Why do Asian students generally get higher marks than Latinos?
By Hector Becerra, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer July 16, 2008
The eight students walked into a room at Lincoln High School prepared to discuss an issue many people, including some of their teachers, considered taboo.
They were blunt. Carlos Garcia, 17, an A student with a knack for math, said, "My friends, most of them say, 'You're more Asian than Hispanic.' "
"I think Carlos is Asian at heart," said Julie Loc, 17, causing Carlos to laugh good-naturedly. Asian students who get middling grades often get another response, she said.
"They say, 'Are you really Asian?' " Julie said.
"It's sad but true," said Eliseo Garcia, a 17-year-old with long rocker hair, an easy manner and good grades. "I had an Asian friend, but he didn't necessarily get that great a grades. We used to say, 'He's Mexican at heart.' "
What accounts for such self-deprecating humor? Or the uneven academic performance that prompts it?
The state's top education official, Supt. Jack O'Connell, called for that kind of discussion last fall when he decried the "racial achievement gap" separating Asian and non-Latino white students from Latinos and blacks.
At The Times' request, the Eastside students gathered to talk about this touchy subject.
Lincoln Heights is mostly a working-class Mexican American area, but it's also a first stop for Asian immigrants, many of them ethnic Chinese who fled Vietnam.
With about 2,500 students, Lincoln High draws from parts of Boyle Heights, El Sereno and Chinatown.
Both the neighborhood and student body are about 15% Asian. And yet Asians make up 50% of students taking Advanced Placement classes. Staffers can't remember the last time a Latino was valedictorian.
"A lot of my friends say the achievement gap is directly attributable to the socioeconomic status of students, and that is not completely accurate," O'Connell said. "It is more than that."
But what is it? O'Connell called a summit in Sacramento that drew 4,000 educators, policymakers and experts to tackle the issue. Some teachers stomped out in frustration and anger.
No Lincoln students stomped out of their discussion. Neither did any teachers in a similar Lincoln meeting. But the observations were frank, and they clearly made some uncomfortable.
To begin with, the eight students agreed on a few generalities: Latino and Asian students came mostly from poor and working-class families.
According to a study of census data, 84% of the Asian and Latino families in the neighborhoods around Lincoln High have median annual household incomes below $50,000. And yet the Science Bowl team is 90% Asian, as is the Academic Decathlon team.
"Look at the statistics. It's true," said George De La Paz, 17, whose single mother works as a house cleaner.
Asian parents are more likely to pressure their children to excel academically, the students agreed.
"They only start paying attention if I don't do well," said Karen Chu, 15, whose parents emigrated from Vietnam. "They don't reward me for getting straight A's. I don't get anything for that. But if I get a B, they're like, 'What's this?' "
If her grades slipped, she said, her parents laid on the guilt extra thick. "My parents are always like, 'If you don't do well in school, then it's all going to be worth nothing,' " Karen said, laughing nervously.
Julie Loc, the daughter of a seamstress and a produce-truck driver, said that if she gets a B, her parents ask whether she needs tutoring. She said her father used to compare her to other people's children, noting their hard course loads or saying, "They have a 4.3 [grade-point average]. Why do you only have a 4.0?' "
Julie said her mother, Kin Ho, finally told her father to stop making comparisons. Ho, in an interview, said with a slightly embarrassed smile, "My daughter has embraced American culture, where she expects my reassurance and approval. Our children, if they did something well, they would ask us if we were proud of them, if they did good. They ask if we love them."
George said his mother, a Mexican immigrant, has high expectations for him too, but she is not so white-knuckled when it comes to school. She wants him to do well -- he's now thinking of college -- but the field of endeavor is up to him.
"She said, 'I came here to do better for you,' " he said. "But that's about it. Being happy and getting by, that's what she wants."
For Carlos Garcia, the one with the knack for math, the message from his parents was to focus on school. Neither got to finish grade school in their native countries.
His mother, Maribel, from El Salvador, is a homemaker; his father, Santos, a Mexican immigrant, is a drywall finisher who once took Carlos and his older brother to work with him -- to scare them away from manual labor. Two of their children have college degrees, one is still in college and Carlos, the only Latino on Lincoln's Academic Decathlon team, wants to attend Caltech.
