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Demography. About 25 percent of California's 33 million residents were born abroad. The impact of immigration is greater than that number suggests, however, because: 1) one-third of the population in their reproductive years, ages 15-44, are foreign-born; 2) 40 percent of marriages in California involve at least one foreign-born partner; and 3) in 1995, 46 percent of births in California were to women born outside the U.S.

The Census reported that internal mobility in the US is at its lowest level in 40 years, a result of the difficulty that two-earner families have in finding two jobs in a new location. During the 1950s and 1960s, 20 percent of Americans changed their residence in a typical year. This fell to 18 percent in the 1970s and 1980s, and 17 percent in the 1990s. About two-thirds of movers in a typical year, however, stay within the county.

When US residents do move, many move to the south and to suburbs--the South gained almost three million residents via internal migration in the 1990s, while the northeast lost 2.5 million. The suburbs gained 15 million residents via internal migration in the 1990s, and the central cities lost 12 million. California lost two million residents to other states via internal migration in the 1990s, and gained 1.8 million residents via foreign immigration.

In March 1998, there were an estimated 9.9 million Latinos in California; they were 30 percent of California's 33 million residents. In the 1990 Census, about 26 percent of California Hispanics reported that they spoke only Spanish, about 23 percent spoke only English and 51 percent reported that they spoke both Spanish and English.

There are 18 Latinos and 39 Blacks in the 435-seat House, including 11 from Texas and California. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson is the one Latino in the president's 14-member Cabinet.

Asian-Americans. The Los Angeles Times ran a series of articles on Asian-Americans in July 1998 http://www.latimes.com/asian). There were 10.2 million people identifying their origin as Asian or Pacific Islander in the U.S. in February 1998, making them almost four percent of U.S. residents; about 60 percent of them were foreign-born. By 2050, the U.S. is expected to have about 34 million residents of Asian origin, nine percent of U.S. residents.

Over half of all Asian-Americans live in the western United States. In 1997, about four million, or 40 percent of those of Asian origin, lived in California, followed by one million or 10 percent in New York. There were more Asian residents of Los Angeles county than in New York state, 1.2 million compared to one million. The number of people of Asian/Pacific Islander origin in the South rose 48 percent from 1990 to 1996, from 983,000 to 1.45 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The increases were the greatest in Georgia (up 50 percent) and North Carolina (up 46 percent).

The theme of the series was that Asian-Americans have an impact disproportionate to their numbers because of their higher incomes and education and their success in high-tech businesses--one-third of the Silicon Valley work force is Asian-American. At the same time, the definition of an Asian-American is changing due to high rates of intermarriage with non-Asians. For example, half of those of Japanese origin marry non-Japanese.

About 60 percent of the world's almost six billion people live in Asia, so Asian-Americans represent over 30 ethnicities and even more languages. In 1990, the leading countries of origin of Asian-Americans in California were Filipinos, 27 percent; Chinese, 26 percent; Japanese 12 percent; and Vietnamese and Korean, 10 percent each.

Asian-Americans are often considered a model minority. For example, Asian-Americans are six percent of U.S. college students but their influence is far greater because they tend to go to elite universities. Chang-Lin Tien, the first Asian American to head a major university, headed University of California/Berekley in the 1990s; Tien was born in Taiwan.

Within the University of California system, 58 percent of undergraduates at UC Irvine are Asian Americans, and they are the largest racial group among undergraduates at Berkeley (41 percent), UCLA (40 percent) and UC Riverside (43 percent). Elsewhere, Asian-Americans are 25 percent of undergraduates at Stanford and Wellesley, and 20 percent at Harvard, Northwestern and the University of Pennsylvania. Chinese and Japanese are among the six most popular foreign language courses in US colleges.

In the US in 1997, about 42 percent of Asians 25 and older had a college degree or more, compared to 26 percent of non-Hispanic whites, 13 percent of Blacks and 10 percent of Hispanic adults. These high education levels reflect U.S. immigration priorities: 43 percent of foreign-born Asians had at least an undergraduate college degree in 1997, compared with 24 percent of all U.S.-born adults. In 1996, Asian and Pacific Islanders had the highest median household income, $43,300, of any racial/ethnic group.

The 486,000 foreign students in the U.S. are 3.2 percent of the 15 million U.S. college students. At least 25 U.S. colleges have more than 2,000 foreign students, led by 4,700 at Boston University.

The first Chinese arrived in San Francisco in 1848. In 1870, Chinese were prohibited from becoming naturalized U.S. citizens, and in 1910, the Naturalization Act of 1870 was amended to prevent all Asians from becoming naturalized U.S. citizens. With China as a World War II ally, the ban on Chinese immigration and naturalization was repealed in 1943. The Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965 abolished national origin quotas and substituted hemispheric quotas, which permitted more Asians to immigrate.

Proposition 227. A federal judge on July 15, 1998 refused to block the implementation of Proposition 227, and the State Board of Education ordered California's 999 school districts to implement Proposition 227 in the school term beginning in September 1998. Many of the schools had pushed for a one-year delay, arguing that they needed time to purchase materials, devise curricula and hire teachers. In Los Angeles, about 312,000 of the district's 681,000 students were classified as limited-English proficient in 1997-98; about 40 percent of the LEP pupils were taught in bilingual classes.

Proposition 227, approved by a 61-39 percent vote in June 1998, calls for non-English speaking students to receive intensive English lessons for a period "not normally intended to exceed" one year and then move into regular English-speaking classrooms after they have a "good working knowledge" of English.

Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, a Santa Ana nonprofit that provides English and civics classes to immigrants, was ordered to repay $4.3 million to the California Department of Education because Hermandad failed to keep required records. The FBI and the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Education are probing whether Hermandad and nine other community-based organizations misused $15 million in federal funds earmarked to teach English to new immigrants in previous years.

Economy. California's unemployment rate fell to 5.7 percent in June 1998, but job growth also slowed to 30,000, or about 1,000 net new jobs each day. Statewide, employment was 400,000 higher in June 1998 than in June 1997. Since May 1993, the low point of the recession, California has added more than 1.5 million jobs.

In Los Angeles county, employment was 100,000 higher in June, 1998 than in June, 1997. In Fresno county, the job gain was only 7,500; the unemployment rate in June 1998 was 13.4 percent.

In 1970, Los Angeles, New York and Chicago each had between 750,000 and 800,000 workers employed in manufacturing. In 1998, manufacturing employment in these cities is about 650,000, 300,000 and 400,000 respectively.

Axiom DataQuick Information Systems reported that Garcia was the most common name of home buyers in Los Angeles county in 1997, followed by Lee. Other names among the top ten included: "Rodriguez," "Lopez," "Gonzalez," "Martinez," "Hernandez," "Kim," and "Perez;" "Smith" was the ninth most common name.


"Proposition 227," City News Service, July 22, 1998. Nick Anderson, "Success in any language," Los Angeles Times, July 22, 1998. Louis Sahagun, "Prop. 227's 'Bumpy ride,'" Los Angeles Times, July 22, 1998. Lee, Sharon M. 1998. Asian Americans: Diverse and Growing. Washington. Population Reference Bureau. http://www.prb.org