By Here is a statistic that readers may find of interest:
While definitely, not the poorest, it does show that Korean-Americans are the poorest among Northeast Asians and actually have a lower median income than that of all American households, which stands in stark contrast with the fact that the median of Asian-Americans stands much higher than that of all American housholds. [Breaking Down Borders]
Any theories on why Korean-Americans make much less then other Asian counterparts to include being below the median family income?
1:45 am on September 27th, 2009 1
They lie on their tax forms.
Reply
September 27th, 2009 at 4:18 am
Or it is more difficult to lie, cheat and steal in America which kinda cut into their usual modus operandi.
Reply
2:21 am on September 27th, 2009 2
FYI – typo in the headline
Reply
3:30 am on September 27th, 2009 3
Filipinos are high on the list because of the nurses. There is a huge amount of Filipino nurses in America, who earn good money.
Reply
4:26 am on September 27th, 2009 4
My guess is that non-Korean Asians are mostly highly skilled H1-B visa holders with high-paying jobs. The Korean Asians are not H1B visa holders.
Reply
5:15 am on September 27th, 2009 5
A large portion of the Koreans in America are 1st generation immigrants – who showed up not speaking English – and they didn’t have much more than a suitcase and a few hundred dollars.
As a general statement, the Japanese and Chinese have been around much, much longer and are more integrated into American society.
Reply
5:25 am on September 27th, 2009 6
This data is reported income. Koreans love to lie, cheat, steal and not report income. Wasn’t a recent article about the Korean black market (I am not talking about selling commisary cheese) being 20 some percent of their GDP.
Reply
5:58 am on September 27th, 2009 7
Many adult Korean immigrants in the US are business owners. According to a K-A commenter at the Hole, underreporting income was the norm. It’s very easy to do in a small family business. My dry cleaner issues hand-written receipts.
Reply
September 27th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
I tend to agree. I’m intersted in the comments of others as well. Are other asian nationals so much more honest than Koreans?
Reply
6:35 am on September 27th, 2009 8
“Any theories…”
Those numbers are from 1999.
Reply
9:02 pm on September 27th, 2009 9
Here are some theories…
Many Koreans who become rich and successful in America come BACK to Korea to enjoy (flaunt?) their success. This also applies to professionals who return to Korea to get equally high-paying jobs with the elevated social status lacking in American employment.
On the other hand, doctors and engineers from most of the other countries would be taking a large pay cut and reduction in general living standards to return to their countries.
Also, many very rich people from some of the third world countries listed immigrate to America… very rich Koreans stay in Korea.
Reply