Becoming less inscrutable

ARTICLE: "In a twist, USA's Asians head to the Mountain West: Migration is fueling diversity in areas that have been mostly white," by Haya El Nasser, USA Today, 7 July 2008, p. 1A.

Last decade, Asian population outgrowing Hispanics in 14 states in west of Mississippi. "The explosive growth and rising clout of Asian Americans," notes the article.

This is crucial for my long-term goal of reorienting US strategic alliances to countries like China and India and to break the assumption that, as goes Europe, so goes the only alliance worth maintaining.

In short, every little bit helps.

I don't need a "league of democracies," but a collection of natural frontier integrators, and those allies will always be the newcomers to the system (other than us).

You want to build and extend "empires"? Then go with the empire builders of the age, and remember how you once behaved during your own "rise."

Comments

[Cadet Echo Boomer]

I attend school at a university in California where 51% of the admitted students were of Asian decent last year. (In Tom's spirit of full disclosure, I myself am half Japanese) Being surrounded by such an enormous cultural influence has helped me to redefine my expectations of where we will find our allies in the 21st century. Because even though they may look more like the average American (at least for now) we have far less in common with Europeans than most people think. Culturally, economically, academically, and even spiritually, the 60+ hours a week crowd in Asia has more in common with us than the 35 hours a week, with 2 months off a year, crowd in Europe.

I think that the influx illustrated in this article will only seek to further degrade the idea that the 21st century will be defined by some kind of Russo-Sino v. American-EU bipolarity. The mountain west was won by Chinese and Americans working together in the 19th century, I can't wait to see the two sides meet at the Promontory Summit of this century, though where and when that will be I can't yet see.

[William R. Cumming.]

Would be interesting to see an analytic piece about the diaspora of Asians throughout the rest of the world the last 500 years or so. Amazing adaptability demonstrated. South Asians also. Not sure of numbers but clearly that disapora continues. Recently had the experience of being in a very very small town Mathehews VA in tidewater VA and having a realtor friend show up where I was shopping seeking an apartment for a young married Chinese couple that were becoming the new cooks and probably eventual owners of the only Chinese restaurant in town because the current cooks and owners were now ready to move to a larger market. Specifically, VA. Beach, VA. The husband had very very limited English. The wife's English was quite good. Not certain of their immigration status but believed they had green cards.

[jim]

One potential long term issue is that Asian-Americans have the potential to become a market-dominant minority. Hispanics and African-Americans have lower incomes than the majority white population, but the Asian-American average income is high and rising.

The high inter-marriage rate between Asians and whites will, hopefully, prevent this from becoming a problem. We'll see.

Take India. Our immigration policies select for high IQ and high earning power. The initial waves of Chinese immigration, on the other hand, were for laborers -- so Chinese-Americans are closer to the average Chinese (and American) IQ than Indian-Americans.

The Chinese diaspora is already the market-dominant minority in much of southeast Asia. America has never really had this problem. The closest we've had is the success of Jewish-Americans. Which provoked a non-trivial anti-Semitic backlash here and, obviously, a horrific backlash in Europe.

Again, I doubt it will be a problem. But market-dominant minorities have consistently been a source of instability (often due to jealousy from the majority) throughout history and around the globe.

It will be a new phenomenon for America. Especially so for Chinese and Indian-Americans who will be seen, often unfairly, as having ties to rival civilizations.