Ericka Saracho, 16, an A student, said her Latino family did not push her to do well in school. When she got a rare B, "they're like, 'Oh, wow, Ericka finally got a B! How do you feel about that?' " she said. She is one of the few Latina students on Lincoln's Science Bowl team.
The students talked not just about parental expectations, but also about those of peers. Karen drew laughter when she said of other students, "They expect me to be smart. Even if, like, I do everything wrong on purpose, they still copy off of me -- as if I'm right just because I'm Asian."
She said expectations came into play in an even odder way in Lincoln High's hallways.
"In our school we have tardy sweeps, and normally the staff members let the Asians go," Karen said. "They don't really care if we're late."
The group, nodding, erupted into laughter. "They don't even ask them for a pass sometimes," George added.
"Generally speaking -- like it's stereotypical that Asians all do better -- I also think there's a stereotypical view that Asians are usually late," Julie said. "They'll come to school late, but they'll get to class and do their work."
This drew more laughter.
Many factors influence academic performance: class size, poverty, and school and neighborhood resources. But as the discussions at Lincoln show, expectations loom large.
Fidel Nava, a coordinator for English learners at Lincoln, said some Latino students say that Asians get higher grades simply because, well, they're Asian.
"In a sense, they have come to believe that it's OK for Asians to be smart and not for Hispanics," said Nava, who immigrated from Mexico at 14.
Nava, the only one of six siblings to go to college, said he was once like many of his students. His parents wanted the children to finish high school, but there also was an expectation that they get jobs and help the family.
"A lot of my relatives don't see my job as a stressful job at all," Nava said. "If I tell them I'm tired, they say, 'Why? You're not doing any labor. You're not doing anything.' "
Rocio Chavez, 18, said that even though her older sister graduated from high school, their mother didn't really expect her to go to college.
"I guess she didn't expect that from me, either," Rocio said. "And now that I'm going to move on to college, she's kind of scared. She gets kind of sad I'm leaving. She's like, 'You're supposed to graduate from high school, go to work and help me out.' "
Frank D. Bean, a professor of sociology at UC Irvine's Center for Research on Immigration, Population and Public Policy, has studied the Mexican work ethic and found that work and education occupy the same pedestal, and in some cases, work is even more valued.
Bean said his research shows that children of Latino immigrants, if they drop out of school, are more likely to be working than most other students who leave school.
"In Latino families, being able to work to provide defines your manhood, your worthiness," said Min Zhou, a UCLA sociology professor who has studied working-class Korean and Chinese communities.
Latino and Asian families in Lincoln Heights were essentially in the same socioeconomic boat, she said, but Asian immigrants were more likely to have been more affluent and had better education opportunities in their native countries.
Of course, there are exceptions to stereotypes at Lincoln. "My mom just wants me to pass," said Thin Lam, 17.
But Thin said counselors assumed he wanted to take a slew of AP classes, and a counselor urged him to take AP calculus.
"I said, 'Yeah, sure, I want to take it,' " he said. "In the end, I dropped it."
A few hours after the eight students concluded their discussion, some teachers gathered in Principal James Molina's office.
"I feel a little bit uncomfortable talking about racial and ethnic generalizations," said Cynthia High, a 20-year teaching veteran now in charge of teachers' aides and other programs.
"In some situations, it sparks a good conversation. In others, it's more taboo-ish to talk about it," said William Olmedo, who teaches AP physics.
Barbara Paulson, who coordinates Lincoln's magnet program and teaches AP biology, said it had been understood for a long time that teachers needed to try harder to recruit Latino students for AP classes because "the Asian kids come on in droves."
Gilbert Martinez, who teaches AP government, said he didn't think the school did as good a job as it could to raise expectations among Latino students and to get them into AP classes.
"But I do," Paulson said.
"I'm not saying you, Barbara. I'm saying all over."
Olmedo said many capable Latino students refused to take AP classes or join other academically rigorous activities.
Teachers said they were saddened by self-defeating attitudes.
"I think the thing I always hear from the Latino kids is, 'Oh, well, Miss, he's Asian, she's Asian. Of course they do well,' " said Alli Lauer, who teaches English. "It's frustrating to hear them do it to each other."
But as one student said in a separate interview, many Latino students are responding to cues. Johana Najera, 17, said the Academic Decathlon offers a not-so-subtle cue about who belongs.
