Poverty patterns and determinants among Asian families in the United States : 1980-1990 /
The rapid growth of immigrants to the U.S. has revitalized
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| Format: | Thesis Book |
| Language: | English |
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[Place of publication not identified] :
[publisher not identified] ;
1997.
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://proxy.library.tamu.edu/login?url=http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=736796271&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=2945&RQT=309&VName=PQD |
| Summary: | The rapid growth of immigrants to the U.S. has revitalized new interest on the century-old issue of immigration and poverty. Despite well-documented literature on high poverty among immigrants, poverty patterns and determinants among Asian families have been largely neglected. Using data from the 5% Public Use Micro Sample (PUMS) of the 1980 and 1990 Censuses, and the 1992 Survey of Minority-Owned Businesses, this dissertation documents the 1980 - 1990 temporal and spatial patterns of family poverty among the major Asian groups and examines the micro and micro-macro determinants of family poverty from the multilevel perspective. It is found that, overall poverty for Asian families remained virtually unchanged between 1980 and 1990, with significant variations among the country-specific groups. Due largely to the further reductions in poverty among native-born Asian families, the gap in poverty between native and immigrant families increased slightly. For all the recent immigrant families, poverty rates were reduced precipitously over the duration of residence, especially for the arrivals of the 1970s. Other than the labor status and human capital background characteristics of the householders, race and nativity/immigration statuses were found to be the most important micro-level determinants of family poverty. The most important findings in this dissertation are that the odds of being poor for the individual Asian families are significantly associated with community characteristics. Results from Hierarchical Generalized Linear Models (HGLM) indicates that, other things equal, Asian families were less likely to suffer from poverty in metropolitan areas with large percentages of immigrant population, stronger ethnic entrepreneurship and better economic well-being in the larger population. Moreover, the association between family poverty and the local ethnic economy was found to be stronger for recent immigrant families. Presumably, new arrivals are more likely to plug into co-ethnic own businesses, using the ethnic enclaves to survive the initial years of hardship. The theoretical and analytical implications for future studies are discussed. It is believed that my findings on the patterns and determinants of the family poverty, especially the micro-macro linkage, will contribute significantly to our understanding of the mechanisms of changes in poverty among U.S. Asian families, and thus help alleviate the policy concerns on the impact of Asian immigration, despite their rapid increases in the 1990s. |
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| Item Description: | Vita. "Major Subject: Sociology". |
| Physical Description: | xi, 117 leaves : illustrations ; 28 cm. Issued also on microfiche from University Microfilms Inc. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references: pages 109-116. |