the Hong Kong connection (they opted for Vancouver instead).

[Docere]

Vietnamese seem to have bypassed NYC. Is it even in the top 10 cities for Vietnamese Americans?

I don't think London Chinese and NYC South Asian is really comparable. NYC has a pretty large South Asian population, but London has a larger one. London has a small Chinese population. I don't think it has any Chinese enclaves of note.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by Quixote

London doesn’t have the Chinese or Korean populations of NYC, but NYC doesn’t have the Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, or Sri Lankan communities that London has. I will say that the small Chinese population is odd, especially considering the Hong Kong connection (they opted for Vancouver instead).

Is the South Asian population in Greater London really that much bigger than the South Asian population in the NYC metro? By % no doubt bigger, but I'd imagine the numbers are relatively close? There have to be over 1 million South Asians in the NYC metro by now.

The Trenton-Princeton-New Brunswick-Woodbridge corridor is gonna be plurality South Asian in a not-too-distant future. If you look at the elementary school enrollments in towns like Edison (90%+ Asian in lower grades, almost all Indian) it's happening shortly.

[Docere]

Is the comparison NYC vs. Greater London, or NYC Metro vs. Greater London and home counties? There's a much more significant diversity "dropoff" in London, so including the metro often adds significantly to NYC numbers but the surrounding counties often barely make a dent in London numbers.

US data for non-Indian South Asians is quite poor, but I think London has about twice as many South Asians as the New York area.

Bangladeshis have become a significant immigrant group in NYC, but there are few Bangladeshi Americans overall and they're not among the Census Bureau's "big six" Asian subgroups.