"We already know that it's Asian, and they kind of market it more for Asians," Najera said. She noted that the shirts for the Academic Decathlon team have a logo done in the style of anime, Japanese animation. "It appeals more to Asian students," she said.
Martinez turned the conversation toward parents' attitudes, summarizing a discussion from one of his Chicano studies classes.
"Let's say a Latino student is studying and an Asian student is studying," Martinez said. "The Latino parent will often say, 'Hey, come help me out real quick, then you can go back to your studying.' Where the Asian parent will say, 'Oh, you're doing your homework. OK, you finish, and then after you're done, you come help me.' "
High recalled a good Latino student she had a few years ago. He also was a gang member.
"He would wear baggy pants, and he would load up his pants with books," she said. "He looked around to make sure no one was seeing him so he could look like the baddest kid in the block."
The teachers were then asked about tardy sweeps, the topic the students had found so amusing. Was it true that Asians could wander outside class without a hall pass?
"My Asian kids laugh at that," Olmedo said. "I say, 'Take the pass.' They say, 'I'm Asian. Who's going to ask an Asian student for a pass?' "
"Oh, you're kidding!" High said with a gasp.
"I'll send one of my [Latino] boys out just to get water, and here comes the security, 'Please make sure you send him out with a pass,' and I'll say I will," Olmedo continued. "And the Asian kid will walk around the whole campus, the whole day, the whole week, for a whole month!"
Don Brewer, an English teacher, said some Latino students were allowed to slide by without hall passes, including athletes and others involved in school activities.
"But you know," Brewer said, "when you're looking down the hall and you see that one kid pop out, you go, 'OK, he's Asian. I can go back in.' You know, I think that happens. It's obvious it happens."
High shook her head. "But I must say I don't feel comfortable with that. And if we're doing that, that's not OK. That's just not OK."
"Oh, it's happening," Olmedo said. "It's happening."
hector.becerra@latimes.com
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-me-lincoln16-2008jul16,0,1416673.story
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Monday, July 7, 2008
In a twist, USA's Asians head to the Mountain West
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 7/7/08
LAS VEGAS — Dozens of workers line up for a buffet catered by Satay Malaysian Grille, a popular Chinatown eatery here. They carry plates piled high with Asian delicacies to nine rows of long tables facing a dais.
By the time the employees savor mango-sticky-rice treats, their luncheon speakers are introduced: a local TV reporter, a former school administrator, a bank founder, a magazine publisher, a chamber of commerce executive, a local politician.
Only one is Anglo. The rest: Chinese, Japanese, Thai — all Asian Americans.
This event isn't in Las Vegas' Chinatown district but in a meeting room at one of the pillars of the local business establishment: Nevada Power.
The lunch, held so the utility's workers could hear voices from the Asian-American community, is a reflection of the explosive growth and rising clout of Asian Americans in Nevada and other inland Western states. They've become a powerful voting bloc that's being wooed by presidential candidates — and an economic force that businesses are catering to.
This decade, the Asian population has grown at a faster rate than that of the Hispanic population in 14 states — including Nevada, Arizona and Texas — as well as Washington, D.C.
In a surprising twist to historical settlement patterns, growing numbers of Asian Americans are beginning to bail from the places that have long been their main gateways to the West: California and Washington. Wearied by the same crushing home prices, poor schools, jammed freeways and persistent crime that have sent millions of other Californians packing, Asian Americans are moving to spots in the West they hope will produce better lifestyles — namely Las Vegas and Phoenix.
The Asian migration is fueling ethnic diversity in places that have been overwhelmingly white. Since 1990, Nevada has had the most rapid growth of any state in the number of Asians and Pacific Islanders.
The number jumped 174% in the 1990s and 67% so far this decade to about 211,000, according to 2007 Census Bureau estimates. Asians now make up about 8.2% of Nevada's 2.6 million people — a higher percentage than the national share of 5.4%. Most live here in Clark County, where Asians are the fastest-growing minority.
Arizona also is registering significant growth among Asians, a trend fueled largely by an exodus from California and Washington. They're leaving for lower cost of living, warm climates and better job markets, a reflection of the migration patterns that have made Nevada and Arizona the nation's fastest-growing states throughout much of the past two decades.
Asians are doing what middle-class whites have been doing for decades: moving to more affordable parts of the West, says William Frey, demographer at the Brookings Institution.
