Pinoys fare better than other immigrants in the US – survey

Filipino immigrants in the United States speak better English, have higher educational attainments, join the labor force, have higher incomes, lower poverty rates and are less likely to be uninsured than the overall

foreign and US-born populations, the latest pooled statistics from various US government agencies revealed.

A 2016 American Community Survey (ACS) showed that Filipino immigrants are much more likely to be proficient in English compared to other immigrant population combined. In 2016, about 30 percent of Filipinos aged 5 and above reported limited English proficiency (LEP), compared to 49 percent of all immigrants.

On the other hand, Filipinos aged 25 and above have much higher education rates compared to both the native and overall foreign-born populations. At the time of the survey, half of Filipino immigrants had at least a bachelor’s degree compared to about 32 percent of the US-born and 30 percent of all immigrants.

Data from the US Census Bureau showed that Filipinos joining the labor force is slightly higher than other groups. In 2016, about 67 percent of Filipinos aged 16 and above were in the civilian labor force, compared to 66 percent of all immigrants and 62 percent of homegrown Americans, They were likely employed in management, business, science, and arts occupations than both groups

Higher income Overall, Filipinos had significantly higher incomes compared to the total foreign and native-born populations. In 2016, households headed by a Filipino immigrant had a median income of $87,000 (roughly 14.5 million), compared to $54,000 (around 12.8 million) and $58,000 (around 13.01 million) of immigrant and US-born households, respectively.

In 2016, about 5 percent of Filipino families in the US were living in poverty, lower than the 9 percent for the US-born and 15 percent for immigrant families.

Filipinos were also found to have relatively high health insurance coverage rates compared to other groups. Seven percent of Filipinos were uninsured, the same as native-born, compared to 20 percent of all foreign born. Filipino immigrants were also more likely to be covered by private health insurance than the overall immigrant and US-born populations.

There are more than 1.9 million Filipinos living in the US in 2016,roughly 4 percent of the country’s 44 million immigrants. Between 1980 and 2016, the Filipino population in the United States nearly quadrupled, rising from 501,000 to 1.9 million.

From 2012-16, immigrants from the Philippines were highly concentrated in California at 44 percent, followed distantly by Hawaii at 6 percent. The next four most populous states — Texas, New York, Illinois, and New Jersey — were home to 19 percent of Filipinos.

Filipino communities

But the top four counties where there is a concentration of Filipinos are Los Angeles and San Diego counties in California; Honolulu County in Hawaii; and Clark County in Nevada. Together these counties account for 26 percent of Filipinos in the United States.

From 2012-16, the US cities with the largest number of Filipinos are greater Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York metropolitan areas. These three metro areas account for about 32 percent of Filipinos in the US.

According to the US Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) 2016 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics, Filipinos are much more likely to be naturalized US citizens than immigrants overall.