Birth rates for Asian immigrants in US soar
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TRISH La Chica migrated from the Philippines to the United States six years ago in search of the American experience and a graduate degree.
La Chica got her master’s in public administration and is now the policy director at a nonprofit health organization in Hawaii. Two weeks ago, she gave birth to a boy, joining the ranks of the rising number of Asian women who give birth to children in the United States.
Asian immigrant women are increasingly accounting for a larger share of foreign mothers who give birth to children in the US, signaling a changing landscape of immigrants in America as Asians continue to outpace Latinos in growth.
The Pew Research Center released new data on Wednesday showing that Asian immigrants account for 22 percent of US births by foreign women, up from 16 percent in 2010.
La Chica, who is 30, said she came to the United States, first San Francisco and later Hawaii, to experience living here. Her mother lives in California and helped her get permanent legal residency; La Chica is now an American citizen.
“I’m planning on raising (her son) and living and working here. We now own a house,” La Chica said. “I think Hawaii is a perfect place to raise a family.”
Meanwhile, fewer Latin American immigrants are having babies in the US. The study found the share of births from foreign-born mothers from Latin America dropped from 64 percent of foreign mothers in 2008 to 54 percent in 2014. About 7 percent of all births in the US are from immigrants lacking legal status.
The report said immigrants are the driving force behind births in the US. The number of American women who gave birth in 2014 fell 11 percent since 1970, while immigrant women have tripled their number of births.
The report comes amid a heated presidential election in which Republican Donald Trump has won support – and drawn ire – by saying he will build a wall at the US-Mexico border and expressing anti-immigrant sentiment.
“We in the US have been and are going to be dependent on immigrants ... in the growth of our population,” said William Frey, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
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