"California is losing Asians, and the main destinations are other states in the Mountain West," he says.
His analysis of Census data shows that since 2001, 86,000 more Asians left California for the inland mountain states than vice versa. "It started with whites, followed by Hispanics, and Asians are now continuing that trend," Frey says. "It means a place like Las Vegas is becoming a microcosm of growing America."
Pauline Ng Lee, a Chinese-American bankruptcy lawyer, moved 10 years ago from Los Angeles' Hollywood Hills section to Summerlin, an upscale community on Las Vegas' west side. "We moved into a neighborhood where more than 60% of the residents were from California, either southern or northern," she says. "We came out for two reasons: My husband had a great opportunity … as a physician, and the cost of living was so much lower."
In the first quarter of this year, for example, the median sales price of existing single-family homes in the Las Vegas area was $247,600, compared with $459,400 in the Los Angeles area, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Ten years ago, Las Vegas' Chinatown was less than three blocks long. Today, it stretches almost 4 miles along Spring Mountain Boulevard. It's beginning to spread out on either side. Business after business, restaurant after restaurant crowd strip malls and office buildings. Signs in Korean and Chinese adorn the facades. Newspaper racks offer publications in more than a half-dozen Asian languages.
"The traditional Chinatown area is really becoming an integral part of our broader community," says Maureen Peckman, executive director of The Council for a Better Nevada, a group of business and civic leaders concerned with quality-of-life issues. "That's the hallmark of a maturing community."
This neighborhood is one of the most visible signs of growth in the Asian American community here. There are others:
•Construction is scheduled to begin this year on the 180,000-square-foot Asia Town Center. The developers bill it as the Southwest's largest Asian shopping center.
"The fastest-growing demographic is Asian but this town doesn't have a major Asian center," says Chris Hardin, vice president of operations at DFG Development Corp., one of the developers.
The center will feature up to 10 of the West's most prominent Asian retailers. The anchor grocer, Hmart, will occupy 50,000 square feet and sell produce, meats, household wares and prepared foods at low prices.
It will be "like an Asian version of Whole Foods, except with Costco prices," DFG says.
•Las Vegas' first Asian bank opened last summer. Founded by local investors, First Asian Bank targets the financial, cultural and linguistic needs of the entire Asian community. Dee Mallas, owner of a real estate firm and co-owner of a mortgage funding company, is one of the bank's founders. She saw the void in banking services for the Asian community when dealing with Asian buyers.
"I saw the growth and I saw the need, but if you target only Chinese or only Korean, it's not big enough," says Mallas, who is Thai American.
That's why First Asian Bank's two branches cater to all Asian groups. The number "8," a symbol of prosperity, is the first number of the bank's branch numbers and all its customers' account numbers (the Beijing Olympics start 8/8/08 for the same reason). Two Texas companies have since opened banks in Las Vegas to target the Asian market.
•The Asian Real Estate Association of America opened a Las Vegas chapter last year. John Fukuda, its founding president, is a third-generation Japanese American and another California transplant. A successful Internet entrepreneur, he now owns a mortgage company.
He knew there was a need for such an organization when giant homebuilder D.R. Horton Inc. asked for help targeting the Asian market. Relocation directors in pursuit of teachers and doctors also needed their help. "Membership went from eight to 800," he says. "Half of the membership is not Asian."
Real estate agents have organized "fly-and-buys" for Californians, offering them three days and two nights in Vegas to play and check out properties.
•The first national glossy magazine to target all Asian ethnicities is scheduled to be launched from Vegas in September. The monthly AsianAm will sell for $4.50, aim for an initial circulation of 700,000 and try to capture the attention of Asians ages 18 to 34, says Bessy Lee-Oh, CEO and publisher.
"Other magazines are small and niche-targeted or ethnic specific," says Lee-Oh, a Chinese American. "We are neither. We go from business to politics — the entire game. … It was my dream."
•Chinese New Year, on the first day of the first lunar month in the Chinese calendar (Feb. 7 this year), is now the second-largest draw for casinos here — second only to the conventional New Year's holiday. At least four casinos, including the Gold Coast and Palace Station, have beefed up efforts to target the Asian market year-round.
