516 CHApTEr 2 2 | a ConSerVatiVe tenor | period nine 1980 to the present TopIC II | an end to history’s end^517517this year. There are names like Dryden, Crowley and Telleen, families that have
lived here for generations. But there are newer names as well: Sun, Koo and Shi.
A generation ago, whites made up roughly two-thirds of the population in this
rarefied Los Angeles suburb, where most of the homes are worth well over $1 mil-
lion. But Asians now make up over half of the population in San Marino, which
has long attracted some of the region’s wealthiest families and was once home to
the John Birch Society’s Western headquarters.
The transformation illustrates a drastic shift in California immigration trends
over the last decade, one that can easily be seen all over the area: more than twice
as many immigrants to the nation’s most populous state now come from Asia
than from Latin America.
And the change here is just one example of the ways immigration is remaking
America, with the political, economic and cultural ramifications playing out in
a variety of ways. The number of Latinos has more than doubled in many South-
ern states, including Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina, creating new ten-
sions. Asian populations are booming in New Jersey, and Latino immigrants are
reviving small towns in the Midwest.
Much of the current immigration debate in Congress has focused on Hispan-
ics, and California has for decades been viewed as the focal point of that migra-
tion. But in cities in the San Gabriel Valley—as well as in Orange County and in
Silicon Valley in Northern California—Asian immigrants have become a domi-
nant cultural force in places that were once largely white or Hispanic.
“We are really looking at a different era here,” said Hans Johnson, a demog-
rapher at the Public Policy Institute of California who has studied census data.
“There are astounding changes in working-class towns and old, established,
wealthy cities. It is not confined to one place.”
Asians have become a majority in more than half a dozen cities in the San
Gabriel Valley in the last decade, creating a region of Asian-dominated suburbs
that stretches for nearly 30 miles east of Los Angeles. In the shopping centers,
Chinese-language characters are on nearly every storefront, visible from the free-
ways that cut through the area....Jennifer Medina, “New Suburban Dream Born of Asia and Southern California,” New York
Times, April 29, 2013, p. A9. © 2013 The New York Times. All rights reserved. Used by permis-
sion and protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States. The printing, coping, redistri-
bution, or retransmission of this Content without express written permission is prohibited.prACTICIng Historical Thinking
Identify: Summarize the changing statistics on Asian immigration, according to the
article.
Analyze: Why have these changes occurred?
Evaluate: To what extent might immigration in the twenty-first century redefine the
American identity?23_STA_2012_ch22_489-522.indd 516 17/04/15 11:34 AM