Periodically, the American people become paranoid and start blaming immigrants and attacking immigration as the source of the country's ills, as witnessed by Proposition 187 in California and the new bills enacted by Congress which would drastically curtail the numbers admitted and deprive even legal immigrants of basic services traditionally accorded newcomers. Will immigrants sink the boat, as Peter Brimelow charges in his book, Alien Nation? With a Mellon Foundation grant, the Regional Plan Association undertook a study to find out, looking at the major immigrants coming to the Tri-State Region. I undertook the research on the Chinese.

The metropolitan area of the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut Tri-State Region is a favorite destination of Chinese immigrants. More come to this region than all Chinese immigrants to Los Angeles and San Francisco combined. From 1980 to 1990, the Chinese population in this region doubled from 164,000 to 329,000. Almost half of this came from immigration. About 70% are found in the urban core of Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn, although dispersion to the outlying counties is taking place. (See Table 1.)

Factors propelling this influx are the Immigration Act of 1965, the lifting of the Bamboo Curtain, the pending return of Hong Kong to Mainland China, the fear of a Communist invasion of Taiwan, the political repression in China, and the quest for higher education in the United States. The push factors have been as strong as the pull factors.

Immigrants More Diverse

Today's Chinese immigrants are extremely diverse, quite different from the old-timers, who were primarily men from the Canton Delta area. Now they hail from all provinces in China as well as Hong Kong and Taiwan. In fact, many immigrants from Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Burma, Indonesia, and Philippines, as well as refugees from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, are ethnic Chinese. However, for purposes of this study, the numbers refer only to Chinese from Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

More women than men came, so that the gender ratio is now in balance, whereas it used to be terribly lopsided favoring the men. Two-fifths of Chinese immigrants are under the age of 25, making them a young and vigorous group. (Dept. of City Planning: 1992) They are or are becoming a highly educated group. According to the 1990 census, 32% of all foreign-born Chinese 16 years and over in the Tri-State Region have a college degree or better. At the other end of the scale, 38% have less than a high school education, which creates a biomodal curve on the socioeconomic scale, giving the Chinese a dual image.(See Table 2.)

The bimodal profile is a reflection of U.S. immigration policy, that of family reunification, skills preference, and refugees. Most of those coming in under family reunification are from Mainland China, where they have been educationally deprived under communist rule. However, a larger contingent of China's intellectual elite were here in the U.S. in 1989 when the Tiananmen incident occurred. President Bush's executive order permitted them to stay. In fear of communist takeover, immigrants from Hong Kong and Taiwan brought with them capital and know-how to start their own businesses or enter the professions.

Illegals

The Golden Venture incident in which 287 Chinese tried to sneak ashore on Long Island in 1993 brought exaggerated charges that hordes of Chinese were entering the country illegally. A New York Times editorial (June 9, 1993) read: "The Golden Venture Plus 100,000." How did 287 inflate to 100,000? A factual study done by the New York City Planning Commission revealed that the Chinese are low on the scale of illegals. For a country with more than a billion in population, Chinese illegals are fewer than those of a tiny nation like Israel.(Sontag: 1993)

The labor force participation rate for Chinese in the Tri-State Region is 72% for those 16 years or over. (See Table 2.) A higher rate would result if the numbers were for those 25 years and over because in their late teens and early twenties Chinese youths are still enrolled in high school or college. Using the later age cut-off, the male force participation rate is 88% for males and 71% for females. (PUMS File: 1990) This high rate for females, even those in the child-rearing ages, reveals that two earners are needed to maintain an immigrant family.

Chinese Create Jobs

A common charge leveled at immigrants is that they take away jobs from native Americans. On the contrary, the Chinese have created their own jobs as well as peripheral jobs for others. Essentially the Chinese are concentrated in four general areas of employment: the garment industry, the restaurant industry, the ethnic niche, and mainstream occupations.

