Bangladeshi immigrants in the United States grew by 26 percent since 2010 in terms of numbers but they also have the second highest rate of poverty within the South Asian American community, according to a new report released this week.
The report released by South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), a non-profit group, projects that by 2065, Asian Americans will be the largest immigrant population.
The most significant growth was observed in the Nepalese community who grew by 206.6 percent followed by Indians at 38.3 percent.
Income inequality has been reported to be the greatest among Asian Americans and nearly 10 percent of the approximately five million South Asians in the US live in poverty.
Bangladeshi and Nepali communities have the lowest median household incomes out of all Asian American groups, earning $49,800 and $43,500 respectively.
Nearly 61 percent of non-citizen Bangladeshi American families receive public benefits for at least one of the four federal programs, while 48 percent of non-citizen Pakistani families and 11 percent of non-citizen Indian families receive public benefits.
The South Asian community in the United States includes individuals who trace their ancestry to Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
The report has also found that there are at least 630,000 Indians who are undocumented, a 72 percent increase since 2010.
“The increase can be attributed to Indian immigrants overstaying visas, nearly 250,000 Indians overstayed their visa in 2016 therefore becoming undocumented,” says the report.
SAALT’s demographic snapshot is based primarily on Census 2010 and the 2017 American Community Survey.
“As we witness this unprecedented growth in our communities, it is more important than ever that the needs of the most vulnerable South Asian populations are met,” said Lakshmi Sridaran, SAALT’s Interim Co-Executive Director.
“An accurate Census 2020 population count is essential to distributing critical federal funding to our communities,” she adds.
The Trump administration has been proposing a question on citizenship in the next census. Immigration experts believe this will lead to a severe undercount, with at least 600,000 South Asians in the country not being counted and thousands more deterred.
“This means even fewer resources to the communities who need it the most,” says Ms Sridaran.