Ethnicity, birthplace, and achievement : the changing Hawaii mosaic

mainland), the present and likely future ethnic composition of the State, and whether the various ethnic groups are moving toward social and economic parity. This study uses data from the 1975 U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity Census Update Survey and other local sources to address these concerns. Findings show that among the local-born, the most notable recent development has been the rise of the Orientals (essentially Japanese and Chinese) to equality with the "haoles" (essentially non-Portuguese and non-Puerto Rican Caucasians) on some social and economic indices and to clear superiority on others. In contrast, local-born Filipinos and members of other groups remain disadvantaged on all dimensions used in this study. In-migrant haoles initially suffer from high unemployment but have moderate income and high educational and occupational levels; their income and home ownership levels appear to improve markedly with increasing duration of residence. Among Asian immigrants, recent arrivals are characterized by occupational and income levels far below what would be expected given their educational levels; with longer residence their income, but not occupational level, appears to improve greatly. However, whereas immigrant Orientals are initially disadvantaged compared with immigrant Filipinos, long-term Oriental immigrants have a marked advantage over their Filipino counterparts on all indices. Cultural and historical explanations of these findings are offered. Differential birth and net migration rates for the various ethnic groups have resulted and will continue to result in markedly different age distributions and rates of population growth. A projection of Hawaii"s population to the year 2000 indicates slower than expected growth among haoles, a large increase in the proportion that is Filipino, and a large drop in the Oriental share of the population, suggesting that the present political and economic dominance of Orientals will come under increasing pressure. (Author abstract, modified)