Asian-Americans are more enthusiastic than ever about politics but parties and community organisations are not adequately reaching out to them, a new survey has found.
The Democratic Party is the clear choice for most by a long distance, and President Barack Obama and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton are more popular among Asian-Americans than they are among Americans in general, the survey shows. Within the Asian populations, Indians appear to have a greater liking for both Mr. Obama and Ms. Clinton.
Dislike for TrumpThe survey commissioned by two organisations, Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote and Asian Americans Advancing Justice, interviewed 1,200 Asian-American registered voters earlier this month.
The survey found that the proportion of Americans of Asian origin who identified themselves as Democrats increased to 47 per cent from 35 per cent two years ago. It also found that 61 per cent of Asian-Americans have an unfavourable view about Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee. Only 26 per cent of Asian-Americans view Ms. Clinton unfavourably.
“The survey points to the consolidation of a very important long term trend: a significant number of Asian-Americans are identifying as Democrats and Indian-Americans are among the top two Asian-Americans groups on this count. This is highly significant trend in terms of the long term political inclination among Asian-Americans,” said Sangay Mishra, who teaches political science at Drew University in New Jersey.
Asian-Americans in California — where many of them work in the technology industry — favoured Ms. Clinton over her Democratic opponent Bernie Sanders more than in other places. Mr. Sanders is an opponent of visa policies that displace American workers with cheaper labour that comes mostly from Asian countries. However, nationally, young Asian-Americans prefer Mr. Sanders to Ms. Clinton, the survey found.
Open immigration policiesEducation and health care are two issues that are top on the minds of the Asian-Americans and across all ethnicities, and predictably, they prefer candidates who promote more open immigration policies.
Both anti-immigration and anti-Muslim rhetoric make Asian-Americans see red, and this evidently is one of the main reasons for these communities’ preference for the Democrats. The survey found that electoral reaction against anti-Muslim rhetoric was particularly strong among Indian-Americans and Korean-Americans.