Most hotels and casinos are careful not to offend Asians. Fifteen years ago, when the MGM Grand HotelsCasino opened, guests had to enter through what appeared to be the mouth of a lion, the company's corporate logo. Many Asian patrons were not amused. They considered walking into the mouth of a beast bad luck and avoided the casino. MGM spent millions redesigning the entrance.
•The Asian Bar Association, formed in 2002 by three lawyers, including Lee, now has about 50 active members. "Ten years ago, I was one of the few if not the only Asian practicing regularly in bankruptcy court," says Lee, a Chinese American married to a Korean American.
The influx of Asians has been widely accepted because Las Vegas is accustomed to new arrivals from everywhere, Peckman says. "We have over 7,000 people moving to southern Nevada every month, we add 100 cars to our roads on a daily basis. So, to say the Asian growth is visible, yes, it's visible but so is the growth in so many of our other demographic populations."
Laurie Kruse, 47, moved here from California 20 years ago. She began to see dramatic changes about three years ago in the pews of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the Catholic Church she attends. More Filipinos were joining the congregation. Then there was the boom in Chinatown. "It's brought in a great aspect as far as I'm concerned," says Kruse, an administrator. "The way they worship is tremendous. … It's brought a different culture into Las Vegas."
Filipinos are the largest Asian group here, at about 45%. Chinese are the next at 15%, Japanese and Koreans make up 9% each, Asian Indians and Vietnamese represent about 5% each, and other Asians make up 12%.
Because the Asian community is still relatively small in numbers, ethnic divisions are not as distinct as in places such as Los Angeles, San Francisco or New York.
Although it's officially called Chinatown, "it's really Asiatown," Fukuda says.
"A lot of it has to do with maximizing their political clout," Frey says. "They want to identify themselves as a pan-Asian group rather than segment themselves. … It makes sense for Asians to band together."
California generates more Asian migrants than other states, but they're coming from elsewhere, too.
The owners of Satay Malaysian Grille moved from Seattle. Stan Saito, president of the Las Vegas Asian Chamber of Commerce, is a Japanese American who moved from Texas. Magazine publisher Lee-Oh moved from New York.
Los Angeles banker William Chu was still skeptical, however, when he was approached about heading First Asian Bank a couple of years ago. "Yes, there are a lot of Asians coming in but they're visitors to the Strip, I thought," he says. "Then they drove me around and I said, 'Wow.' "
Chinese-American Chu made the move and now is the bank's president and CEO.
Las Vegas is luring Asians young and old, professional and service workers, native-born Americans and immigrants.
"It's somewhat of a bipolar community," says Jeremy Aguero, principal analyst at Applied Analysis, a Nevada business research and consulting firm. "There are professionals and those with limited skills."
There could be plenty of jobs for both groups. The first phase of MGM Mirage's CityCenter, a $9.2-billion, 68-acre project, is under construction on the Strip between the Bellagio and Monte Carlo hotels and casinos. It will need 12,500 employees, Aguero says. The Echelon, a $4.8 billion hotel project on 87 acres, is scheduled to open in 2010. It will need 12,000 workers.
"We're just yearning for talented human capital," Peckman says.
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20080707/1a_asiacover07.art.htm
Migration is fueling diversity in areas that have been mostly white
By Haya El Nasser
USA TODAY 7/7/08
LAS VEGAS — Dozens of workers line up for a buffet catered by Satay Malaysian Grille, a popular Chinatown eatery here. They carry plates piled high with Asian delicacies to nine rows of long tables facing a dais.
By the time the employees savor mango-sticky-rice treats, their luncheon speakers are introduced: a local TV reporter, a former school administrator, a bank founder, a magazine publisher, a chamber of commerce executive, a local politician.
Only one is Anglo. The rest: Chinese, Japanese, Thai — all Asian Americans.
This event isn't in Las Vegas' Chinatown district but in a meeting room at one of the pillars of the local business establishment: Nevada Power.
The lunch, held so the utility's workers could hear voices from the Asian-American community, is a reflection of the explosive growth and rising clout of Asian Americans in Nevada and other inland Western states. They've become a powerful voting bloc that's being wooed by presidential candidates — and an economic force that businesses are catering to.
This decade, the Asian population has grown at a faster rate than that of the Hispanic population in 14 states — including Nevada, Arizona and Texas — as well as Washington, D.C.
