The Status of Filipinos in the United States in Comparison to Other Asian Ethnicities |History: The Roadmap to the Future--Asia

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"We The People: Asians in the United States" (US Census Bureau)

This is an edited version of a post I made:

Here are some statistics from the US Census which refute my own belief (prior to reading this), and I believe the belief of many, that Northeast Asians emphasize education and are more prosperous in the United States than Filipinos/Southeast Asians:

(from page 12)
*)Filipinos are the fourth ranked Asian group to have a Bachelor's Degree or more, beaten only by Indians, Pakistanis, and Chinese. Filipinos beat out the Japanese and Vietnamese, and match Koreans (for the Confucian groups).

*)On the other end, proportionally more Chinese, Indians, Vietnamese, Koreans, Cambodians, Hmong, Laotians, Pakistanis, and Thais have less than a high school diploma than Filipinos. Only Japanese have a smaller percentage.

*)Look at the chart(s) on page 12 for a clearer picture (literally and figuratively).

(from page 15)
*)71% of Filipino men participate in the labor force, as well as 65.2% of Filipino women. By contrast, for the Confucians, 69.3% of Chinese men and 56.8% of Chinese women participate in the labor force. Vietnamese: 67.7% men, 56.4% women. Japanese: 68.8% men, 48.1% women. Korean: 69% men, 52.8% women. Filipinos beat out every Confucian group. (If you're wondering, Indian and Pakistani men are the overall winners.) Saying that Filipino men are lazy does not appear valid.

(from page 17)
*)"The lowest individual poverty rates were for Filipinos, Japanese, and Asian Indians." Filipino poverty rate: 6.3%. Chinese: 13.5%. Korean: 14.8%. Japanese: 9.7%. Indian: 9.8%. Maybe this is evidence of validity of my footnote* below.

I'm surprised by this; it definitely doesn't fit the stereotypes of either Filipinos in isolation, or in relation to the Northeast Asians.

Maybe I have been too harsh toward Filipinos.

According to these statistics, and barring the noticeable exception in median income*, Filipinos in the United States aren't doing too badly, by any means, either on the national level or in comparison with any other Asian group.

*Maybe Filipinos overall live in lower cost of living areas/states, and thus are paid less for equivalent professions than their fellow Asians? Countering this, Filipinos fall behind all the Northeast Asian groups (they're just a little behind the Koreans), plus the South Asians, regarding being employed in "Management, professional, and related"--where the money's at. That, comparably, Filipinos are heavily in sales *does* fit the stereotype! I'm beginning to form a hunch that the seemingly more impressive Asian groups turn out a larger (but still small) elite of very high earners and professionals than Filipinos do, even if as a whole they underperform Filipinos.