1) Historical and Current Trends (today's post)
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Exploring Asian-American Poverty Part 1: Historical Trends and Current Situation
Introduction: One of the most common stereotypes about Asian-Americans is that they are economically successful, wealthy, and highly-educated. However, despite being better-off than the population at-large, significant pockets of Asian-American poverty persist, and some members of the group sit at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder (Yung). This and the next two blog posts will take a close look at the history and current state of Asian-American poverty, including at specific subgroups within Asian-Americans. After conducting data analysis on Census Bureau data in this post, the next post will review literature on the causes of poverty among Asian-Americans. The third portion will examine the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), and assess its usefulness as a poverty alleviation tool for impoverished Asian-Americans.
Note that the most recent data available at the time this paper was originally written was for 2018, prior to the contemporary ongoing pandemic and its socio-economic effects. In a future edition of this blog and after new data taking pandemic conditions into account is released, I might do a follow-up from this study.
Methodology:
Data: The data analysis portion of the project utilized the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey (CPS) March Annual Social and Economic Supplement and March Supplemental Survey data from 2002 to 2018, extracted from the DataFerrett program. Additional data from the same timeframe came from the Current Population Survey's Table Creator, another Census Bureau database. All of the raw data used in this section came from these two sources, but the graphs and charts were self-created using such data.
Definitions: In defining who an Asian-American is, this project utilized the Census Bureau's racial definition, where an Asian-American is defined as,
A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam" ("About Race").
I will be measuring poverty using the Census Bureau's definition, which is based after an Office of Management and Budget directive. This definition defines a person (or family) in poverty as one whose pre-tax income falls below an absolute threshold that varies based on family size and composition. Pre-tax income includes wages, tips, cash benefits, and child support, but excludes tax credits or non-cash benefits (e.g. SNAP) ( measures poverty").
Current State of Asian-American Poverty (2018):
Graph 1: Asian-American Poverty Time Series: Income Brackets
Sources: DataFerrett
Note: The purple line is mislabeled. It is supposed to say "> 150% of poverty line."
Size: The lines in the graph above refer to income brackets relative to the poverty line, regardless of a person's demographics or socio-economic status. For example, the "< 100%" refers to individuals whose income falls below the poverty line (100%), while those between 100-125% refer to individuals whose income falls between 100 and 125% of the national poverty line for their characteristics.
Graph 1 displays the proportion of Asian-Americans per income bracket, with 100% being the absolute poverty line. In 2018, 2 million out of 19.79 million Asian-Americans, or 10%, were below the poverty line (< 100%). Over time, the total percent of Asian-Americans in poverty has remained relatively constant, with a notable increase from 2007-2010 corresponding with the Great Recession. Since then, the proportion of Asian-Americans below the poverty line has moved back to the long-term proportion, around 10%. Meanwhile, the proportion of Asian-Americans with an income above 150% of the Federal poverty line remained around 85% throughout the whole time period ("DataFerrett").
Extent: Compared to other racial groups in 2017, 10% of Asian-Americans were in poverty ("DataFerrett"), compared to 8% of White Americans, 16% of Hispanic-Americans, 20% of African-Americans, 22% of Native Americans and Alaskan Natives, and 11% of all Americans ("Poverty Rate by Race/Ethnicity").
Graph 2: 2017 Asian-American Poverty by national origin and citizenship
Source: "DataFerrett"
Looking at poverty within Asian-American ethnic subgroups and citizenship status, some interesting results stand out, which are displayed in Graph 2. Most notable is the low rate of poverty among American-born Asian-Americans and naturalized foreign-born Asian-Americans (except for Vietnamese-Americans). The high rate of poverty among non-citizen Asian-Americans also significantly stands out, regardless of national origin (except Indian- and Filipino-Americans). Finally, the high rate of poverty among Chinese-American non-citizens also stands out as significant ("DataFerrett"). These results will be further discussed in Part 2's literature review on the causes of Asian-American poverty, as a combination of ethnic/national origin and citizenship status has been previously identified as a significant factor behind Asian-American poverty trends.
Table 1: Composition of Impoverished Asian-Americans vs. all Asian-Americans
Source: "DataFerrett."
Scope: Table 1 displays the demographic composition of impoverished Asian-Americans relative to the total Asian-American population. Under the "composition among Asian-Americans in Poverty" column, values in red represent socio-demographic subcategories that are overrepresented in poverty compared to the Asian-American population, and vice-versa for blue.
As will be detailed later, one notable outcome is the lack of a gender poverty gap between Asian-American men and women. In addition, young adults represent 11% of Asian-Americans, but nearly a quarter of those in poverty. Finally, Asian-American poverty is heavily correlated to lower educational attainment, as those without a high school degree comprise 45% of impoverished Asian-Americans and 28% of the Asian-American population ("DataFerrett").
Graph 3: Asian-American Deep Poverty Time Series
Source: "Current Population Survey: CPS Table Creator"
Severity: Deep poverty is defined by the Census Bureau as poverty experienced by individuals or families with an income 50% or lower than the poverty line ("What is 'deep poverty'?"). As displayed in Graph 3, the percent of Asian-Americans facing deep poverty has varied between 4% and 6.5% from 2004 to 2017, with a notable spike during the Great Recession, and a general decline since ("Current Population Survey: CPS Table Creator").
