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Macaulay Honors College
at Baruch, Spring 2013Professor Els de Graauw
ITF Benjamin Miller Log in
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Chinese Immigration Timeline
*Sources:
“Chinese Immigrants in New York City.” One City Many Nations. Macaulay Honors College, May 2011. Web. 12 May 2013.
Zhou, Min. 2001. “Chinese: Divergent Destinies in Immigrant New York.” Pp. 141-172 in New Immigrants in New York, edited by Nancy Foner. New York: Columbia University Press.
*Data is from “Chinese Immigrants in New York City” unless otherwise noted.
Education and English: Chinese Integration
In this bar graph, English proficiency means that an individual aged 5 years and older speaks only English or speaks English very well/well. According to 2009-2011 ACS data, only 45% of foreign-born Chinese in New York City are English proficient, compared 71% of all foreign-born individuals in the city. This shows that a larger percentage of foreign-born Chinese struggle more with the English language compared to other immigrants. Furthermore, 95% of native-born Chinese in New York City are English proficient, compared to 98% of all native-born individuals. This shows that limited English proficiency is a problem especially for foreign-born individuals, and especially foreign-born Chinese, but much less so for their native-born children.
The foreign-born Chinese also have a higher percentage of individuals aged 25 and over who have no high school diploma, at 45%, compared to 35% of all foreign-born individuals and 22% of all native-born individuals in New York City. At the same time, 24% of foreign-born Chinese have earned a BA degree or higher, which is slightly higher than for all foreign-born individuals in New York City (23%) but lower than for all native-born individuals (31%). In terms of education attainment, the foreign-born Chinese are bifurcated between the poorly-educated and well-educated. The Chinese as the “model minority” myth is not complete fallacy; they really do have a significant representation of highly educated and accomplished individuals. It is also misleading, because a lot of Chinese immigrants do not nearly fit the mold, as in a whopping 45%.
Chinese-born Immigrant Visa Admission Categories to New York City from 1990-1999
Figure A
Figure B
The pie charts above illustrate trends in visa category admissions to New York City. Figure A represents the percentage break down of the total foreign-born population entering New York City from 1990-1999; this graph speaks for 7,578,530 immigrants. Figure B shows a similar break down for solely Chinese-born immigrants migrating to New York City during the years 1990-1999, a population of 111,271 people. Both charts are calculated from information published in the New York City Department of Planning’s book, The Newest New Yorkers.
Comparative to the total foreign-born population, a larger percentage of Chinese immigrants were admitted to New York during this time under family preference category—nearly 20 percentage points more. Over sixty-eight percent of the Chinese foreign-born population was granted visas under a combination of the family preference and immediate relatives categories, while the total foreign-born population had 63.7 percent of their visas granted in these categories. Chinese immigration to New York during the years 1990-1999 was largely family based.
