Filipinos in US poised for success

Filipinos are among the top Asian migrants in the United States poised for success.

A new report titled “Race for Results” released recently  by the Annie E. Casey Foundation tackles the topic of racial and ethnic indicators of success.

At the core of the report is a newly devised index based on 12 indicators measuring a child’s success from birth to adulthood. The indicators include reading and math proficiency, high school graduation data, teen birthrates, employment prospects, family income and education levels, and neighborhood poverty levels.

Using a single composite score with a scale of one to 1,000, Asian children have the highest index score at 776, followed by white children at 704.

“Scores for Latino (404), American-Indian (387) and African-American (345) children are distressingly lower, and this pattern holds true in nearly every state,” said the report.

Outcomes varied for different subgroups of Asian and Latino children. For example, in terms of family income levels, children of Southeast Asian descent—Burmese, Hmong, Laotian, Cambodian and Vietnamese—faced greater hurdles than children whose families came from India, Japan, the Philippines and China.

Patrick McCarthy, the Casey Foundation’s president, said the findings are “a call to action that requires serious and sustained attention from the private, nonprofit, philanthropic and government sectors to create equitable opportunities for children of color.”

The report was based on data from 2012, including census figures tallying the number of US children under 18 at 39 million whites, 17.6 million Latinos, 10.2 million blacks, 3.4 million of Asian descent, and 640,000 American Indians, as well as about 2.8 million children of two or more races. Under census definitions, Latinos can be of various racial groups.

Among its recommendations, the report urged concerted efforts to collect and analyze race-specific data on child well-being that could be used to develop programs capable of bridging the racial gap. It said special emphasis should be placed on expanding job opportunities as children in the disadvantaged groups enter adulthood.

“Regardless of our own racial background or socioeconomic position, we are inextricably interconnected as a society,” the report concluded. “We must view all children in America as our own—and as key contributors to our nation’s future.”  AP