Another way to measure the severity of poverty is to look at non-monetary material deprivation measures. For this project, I chose to look at health insurance status and work status, the results of which for impoverished Asian-Americans are displayed in Graphs 4 and 5, respectively. Per Graph 4, while a vast majority of impoverished Asian-Americans have health insurance, about 14% were uninsured in 2017. A smaller percent (12%) were able to get coverage through employment, while nearly half relied on public insurance or direct purchase of private insurance. Referring to work status, a noticable result is that nearly 75% of impoverished Asian-Americans are not in the labor force, compared to 33% of those with incomes 150% above the poverty line. Even among those in the labor force, almost half worked part-time or were unemployed (actively looking for work) ("DataFerrett").
Graph 4: 2017 Health Insurance Status Among Impoverished Asian-Americans
Source: "DataFerrett."
Graph 5: 2017 Work Status Among Impoverished Asian-Americans
Source: "DataFerrett."
Historical Trends of Asian-American Poverty (2002-2018):
Total Asian-American Poverty: Referring back to Graph 1 above, the percent of Asian-Americans in poverty has varied from 10 to 13%, but also settles around a long-term trend of between 10 and 11%. As noted prior, there are very few relative changes in the proportion of Asian-Americans by poverty brackets, with the exception of the Great Recession ("DataFerrett").
Graph 6: Asian-American Poverty Time Series: Adult Educational Attainment
Source: "DataFerrett."
Educational Attainment: Graph 4 breaks down Asian-American adult poverty rates by educational attainment. The most notable result is the relatively high poverty rate among non-high-school graduates, which far exceeds that of any other educational attainment bloc. It is also notable that the Great Recession did not lead to a significant increase in poverty among this group, compared with other educational attainment blocs. On the other hand, Asian-Americans with post-secondary education see poverty rates below 10%, and those with graduate degrees have poverty rates hovering around 5%, 3-4 times lower than those without a high school degree. In the middle are Asian-American high school graduates and those with "some college" (which includes AA degrees), whose poverty rates are very correlated. Even when taking the Great Recession's effects into account, there seems to be a slight long-term increase in poverty among both groups, although it began to decline after 2013.
Graph 7: Asian-American Poverty Time Series: Age
Source: "DataFerrett."
Poverty by Age: Graph 5 breaks down Asian-American poverty rates by age groups. Age is a significant correlator with poverty among Asian-Americans, as young adult Asian-Americans (those aged 18-24) are the most likely to be in poverty, which has been especially true since the Great Recession's onset in 2008. Part 2 will introduce a theory regarding a possible significant intervening variable that detangles the face-value correlation and potential causation between age and poverty in the Recession and post-Recession years. Simultaneously, both children and elderly Asian-Americans are just as likely to face poverty, while middle-age Asian-Americans are the least likely to face poverty. Over time, the only age group whose poverty rate for young adults has significantly changed is young adults, which will be explained in detail in part 2 ("DataFerrett").
Graph 8: Asian-American Poverty Time Series: Citizenship
Source: "DataFerrett."
Poverty by Citizenship Status: Graph 6 breaks down Asian-American poverty by citizenship status, including dividing Asian-American citizens into those born on American soil and those born abroad and naturalized. Asian-American non-citizens are most likely to face poverty throughout the time period studied, and saw a significant increase in poverty during the Great Recession. Meanwhile, foreign-born Asian-Americans who became naturalized are least likely to face poverty, even having lower poverty rates than native-born citizens ("DataFerrett").
Graph 9: Asian-American Poverty Time Series: Gender
Source: "DataFerrett."
Poverty by Gender: Graph 7 breaks down Asian-American poverty by gender. A very noticeable trend is the lack of a gender poverty gap between Asian-American men and women, a trend that has been extensively identified as prominent in American society ("Poverty, Gender, and Public Policies"). This trend even holds true even during the Great Recession, as poverty rates for both men and women increased during that time ("DataFerrett").
Sources:
“About Race.” United States Census Bureau, www.census.gov/topics/population/race/about.html. Accessed 30 Sept. 2019.
“Current Population Survey: CPS Table Creator.” United States Census Bureau,
www.census.gov/cps/data/cpstablecreator.html.
“DataFerrett.” TheDataWeb, United States Census Bureau, dataferrett.census.gov/.
“How the Census Bureau measures poverty.” United States Census Bureau, www.census.gov/topics/income-poverty/poverty/guidance/poverty-measures.html#. Accessed 8 Oct. 2019.
“Poverty, Gender, and Public Policies.” Briefing Papers, Institute for Women’s
Policy Research, February 2016, iwpr.org/wp-content/uploads/wpallimport/files/iwpr-export/publications/D505-Poverty,%20Gender,%20and%20Public%20Policies.pdf. Accessed 19 Oct. 2019.
“Poverty Rate by Race/Ethnicity, State Health Facts.” State Health Facts, Kaiser Family
Foundation, www.kff.org/other/state-indicator/poverty-rate-by-raceethnicity/?currentTimeframe=0&selectedDistributions=white--black&sortModel=%7B%22colId%22:%22Location%22,%22sort%22:%22desc%22%7D. Accessed 6 Oct. 2019.
“What is ‘deep poverty’?” University of California, Davis Center for Poverty Research, poverty.ucdavis.edu/faq/what-deep-poverty. Accessed 25 Oct. 2019.
Yung, Cynthia. “Us too: Acknowledging the struggles of Asian Americans.” TribTalk, The Texas Tribune, 6 Jun, 2018, www.tribtalk.org/2018/06/06/us-too- acknowledging-the-struggles-of-asian-americans/. Accessed 6 Oct. 2019.
And that concludes today's blog post. I will be back this coming Wednesday, June 17th, with the second part of this project, which will be a literature review on the causes of Asian-American poverty. Hope you enjoy, and see you then!
Nathan Parmeter
Host and Author, The Parmeter Politics and Policy Record
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