WASHINGTON - Asians have replaced Latinos as the largest immigrant group in the US, according to the Pew Research Center.
The study by the research centre says that the population of Asian descent has risen to a record 18.2 million, making Asians the fastest-growing racial group in the country.
The study said while Asian immigration has increased slightly in recent years, but the shift in ranking has been attributed to the sharp decline in Hispanic immigration.
About 430,000 Asians or 36 per cent of all new immigrants, legal and illegal moved to the US in 2010, compared with 370,000 Hispanics, or 31 per cent of all new arrivals, the study said.
Just three years earlier, the ratio was reverse there were about 390,000 Asians who immigrated in 2007, compared with 540,000 Hispanics.
"Asians have become the largest stream of new immigrants to the US and, thus, the latest leading actors in this great American drama," Paul Taylor, executive vice president of the center, says in the report.
Asian Americans now make up nearly six per cent or 18.2 million of the U.S. population. Nearly three-quarters were born abroad, and about eight million came to the US in the last 30 years.
The study says that Asian Americans were also the country's best educated and highest-income racial or ethnic group. This is significant for the US economy that increasingly depends on highly skilled workers.
"These aren't the poor, tired, huddled masses that Emma Lazarus described in that inscription on the Statue of Liberty," said Taylor.
Asian Americans also tend to be more satisfied than most Americans with their own lives, the survey says.
They hold more traditional views than the general public on the value of marriage, parenthood and hard work.