Apparel manufacturing is a $10 billion industry in New York, employing about 100,000 workers. (Garment Industry Development Corp.: 1992) About 40,000 of these are Chinese, mostly women garment factory workers. This was an industry almost lost to New York City for lack of labor and cheaper imports. The influx of Chinese females since the late 1960s has supplied the industry with a continuous stream of workers. Almost as quickly, the Chinese moved into contracting, setting up their own garment factories. There are approximately 600 to 700 such factories producing about a third of all garments manufactured in New York. Most are small enterprises. The combined payroll in the unionized factories runs to about $450 million annually (John Wang interview), substantially sustaining the Chinese immigrant population. The retention of the apparel industry in New York also generates peripheral jobs in the fashion industry.

Chinese restaurants are a ubiquitous sight in New York City and elsewhere. There are more than 2,000 restaurants scattered throughout the Tri-State Region. They are the second most important economic activity for the Chinese. The American public is treated to new foods and exotic flavors, adding a new dimension to their eating experience. Besides creating jobs, these restaurants provide significant sales for the seafood, meat, vegetable, linen, and other suppliers. Without Chinese immigrants, this industry would not exist. About half of Chinese residents in New York work either in the garment industry or restaurant industry operated either as family enterprises or small businesses.(Ong and Umemoto: 1994)

The rapid increase in Chinese population in the region laid a market base broad enough to enable co-ethnics to serve one another. These are stores selling all kinds of merchandise and foodstuffs to services such as doctors, accountants, travel agents, insurance brokers, and the like. The ethnic niche in employment calls for concentration of businesses and services. That helps account for the expansive growth of Chinatowns in Lower Manhattan, in Flushing, Queens, and in Sunset Park in Brooklyn. Buying from co-ethnics and servicing one another provide substantial employment for Chinese immigrants who do not have the language facility or knowledge of mainstream options.

Community Revitalization

With the influx of immigrants, New York's original Chinatown in lower Manhattan quickly became saturated. In the establishment of new satellite Chinatowns, the Chinese have usually moved into transitional areas already in decline and reinvigorated the neighborhoods and local business. Both Flushing in Queens and Sunset Park in Brooklyn are prime examples of community revitalization. Wendy Weber, associate director of the Downtown Flushing Development Corporation, said, "Flushing during the 1970s was a depressed area. It was the Asian investment that turned the area around." (Gottlieb: 1985) Regarding Sunset Park, one elderly lady said, "I feel safer in the neighborhood now that the Chinese have moved in."

Ethnic Enclave Economy

All three fields of economic activity described above can be grouped under the heading "ethnic enclave economy," a concept developed extensively by Alejandro Portes and Min Zhou. Zhou argues in her book, Chinatown (1992), that this economic behavior is ethnically based. Owners and workers are Chinese, often close or extended family members. Capital comes from pooled resources. Working conditions and organizational setup may follow Chinese customs. The employer-employee relationship may be very paternalistic. Goods and services may be provided to an ethnic clientele, but there is an export sector where output is destined for the larger market, as in the garment and restaurant industries. The ethnic enclave economy has absorbed Chinese immigrants to the extent that the unemployment rate is low-a mere 5.12% in 1990 when the City rate was close to 11%. The public assistance rate is an inconsequential 3.3%. This explodes another popular myth, that immigrants are heavily into public dole. (See Table 2.)

The well-educated and professionally trained can move into mainstream occupations. As noted above, about 1/3 of Chinese immigrants are college graduates or better. However, English-speaking ability limits their options. For the Tri-State Region, about three out of four foreign-born Chinese say they are limited by their English-speaking ability. (See Table 2.) That is why so many Chinese are found in the math, science, and technology fields, where English is less of a problem. Almost a quarter of all science and engineering degrees awarded in 1990 were conferred upon Asian Americans. There are presently over a quarter million Asian-American scientists and engineers, and Chinese Americans comprise a goodly proportion of these. (Ong and Blumenburg: 1994) In this technology age, America needs these skills and expertise. Yet native-born Americans tend to shy away from these fields, leaving Asian Americans to play a significant role in keeping this country in the forefront in technology.

