Asian people

Asian¹ or Asiatic² people (the Asian Continental Ancestry Group)² is a demonym for people from Asia. However, the use of the term varies by country and person, often referring to people from a particular region or subregion of Asia.³⁴ Though it may be based on residence, it is also often considered a race⁵ or an ethnicity.⁶

Definitions by country

United States

Earlier Census forms from 1980 and before listed particular Asian ancestries as separate groups along with White and Black or Negro.¹⁰ Previously, Asian Americans were classified as "other". ¹¹ But the 1980 census marked the first general analyses of Asians as a group, combining several individual ancestry groups into "Asian or Pacific Islander." By the 1990 census, Asian or Pacific Islander (API) was included as an explicit category, although respondents had to select one particular ancestry.¹²¹³ ¹⁴

The US Census Bureau definition includes people who originate in the original peoples of Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. In 1930 and 1940, Indian Americans were a separate race, Hindu, and in 1950 and 1960, they were racially classified as Other Race, and in 1970, they were classified as White. Since 1980, Indians, and all other South Asians, have been classified as part of the Asian race¹⁵. Sociologist Madhulika Khandelwal "described how, as a result of activism, South Asians came to be included as 'Asians' in the census only in the 80's. Prior to that, many South Asians had been checking 'Caucasian' or 'Other'."¹⁶ Respondents can also report their specific ancestry like Okinawan, etc. Someone reporting these ancestries but no race will be classified as "Asian". Unlike South Asians, Middle Eastern Americans and Central Asian Americans have not lobbied to be included as Asians by the US Census.¹⁷

According to Sharon M. Lee in her 1998 publication, for many non-Asian Americans in the United States (in 1998) Asian American means Oriental, Chinese American or Japanese American. This is due to the Chinese and Japanese immigrants being the first Asian immigrants into the United States.⁹ Today, with the increasing demographic of South Asian Americans and Southeast Asian Americans the definition among United States citizens of who is Asian American is expanding.⁹

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, the term "Asian", though it can refer to the continent of Asia as a whole,⁷ is more commonly associated with people of South Asian origin, particularly Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Sri Lankans.¹⁸ The UK usage of the term "Asian" is reflected in the "ethnic group" section of UK census forms, which treat "Asian" and "Chinese" as separate (see British Asian).⁶ Most respondents to the UK 2001 Census of non-Chinese East Asian and Southeast Asian descent chose to write-in their ethnicity in the "Other Ethnic Group" category rather than the "Other Asian" category, reflecting the association of the word Asian in the UK with South Asian.¹⁹

The United Kingdom, Anglophone Africa and Anglophone Caribbean are places in the Western world where the word "Asian" is used primarily to identify people from the Indian subcontinent. Due to the term's contested definition in British English, the use of the term "South Asian" is used for clarity in discussions in the United Kingdom on colonialism, discrimination, and migration³ or when the content of its parameters may become mistakenly conflated with those of East Asian descent. ¹⁸

Canada

The Canadian Census' list of Visible Minorities includes "West Asian", "South Asian" and "Southeast Asian".²⁰.

Australia

Notably, the Australian Census includes Central Asia, a region that is often considered to be part of the Greater Middle East.²¹ The Australian Census includes four regions of Asia in its official definition. Defined by the 2006–2011 Australian Census, three broad groups have the word Asian included in their name: Central and Southern Asian, South-East Asian and North-East Asian. Russians are classified as Southern and Eastern Europeans while Middle Easterners are classified as North African and Middle Easterners.²²

Anglophone Africa and Caribbean

The United Kingdom, Anglophone Africa,²³ and Anglophone Caribbean are places in the Western world where the word "Asian" is used primarily to identify people from the Indian subcontinent, although in South Africa, Asian can refer to East Asians as well.²⁴

New Zealand

New Zealand's census called Statistics New Zealand defines the Asian to include people of Chinese, Indian, Korean, Filipino, Japanese, Vietnamese, Sri Lankan, Cambodian and Thai ancestries.²⁵