In a surprising twist to historical settlement patterns, growing numbers of Asian Americans are beginning to bail from the places that have long been their main gateways to the West: California and Washington. Wearied by the same crushing home prices, poor schools, jammed freeways and persistent crime that have sent millions of other Californians packing, Asian Americans are moving to spots in the West they hope will produce better lifestyles — namely Las Vegas and Phoenix.
The Asian migration is fueling ethnic diversity in places that have been overwhelmingly white. Since 1990, Nevada has had the most rapid growth of any state in the number of Asians and Pacific Islanders.
The number jumped 174% in the 1990s and 67% so far this decade to about 211,000, according to 2007 Census Bureau estimates. Asians now make up about 8.2% of Nevada's 2.6 million people — a higher percentage than the national share of 5.4%. Most live here in Clark County, where Asians are the fastest-growing minority.
Arizona also is registering significant growth among Asians, a trend fueled largely by an exodus from California and Washington. They're leaving for lower cost of living, warm climates and better job markets, a reflection of the migration patterns that have made Nevada and Arizona the nation's fastest-growing states throughout much of the past two decades.
Asians are doing what middle-class whites have been doing for decades: moving to more affordable parts of the West, says William Frey, demographer at the Brookings Institution.
"California is losing Asians, and the main destinations are other states in the Mountain West," he says.
His analysis of Census data shows that since 2001, 86,000 more Asians left California for the inland mountain states than vice versa. "It started with whites, followed by Hispanics, and Asians are now continuing that trend," Frey says. "It means a place like Las Vegas is becoming a microcosm of growing America."
Pauline Ng Lee, a Chinese-American bankruptcy lawyer, moved 10 years ago from Los Angeles' Hollywood Hills section to Summerlin, an upscale community on Las Vegas' west side. "We moved into a neighborhood where more than 60% of the residents were from California, either southern or northern," she says. "We came out for two reasons: My husband had a great opportunity … as a physician, and the cost of living was so much lower."
In the first quarter of this year, for example, the median sales price of existing single-family homes in the Las Vegas area was $247,600, compared with $459,400 in the Los Angeles area, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Ten years ago, Las Vegas' Chinatown was less than three blocks long. Today, it stretches almost 4 miles along Spring Mountain Boulevard. It's beginning to spread out on either side. Business after business, restaurant after restaurant crowd strip malls and office buildings. Signs in Korean and Chinese adorn the facades. Newspaper racks offer publications in more than a half-dozen Asian languages.
"The traditional Chinatown area is really becoming an integral part of our broader community," says Maureen Peckman, executive director of The Council for a Better Nevada, a group of business and civic leaders concerned with quality-of-life issues. "That's the hallmark of a maturing community."
This neighborhood is one of the most visible signs of growth in the Asian American community here. There are others:
•Construction is scheduled to begin this year on the 180,000-square-foot Asia Town Center. The developers bill it as the Southwest's largest Asian shopping center.
"The fastest-growing demographic is Asian but this town doesn't have a major Asian center," says Chris Hardin, vice president of operations at DFG Development Corp., one of the developers.
The center will feature up to 10 of the West's most prominent Asian retailers. The anchor grocer, Hmart, will occupy 50,000 square feet and sell produce, meats, household wares and prepared foods at low prices.
It will be "like an Asian version of Whole Foods, except with Costco prices," DFG says.
•Las Vegas' first Asian bank opened last summer. Founded by local investors, First Asian Bank targets the financial, cultural and linguistic needs of the entire Asian community. Dee Mallas, owner of a real estate firm and co-owner of a mortgage funding company, is one of the bank's founders. She saw the void in banking services for the Asian community when dealing with Asian buyers.
"I saw the growth and I saw the need, but if you target only Chinese or only Korean, it's not big enough," says Mallas, who is Thai American.
That's why First Asian Bank's two branches cater to all Asian groups. The number "8," a symbol of prosperity, is the first number of the bank's branch numbers and all its customers' account numbers (the Beijing Olympics start 8/8/08 for the same reason). Two Texas companies have since opened banks in Las Vegas to target the Asian market.
•The Asian Real Estate Association of America opened a Las Vegas chapter last year. John Fukuda, its founding president, is a third-generation Japanese American and another California transplant. A successful Internet entrepreneur, he now owns a mortgage company.
