Asians in Southern California

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/29/us/asians-now-largest-immigrant-group-in-southern-california.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130429

Dove tailing on the previous post, I would like to focus on the one statement made by Elizabeth Kneebone regarding the diversification of the suburbs.  Ms. Kneebone states, "Suburbs are increasing home to new immigrant populations either because they have communities there or networks there or they're following affordable housing opportunities or jobs..."  I'd like to use this space to discuss the Asian immigrant population in Southern California.  This, onto itself, is a broad subject because Asian immigration has had a long and sometimes violent history in the region punctuated by the heinous imprisonment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.  However, in the San Gabriel Valley Chinese immigrants are making their presence felt in ways that are rapidly being felt in a myriad of ways.  This supports my theory that part of the reason of the diversification of the suburbs is due to immigrant population following the American dream of a house in the suburbs.  Jennifer Medina, in her article "New Suburban Dream born of Asia and Southern California" for the New York Times (April 29, 2013), explores this trend and its impact on the area.

About a few decades ago, Caucasians made up approximately two-thirds of the population in this posh Los Angeles suburbs.  Presently, Asians make up over half the population in the city of San Marino, which has long attracted some of Southern California's wealthiest, oldest families and was once home to the Western headquarters of the John Birch Society.  This shift illustrates a drastic change in California immigration trends over the last ten years, one that can be observed all over the area; more than twice as many immigrants to California now come from Asian than from Latin America.  This change is just one example of how immigration is remaking America, with political, economic, and cultural consequences being felt in a number of ways.  While the number of Latinos have doubled in southern states such as Georgia, Alabama, and North Carolina, creating tension, Asian immigrant communities are growing in states like New Jersey and Latino immigrants are reviving small Midwestern towns.

Most of the current debates on immigration in Congress is centered on Latinos, and for decades California and by extension, Southwestern United States, had been the focus of that migration.  All the while, cities in the San Gabriel Valley, Orange County, and in the Silicon Valley have seen Asian immigrants become the dominant cultural force in places that were mainly white or Hispanic.  Ms. Medina quotes Hans Johnson, a demographer with the Public Policy Institute of California (http://www.ppic.org), "We are really looking at a different era here...There are astounding changes in working-class towns and old, established, wealthy cities.  It is not confined to one place."

In more than half of a dozen cities in the San Gabriel Valley, Asians have become the majority, creating a region of Asian-dominated suburbs stretching for nearly thirty miles east of Los Angeles.  One example is Monterey Park, a middle-class city that began attracting Asian immigrants more than twenty years ago.  In some respect, it has replaced Los Angeles' Chinatown as the center of the Chinese community.  However, as Asians continue to arrive in Southern California, they've branched out into the more tony areas in Los Angeles County, making up more than 60 percent of the population in the San Gabriel Valley and Walnut along the county's eastern boundary.  Many of the new arrivals are from the People's Republic of China and the Republic of Taiwan, where they were part of a highly educated and affluent demographic.  I won't bore you with some sort of cultural digression here.  They have eagerly proceded to property in places likel San Marino, where the median income is nearly twice that of Beverly Hills and is home to one of the highest-performing school districts.  Perhaps the location is not so coincidental because of the proximity to Chinatown, albeit, the far proximity.  Nevertheless, the wealth is not uniform, there are poverty pocket in several of the area's working-class suburbs, particularly in the Vietnamese and Filipino communities.  Again, I'm not going to waste space on a digression.

Ms. Medina quotes Daniel Ichinose, a demographer for the Asian Pacific America Legal Center (http://www.apalc.org), "This is kind of ground zero for a new immigrant America...You have people speaking Mandarin and Vietnamese and Spanish all living together and facing many common challenges."  The chief challenge, I believe, is coming from a homogenous cultural and learning to live in a multi-cultural environment.  The children of the immigrants who first came to the San Gabriel Valley are now coming of age and acting as cheerleaders for the region, running for political office, and creating businesses that cater to an American born customer base.  There is a profusion of store displays and signage in Mandarin that advertise restaurant supplies, Chinese herbs, acupuncture, or brokerage services.  The most common storefront is the boba teashop, where young customers can spend hours sipping cold milk tea with tapioca balls.  A pretty delicious treat for those of you who've never tried it.  Just be careful you don't choke on the jelly-like boba.  The tea shops are a common feature in nearly every one of the region's hundreds of strip malls.

My point for writing this post is to demonstrate the changing face of American suburbia.  As new immigrant populations move into suburban areas, they begin to integrate into the community, setting up social networks that cater to the changing demographic.  This can translate into social service organizations that specifically cater to the immigrant poor who don't have access to local, state, or federal social welfare agencies, thus creating a more efficient way to deliver much needed services.  The possibilities are there, but implementing them will take time and require universal bottom-up change in the way we view suburbia.