Chinese Americans seem to be moving into a new field-that of international trade. For nearly a quarter of a century, China was under a self-imposed isolation and her borders were closed. These restrictions are not gone. The Chinese economy is exploding at double-digit rates, and demand for American goods is growing. For example, the Boeing Company thinks that China alone will need 800 new planes costing about $40 billion. Microsoft estimates that exports to Asia are expanding at the rate of 60% a year. International trade need not be on a grand scale. Small entrepreneurs with knowledge of Chinese and English and familiarity with both countries are stepping into middlemen positions and doing a brisk trade on their own.

Reverse Migration

Due to the booming economy in the Far East, reverse migration is taking place, particularly in Taiwan and Hong Kong as well. Computer scientists, engineers, technology experts are returning to their homeland, where they find good jobs and salaries awaiting them. Those who may have contemplated emigrating to the United States are finding opportunities right at home. With the lessening of political oppression, there is no need to go abroad.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the influx of Chinese immigrants has been very beneficial to the Tri-State Region. They have not taken away jobs; rather they have salvaged the number one manufacturing industry for New York City, and they have created a whole new cuisine for the American palate, making jobs for themselves and for peripheral industries as well. They have filled an important gap in the scientific and high tech fields. They are not a drain on public coffers. Both their unemployment rate and public assistance rate are extremely low.

Policy Recommendations

In this day and age, the world runs on information. Without reliable information on which to base decisions, the outcome can only be haphazard and chancy. For example, little is known about this large group of Chinese newcomers to the Tri-State Region. Local government statistics lump the Chinese under the general category of Asians or others. Some agencies have not caught up or ignore the fact that Asians are among us. Census data must often be reworked from tapes when specific information in a definite locality is needed. Such was the case for the numbers in this presentation. A Mellon grant to the Regional Plan Association gave us these statistics; otherwise, they would not have been available in published form. My first recommendation is for government agencies or other data collectors to include Asians or Chinese as a statistical category and make it possible for researchers to disaggregate the numbers if any one group is under study.

Scholars should be encouraged to do more studies on the Chinese to provide the information needed. New York is rich in institutions of higher learning, and none is more suited than the City University of New York, where a research institute of Asian American Studies could and should be established to serve as a data collecting organization and a think tank. One of the first subjects for this institute to undertake would be an economic development plan for the Chinese community as well as the other Asian groups. As pointed out in this presentation, half of the Chinese labor force is engaged in either the garment or restaurant industry. The Chinese must diversify. The garment industry continues to decline, and Chinese restaurants are saturated. Plans must be made for the future. Left to their own devices without proper data to guide them, the Chinese suffer the consequences of trial and error and are highly vulnerable. A research institute can address and ameliorate the problems confronting a group adapting to a new homeland.

One of the most pressing needs of Chinese immigrants is improving their limited English-speaking ability. The few programs teaching English in Chinatown are oversubscribed. Better access to lessons either in more classes or through the media would be an investment that would be repaid many times over.

An American attitude which needs to be reexamined, is that high tech, advanced science, well-paying jobs are for U.S. workers, while the lowly manufacturing jobs can be relegated to underdeveloped nations. This kind of thinking has created a shortage of jobs in the sectors in this country where the alternatives for the less educated and skilled are to either be unemployed or go on public dole. This leads to an underclass of malcontents who spend their idle hours looking for scapegoats and targeting immigrants. The United States needs jobs at all levels, not just the top.

A very short-sighted policy would be to drastically curtail immigration. This is a nation of immigrants who have brought new blood and vigor to the United States. As seen in this presentation, immigrants like the Chinese have benefited the Tri-State Region economy, not detracted from it.

Betty Lee Sung, "Chinese Immigrants Create Their Own Jobs,"
Chinese American Forum, vol 12, no.3 (winter,1997), p.8-11.