Norway

Statistics Norway considers people of Asian background to be people from all Asian countries.²⁶²⁷

Definition by non-government sources

Keith Lowe

Dr. Keith Lowe, race-relations expert for the Canadian government,²⁸ claims that Asian people refer to Central, South, Southeast and East Asians.²⁹

Oxford English Dictionary

Orientals and the Orient

The term "Oriental" (from the Latin word for "Eastern")³² was originally used in Europe in reference to the Near East. It was later extended to the rest of Asia, but came to refer to Northeast Asians and Southeast Asians in the 19th and 20th century US,³³ where most Asians were Chinese (and later Japanese and Filipino). By the late 20th century, the term had gathered associations in North America with older attitudes now seen as outmoded, and was replaced with the term "Asian" as part of the updating of language concerning social identities,³⁴ which critics have derided as political correctness.³⁵ In Europe however use of the term oriental for a east Asian has no negative connotations attached and is commonly used since here 'Asian' is taken to mean a South Asian. Note particularly that, in the UK at least, Indian people (for example) are considered Asian but not Oriental, giving credence to the point that the term 'Oriental' now means 'East Asian' rather than any meaning related to the Greenwich Meridian and it's colonial links.

Marginal Inclusion

West Asians

Clovis Maksoud, Director for the Organization of Global South, argues that the term "Middle East" is a Eurocentric term denoting the region between Europe and East Asia, because it denies the Middle East's connection with Muslim North Africa.³⁶ In English parlance, Western Asians like Jews, Iranians and Arabs,⁹ and the Central Asians of the former Soviet Republics are not referred to as "Asian" by United States government agencies. The Canadian government uses "West Asian" in its statistics; however people from the Arab countries are counted in a separate "Arab" category. ³⁷ ³⁸

Pacific Islanders

In normal usage Asian does not refer to the people from the Pacific Islands who are usually called Pacific Islanders.³⁹ The term "Asians and Pacific Islanders" or "Asia/Pacific" was used on the 1990 US Census.⁴⁰ However, in the 2000 US Census, the Asian or Pacific Islander category was separated into two categories, "Asian" and "Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander". ⁴¹