He knew there was a need for such an organization when giant homebuilder D.R. Horton Inc. asked for help targeting the Asian market. Relocation directors in pursuit of teachers and doctors also needed their help. "Membership went from eight to 800," he says. "Half of the membership is not Asian."
Real estate agents have organized "fly-and-buys" for Californians, offering them three days and two nights in Vegas to play and check out properties.
•The first national glossy magazine to target all Asian ethnicities is scheduled to be launched from Vegas in September. The monthly AsianAm will sell for $4.50, aim for an initial circulation of 700,000 and try to capture the attention of Asians ages 18 to 34, says Bessy Lee-Oh, CEO and publisher.
"Other magazines are small and niche-targeted or ethnic specific," says Lee-Oh, a Chinese American. "We are neither. We go from business to politics — the entire game. … It was my dream."
•Chinese New Year, on the first day of the first lunar month in the Chinese calendar (Feb. 7 this year), is now the second-largest draw for casinos here — second only to the conventional New Year's holiday. At least four casinos, including the Gold Coast and Palace Station, have beefed up efforts to target the Asian market year-round.
Most hotels and casinos are careful not to offend Asians. Fifteen years ago, when the MGM Grand HotelsCasino opened, guests had to enter through what appeared to be the mouth of a lion, the company's corporate logo. Many Asian patrons were not amused. They considered walking into the mouth of a beast bad luck and avoided the casino. MGM spent millions redesigning the entrance.
•The Asian Bar Association, formed in 2002 by three lawyers, including Lee, now has about 50 active members. "Ten years ago, I was one of the few if not the only Asian practicing regularly in bankruptcy court," says Lee, a Chinese American married to a Korean American.
The influx of Asians has been widely accepted because Las Vegas is accustomed to new arrivals from everywhere, Peckman says. "We have over 7,000 people moving to southern Nevada every month, we add 100 cars to our roads on a daily basis. So, to say the Asian growth is visible, yes, it's visible but so is the growth in so many of our other demographic populations."
Laurie Kruse, 47, moved here from California 20 years ago. She began to see dramatic changes about three years ago in the pews of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the Catholic Church she attends. More Filipinos were joining the congregation. Then there was the boom in Chinatown. "It's brought in a great aspect as far as I'm concerned," says Kruse, an administrator. "The way they worship is tremendous. … It's brought a different culture into Las Vegas."
Filipinos are the largest Asian group here, at about 45%. Chinese are the next at 15%, Japanese and Koreans make up 9% each, Asian Indians and Vietnamese represent about 5% each, and other Asians make up 12%.
Because the Asian community is still relatively small in numbers, ethnic divisions are not as distinct as in places such as Los Angeles, San Francisco or New York.
Although it's officially called Chinatown, "it's really Asiatown," Fukuda says.
"A lot of it has to do with maximizing their political clout," Frey says. "They want to identify themselves as a pan-Asian group rather than segment themselves. … It makes sense for Asians to band together."
California generates more Asian migrants than other states, but they're coming from elsewhere, too.
The owners of Satay Malaysian Grille moved from Seattle. Stan Saito, president of the Las Vegas Asian Chamber of Commerce, is a Japanese American who moved from Texas. Magazine publisher Lee-Oh moved from New York.
Los Angeles banker William Chu was still skeptical, however, when he was approached about heading First Asian Bank a couple of years ago. "Yes, there are a lot of Asians coming in but they're visitors to the Strip, I thought," he says. "Then they drove me around and I said, 'Wow.' "
Chinese-American Chu made the move and now is the bank's president and CEO.
Las Vegas is luring Asians young and old, professional and service workers, native-born Americans and immigrants.
"It's somewhat of a bipolar community," says Jeremy Aguero, principal analyst at Applied Analysis, a Nevada business research and consulting firm. "There are professionals and those with limited skills."
There could be plenty of jobs for both groups. The first phase of MGM Mirage's CityCenter, a $9.2-billion, 68-acre project, is under construction on the Strip between the Bellagio and Monte Carlo hotels and casinos. It will need 12,500 employees, Aguero says. The Echelon, a $4.8 billion hotel project on 87 acres, is scheduled to open in 2010. It will need 12,000 workers.
"We're just yearning for talented human capital," Peckman says.
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20080707/1a_asiacover07.art.htm
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