1/3 Asian Americans who live in poverty have college degrees

[cng]

One in 10 Asian people in the U.S. lives below the poverty line, according to a new report on Asian-American poverty by the Pew Research Center — and among Asian Americans ages 25 and older who are poor, one-third have a bachelor’s degree or higher.

The Asian poor population in the U.S., in other words, is highly educated. In the non-Asian poor population in the U.S., meanwhile, the share of people who have a college degree is 14% — half the rate seen among the Asian poor population, according to Pew.

In focus groups that were conducted in 12 languages, U.S.-born respondents told Pew researchers that they felt getting a formal education and a college degree alone are not sufficient to get out of poverty, said Neil Ruiz, Pew Research Center’s head of new research initiatives.

“It’s also about the know-how to make ‘money with money,’ how to invest, and building networks to get opportunities,” Ruiz said.

In a video accompanying the report, children of immigrants talked about the challenges they faced finding work that paid a livable wage after completing their degrees. One respondent said that he felt the cost of college hurt his financial well-being, and that one of the most critical things that can help people get out of poverty is not school, but rather meeting people who know how to navigate life in the U.S. “Networking is a huge and vital thing for an American dream,” he said.

This is Pew’s first project focused specifically on poverty in Asian-American communities, which have long confronted the “model-minority” myth that contends that through quiet, hard work, Asian people in the U.S. have been able to succeed and overcome the systemic racism that thwarts other marginalized groups. Such stereotypes may have obscured the need for resources to help people in Asian-American communities who are living in poverty.
Janelle Wong, a professor at the University of Maryland, said some groups — such as Hmong Americans — continue to experience high levels of poverty despite having immigrated to the U.S. a long time ago. “Systemic issues are really making it difficult for Hmongs as a group to move into economic security,” she told MarketWatch.

Asians are the fastest-growing racial or ethnic group in the country, and the fastest-growing base of eligible voters. A large wealth gap persists among Asian-origin groups in the U.S.: Burmese, Hmong and Mongolian people have the highest poverty rates among Asian Americans, at 19%, 17% and 16%, respectively, while Indian, Sri Lankan and Filipino people have the lowest rates, at 6%, 6% and 7%, respectively. Half of Asian-American respondents living in poverty said they feel the American dream is out of reach for them, according to the Pew study.

Several systemic challenges emerged in Pew’s focus groups:

Language barriers for people who have college degrees from other countries: In the Pew video, research associate Ziyao Tian said that even with a college education, and even with a STEM degree, people come up against “employers who wouldn’t really see their value as a worker.”

One New York resident who earned his college degree in Myanmar said in the video that because he doesn’t speak English, “I can’t use my degree to get a corresponding job here.”

Lack of certification to perform work people were trained to do in their home country: After immigrating, many college-educated people are not licensed in the U.S. to practice the work they were trained for in their home country, Margaret Chin, a professor and chair of the sociology department at Hunter College in New York City, told MarketWatch. Chin, who was not involved in the Pew study, said she has met many people in this situation who found work as garment workers or garment-shop owners.

Cost of education for U.S.-born college graduates: A woman of Laotian origin in her mid-30s said she borrowed $50,000 to go to college and was earning $12.50 an hour working at a smoothie shop while she was in school. “How the hell am I supposed to be paying that month to month?” she said.

Lack of guidance on the U.S. college system or job market: A U.S.-born man of Pakistani origin in his 30s said his parents were not able to provide guidance about how to think about picking a major or how to get into higher-paying fields. “I think just the background that we come from was not the best — or not having the full grasp of this system,” he said. “Versus someone who’s had parents here for multiple years, and their parents are now telling them, like, ‘Hey, this is not the right decision for you. Try doing this. This will be better in the long run.’”

Lack of transportation options: Other focus-group participants said lack of access to transportation had prevented them from getting a job, because public-transit systems in the U.S. are English-based and difficult to navigate, and owning a vehicle is expensive. The average monthly payment on a new car in February was $747; for a used car, it was $549, according to data from the car-review site Edmunds.

Interviewees noted that services like libraries, food banks and Medicaid were vital in helping them get by. The research challenges “an underlying assumption just because you’re Asian that you don’t need help,” Ruiz said.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/careers ... ff57&ei=55

[牛河梁]

这是“系统性种族歧视”啊。亚裔不斗争怎么行。