References

^ "Asian". Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary.
^ ^a ^b United States National Library of Medicine. Medical Subject Headings. 2004. November 17, 2006.[1]
^ ^a ^b Aspinall, Peter J. Oxford Journals. Journal of Public Health. 2003. October 26, 2006. [2]
^ Lee, Sandra S. Mountain, Joanna. Barbara, Koening A. The Meanings of Race in the New Genomics: Implications for Health Disparities Research. Yale University. 2001. October 26, 2006. [3]
^ Barnes, Jessica S. and Bennett, Claudett E. The Asian Population:2000. 2002. September 1, 2006. [4]
^ ^a ^b National Statistics. Ethnicity. 2005. August 27, 2006. [5]
^ ^a ^b ^c Color Q World. Clarifying the Definition of Asian. 2005. October 1, 2006. [6]
^ The New Oxford Dictionary of English. 2001. New York: Oxford University Press.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Lee, Sharon M. Population Reference Bureau. Asian Americans Diverse and Growing. 2006. September 10, 2006. [7]
^ 1980 Census: Instructions to Respondents, republished by Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota at www.ipums.org Accessed 19 Nov 2006.
^ Lee, Gordon. Hyphen Magazine. "The Forgotten Revolution." 2003. January 28, 2007.[8]
^ 1990 Census: Instructions to Respondents, republished by Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota at www.ipums.org Accessed 19 Nov 2006.
^ Reeves, Terrance Claudett, Bennett. United States Census Bureau. Asian and Pacific Islander Population: March 2002. 2003. September 30, 2006.
^ http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/p20-540.pdf#search=%22asian%20definition%20difference%22
^ Campbell Gibson and Kay Jung, Historical Census Statistics On Population Totals By Race, 1790 to 1990, and By Hispanic Origin, 1970 to 1990, For Large Cities And Other Urban Places In The United States Working Paper no. 76 (2005); see footnote 6 in paper
^ Chandy, Sunu P. What is a Valid South Asian Struggle? Report on the Annual SASA Conference. Accessed August 8, 2008. [9].
^ Arab American Institute. Not Quite White:Race Classification and the Arab American Experience. 1997. September 29, 2006. [10]
^ ^a ^b ^c British Sociological Association. Equality and Diversity. Language and the BSA:Ethnicity & Race. 2005. October 26. [11]
^ Gardener, David. Who are the Other Ethnic Groups. 2005. October 27, 2006. [12]
^ '2001 Census Visible Minority and Population Group User Guide' [13]
^ World Atlas.com The Middle East. September 30, 2006. [14]
^ Australian Bureau of Statistics. Australian Standard Classification of Cultural and Ethnic Groups Second Edition. 2005. August 20, 2006. [15]
^ Sinha, Gayatri. Diatribe or art? The Hindu. 2002. September 29, 2006. [16]
^ University of Maryland. Assessment for Asians in South Africa. 2003. September 29, 2006. [17]
^ Statistics New Zealand. Asian people. 2006. December 4, 2006.[18]
^ (Norwegian) Immigration and emigration
^ (Norwegian) SSB: Unge innvandrere i arbeid og utdanning - Er innvandrerungdom en marginalisert gruppe?
^ Ontario Multicultural Association. "Speaker Biography: Dr. Keith Lowe." 2007. July 29, 2007.[19]
^ Asian Heritage Month. "Credits." 2007. July 29, 2007. [20]
^ "Asian". AskOxford.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-29.
^ http://www.aasp.cornell.edu/courses.php Cornell Asian American Studies
^ Cawley, Kevin. University of Notre Dame. Oriental. 2004. September 29, 2006. [21]
^ Hu, Alan. Model Minority. On Asian and Oriental. 1993. September 29, 2006. [22]
^ Bartleby.com The American Heritage Book of English Usage. 2005. September 1, 2006. [23]
^ Friedman. Haladina. The Politically Correct Handbook. 1992. September 1, 2006. In the UK however since the 'term' Asian is universally assumed to mean South Asian Oriental is regarded as an acceptable term for someone of East Asian descent.[24]
^ Katz, Elizabeth. Virginia Law. Democracy in the Middle East. 2006. September 9, 2006. [25]
^ http://www.statcan.ca/english/research/89-621-XIE/89-621-XIE2007003.pdf
^ http://www.google.com/search?q=west+asian+site%3Astatcan.ca
^ American Heritage Book of English Usage. Asian. 1996. September 29, 2006. [26]
^ Census '90. Asian and Pacific Islanders in the United States. 1990. September 1, 2006. [27]
^ "Revisions to the Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity". OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET. "The Native Hawaiians presented compelling arguments that the standards must facilitate the production of data to describe their social and economic situation and to monitor discrimination against Native Hawaiians in housing, education, employment, and other areas. Under the current standards for data on race and ethnicity, Native Hawaiians comprise about three percent of the Asian and Pacific Islander population. By creating separate categories, the data on the Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islander groups will no longer be overwhelmed by the aggregate data of the much larger Asian groups. Native Hawaiians will comprise about 60 percent of the new category. The Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander population groups are well defined; moreover, there has been experience with reporting in separate categories for the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander population groups. The 1990 census included "Hawaiian," "Samoan," and "Guamanian" as response categories to the race question. In addition, two of the major tests conducted as part of the current review (the NCS and the RAETT) used "Hawaiian" and/or "Native Hawaiian," "Samoan," "Guamanian," and "Guamanian or Chamorro" as response options to the race question. These factors facilitate breaking apart the current category."

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