APIA population skyrockets in Metro NY

Apparently APIAs have made huge population growths in metropolitan NYC, and are the only ethnic group to have increased in every single county.

Since 2000, New York has recorded the greatest increase in Asians (309,773) of any metropolitan area (Queens was fourth among all 3,100 counties, with 58,515). The largest percentage increases in the city were on Staten Island (35 percent) and in Manhattan (20 percent).

From 2005 to 2006, the number of Asians increased by more than 10 percent in three New Jersey counties: Gloucester, Salem and Warren.

...Since 2005, though, according to the census, their [Hispanic] ranks declined slightly in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Hudson County, N.J. The biggest increases among the Hispanic population in the metropolitan area during that period were by more than 9 percent in Litchfield County in Connecticut and by more than 7 percent in Warren County, N.J.

This should be a HUGE wakeup call to savvy politicians, and I'm sure that John Liu, running for some citywide position, is counting the demographics and voter rolls. Smart citywide candidates should do the same since Brooklyn is seeing massive growth (and the creation of an informal third Chinatown.)

Indeed, APIAs have been making it as politicians even in less APIA-dense parts, including Long Island. Recently, Harvinder Anand was elected mayor of a tony Long Island village where Sikh Americans are very much in the minority. He describes himself as a Reagan Republican but ran unopposed, without a party affiliation:

Nonetheless, Mr. Anand's way of standing out in the crowd of Bermuda-shorts-and-loafer-wearing people who elected him in June -- he ran unopposed -- attracted television crews from American and Indian networks to his inauguration on July 2. The newscasters described the election of Mr. Anand, 47, a New Delhi native who is the first member of any minority group to be mayor of this 95-percent-white community of 2,000 fronting on Cold Spring Harbor, in eastern Nassau County, as an unparalleled event.

In fact, he is part of what political analysts see as a new pattern: While minority candidates are usually propelled into office from densely populated enclaves of their own ethnic groups, a small but recently growing number of Indian-American officeholders has been getting elected in communities across the nation where they are the tiniest of minorities.

. . .The 1965 law made it possible for Mr. Anand, the newly elected mayor here, to immigrate in 1982 upon graduating from Punjab University with a degree in chemical engineering. After postgraduate work at Hofstra University on Long Island, he got a job with a small chemical company, then moved up to a larger company, and in 1995 formed his own company with a partner. It manufactures chemicals in the United States, China, India and Thailand.

So basically, this guy is a Reagan Republican who benefited from the 1965 Immigration law which Reagan took pains to slice away at?!?! That aside, I am glad that more Asian Americans are running and winning in less densely populated places. Perhaps that will make Democrats and other electeds sit up and take notice.

Spitzer did not do much outreach to the APIA community apart from some South Asian fundraisers and photo ops with wealthy donors during his gubernatorial run. One example is that his affinity group was "Asians for Spitzer" vs AAPI for Spitzer or Asian Americans for Spitzer, as Hillary and Obama have. I hope that he and other NY area politicians start to pay more than lip service and heed our increasing numbers.



Lastly, an article on Miss New York Chinese and the multi-hued pageants of NYC's diverse population.