Contrary to the model minority stereotype, 1 in 10 Asian Americans live in poverty

Can we please finally put this "model minority" nonsense to rest? 

The term 'model minority' was coined in 1966 by sociologist William Petersen in an article he wrote for the The New York Times Magazine entitled "Successful story: Japanese American style." The term has haunted Asian Americans ever since.

The trouble with stereotypes is that there is usually an element of truth to them. Some Asian Americans have achieved financial and educational success. But that ignores the wide-ranging diversity of the Asian American community. Indeed, more than 2.3 million Asian Americans – about one-in-ten – live below the poverty line in 2022, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of US Census Bureau data.

Of the 24 million Asian Americans, about 2.3 million live in poverty. Many are working to overcome the economic hardships they encounter and achieve their American dream. Some have lost hope of achieving that dream.

        FYI: Read more about the Pew Analysis about Asian American poverty

While Filipinos and Indian Asians generally enjoyed financial security in contrast to  about 17% of Hmong Americans and 16% of Mongolian Americans, who live at or below the poverty line, according to a Pew analysis.

The wide diversity of the Asians coming from over two-dozen countries, is further splintered by when they immigrated to the US or if they are US-born; proficiency in English. Most of the poor tend to be more recent immigrants who still are unfamiliar with the options open to them or are more comfortable staying within their own community bubbles.

“After coming [to the U.S.], there were many problems to face, first … the language problem. We have read English … but we are not used to speaking. … We also had education … but since we can’t explain ourselves in English – what we can do, what we know … we are getting rejected [from jobs] as we cannot speak," said a rBengalis-speaker Pakistani.

"Another problem was that I had a child," she continued. "My child was small. I could not go to work leaving him. At that time, my husband was working. He also had the same thing – he had education, but he could not get a good job because of the language... we had to work below the minimum wage.”

One of the surprising findings was that among Asian Americans ages 25 and older who are poor, one-third have a bachelor’s degree or higher contradicting the general belief that a college degree would almost guarantee a good-paying job. At least that's what Asian parents always tell their children. 

Not so surprising is that the survey found that most of those living in poverty lived in the metro centers of New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Each of these urban centers have about 100,000 Asians living under the poverty line. With their large Asian American populations, it makes sense that there are more poor in those metropolitan centers.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me at Threads.net/eduardodiok, @DioknoEd on Twitter or at the blog Views From the Edge.