Exploring Asian-American Poverty Part 2: Causes of Poverty
Introduction: This section will build on the results in Part 1 by compiling existing literature to help explain the potential causes of poverty among specific Asian-American groups. While it will not explain every trend noticed through the data analysis in Part 1, this section will explore some of the more notable trends witnessed in Part 1, and will lay out potential explanations for such trends.
Immigration background: Existing literature has extensively notated substantial differences in socio-economic status within Asian-Americans, with immigration background being a significant influencing variable. Immigration status and background can be considered a critical variable impacting poverty because one's socio-demographic background (e.g. human capital or existing wealth) can significantly influence employment opportunities, a proxy for poverty. For example, certain Asian-American immigrant groups, such as Indian- and Malayan-Americans, move to America under visas requiring a high level of human capital. As a result, these groups have better employment opportunities in the U.S., which significantly reduces the chance of poverty (Budiman, Cilluffo, and Ruiz).
On the other hand, some Asian-American immigrant groups, particularly those coming as refugees, are more likely to be in poverty than those coming for economic reasons, whose groups include Vietnamese and Cambodian-Americans (Kim, 213, 216-217). Hmong refugees face similar, if not worse, poverty prospects, as a result of additional cultural attributes making them more likely to be in poverty. Existing research asserts that Asian-American immigrants coming as refugees are more likely to be in poverty because many came with low human capital, thus reducing employment opportunities (Teranishi, 257). In addition, low English proficiency, particularly among the Hmong, further reduced employment opportunities (Teranishi, 260). Finally, in connection with the past statements, many Cambodian-, Vietnamese-, and Hmong-Americans settled into segregated neighborhoods with a plethora of social problems that amplified poverty, such as low-quality schools (Kim, 213, 216; Teranishi, 257). Regardless of background, Asian-American immigrant women are less likely to be in the labor force, or be underemployed, including working in family businesses. As a result, lower wages from these working conditions increase the risk of poverty (De Jong and Madamba, 127-128). Some of the upcoming discussion of poverty among other specific Asian-American groups can also be applied using the immigration background framework, particularly poverty among the elderly, and those without a high school diploma, in addition to the role of discrimination.
Elderly poverty: As discussed in Part 1, poverty among elderly Asian-Americans was 12% in 2018, although it had previously hovered between 13 and 18% during the Recession and post-Recession years. Previous research suggests that elderly Asian-Americans with limited English skills are more at-risk of poverty by making it difficult to access social services. Considering the previous sentence and the immigration framework above, many elderly Asian-Americans, particularly those that immigrated at an older age, have little access to Social Security or other retirement cash benefits due to their limited work history in the United States (Tran). Lack of cultural knowledge, particularly of the American labor market, further restricts employment opportunities for elderly Asian-Americans, whose employment prospects are harmed simply by being of older age (McNally et al., 77-78). Even among those that achieve employment, under- or self-employment is a chronic problem for this group, which faces lower returns and higher risk (McNally et al., 75). In further interlocking with the previously-discussed immigration framework, native-born elderly Asian-Americans are less likely to face poverty than elderly immigrants, even after taking into account contextual factors like ethnic or national background (McNally et al., 86).
Discrimination: Despite being socially stereotyped as a "model minority," discrimination (implicit and explicit) could also be considered a significant cause of Asian-American poverty. For example, biracial Asian-Americans, particularly those identifying as African- and Asian-American, are more likely to encounter discrimination than single-race Asian-Americans (Sakamoto and Takei, 254). Other studies have looked into Asian-American employment discrimination, which can be used as a proxy for poverty, such as one finding that 27% of Asian-Americans experienced job discrimination, and 27% experienced barriers to upward advancement in 2019 (Benson et al, 1419-1430). Finally, it has been argued that Asian-Americans' perceived lack of social skills increases the possibility of job discrimination from non-technical jobs, which has been found to hurt Asian-American men and immigrants (Babcock and Lai, 323). It is important to note that these studies did not make an explicit connection between employment discrimination and poverty. Theoretically, such discrimination could increase the chance of poverty through being denied sufficient employment opportunities and other forms of professional advancement, thus putting such individuals at greater risk of poverty.
Non-high school graduates: Per the data results in Part 1, non-high school graduates are among the most likely Asian-American subgroups to be in poverty. Generally, non-high school graduates have few economic opportunities, and any opportunities there are pay little, thus increasing the risk of poverty ("The High Cost"). Specifically, teenagers who drop out of high school are already likely to have limited economic and social opportunities, which leads to them to dropout to support the family economically (Bayar, Baydu, and Kaplan, 234-235). Even students not from backgrounds in absolute poverty, but from economically-struggling families are vulnerable to dropping out due to the effects of poverty on learning outcomes, including learning challenges (Long).
Based on these results, it can be argued that high school dropouts face a cycle of poverty, in that coming from an impoverished background increases the likelihood of dropping out of high school, thus giving little economic opportunity to dropouts and prolonging poverty, particularly when combined with other factors. While these studies looked at high school dropout poverty and socio-economic status among all Americans, it can be argued that many of these factors are applicable to Asian-American high school dropouts in poverty, particularly considering the immigration framework discussed and presented above.
Young adult poverty: One of the most intriguing results in Part 1 was the high poverty rate among young adult Asian-Americans, particularly during and after the Great Recession. At first glance, it can be easy to blame contemporary socio-economic conditions for this trend, such as low wages in entry-level employment and high costs of living in many locales (Lowrey 2019). A potential reason for this trend does take this theory into account, but is more complicated. This theory asserts that many young adults were "in poverty" during this time period because of increased post-secondary educational enrollment. Generally, even among young adults studying full time and working, most do not earn enough to go over the poverty line by default. Particularly, many students work part-time while in school but remain dependents for tax purposes, and thus usually make less than the amount required to be above the poverty line. Even among those who are financially-independent, on average, most earn less than $15,000, potentially putting them under the official poverty line depending on their family size and marital status ("Working"). These results seem to show that many young adults attending post-secondary educational institutions full-time are technically counted as being impoverished, even though they are working towards a higher academic degree that will provide additional employment and human capital opportunities.
Works Cited:
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