Long Island's Asian population: Why has it grown?
Performers celebrate Lunar New Year on Jan. 26 in Garden City. Credit: Debbie Egan-Chin
The refrain is the same from a cross-section of Asian leaders: The reason the Asian population on Long Island is growing is because of their desire for good schools and a safe, comfortable environment in which to raise their families.
The growth of the Asian population has helped diversify the racial and ethnic makeup of Long Island as it increased nearly 41% between 2014 and 2023, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey.
Several communities in North Hempstead Town have large concentrations of Asians: Herricks, Lake Success, Manhasset Hills and Searingtown had Asian residents topping 50% in the 2020 census; while Jericho and Syosset in Oyster Bay Town also had large concentrations, at 48% and 36%, respectively, leading to large percentages of Asian students in the school districts where they live.
"They like to come to Long Island, especially the North Shore. They want their kids in the best schools, [so they] can go to the best colleges," said Betty Leong, a board member and former president of the Chinese Center on Long Island. Leong is a transplant to Long Island who grew up in Manhattan’s Chinatown, then lived in Flushing, Queens, before moving to North New Hyde Park in 2002.
Christine Liu, a Democratic North Hempstead Town councilmember, noted that the schools in her district are highly ranked.
"Education is the top priority in most Asian cultures," Liu said, "and families are willing to move here and invest in their children’s future and livelihood."
Tim Lau, co-president of the Chinese American Association of Syosset, said in an interview: "I’m a Realtor for Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty. I know many people come here for the schools."
Lau’s personal journey brought him to the United States from Hong Kong to study in 1987 as a teenager, landing at a prep school in upstate Pawling, then attending U.S. colleges and settling down with family in Syosset since 2000.
The growth in the Asian population also has meant businesses have grown more diverse to serve new cultures that call Long Island home.
"When I first came to New York, I had to go to Chinatown in the city for grocery shopping," Lau recalled. "Then I went to Flushing. Now ... there are a lot of Chinese supermarkets in Nassau County. It’s a big, big change."
Bina Sabapathy of Old Bethpage, an immediate past president of the India Association of Long Island, has a similar reflection. She remembers when she came to the United States to join her husband on Long Island in 1985: "I hardly would find Indians on the streets. We’d go to Jackson Heights [in Queens] to shop even for Indian food. ... Now, you name it, everything is available in Hicksville." In the 2020 census, Hicksville’s Asian population was just over 32%.
Jingsi Christina Wu, an associate professor of media studies at Hofstra University, has seen the change play out where she lives.
"We live in a very diverse town on Long Island," Wu said. "But when we moved to East Meadow in 2018, we were the only Chinese household on our block." The 2020 census put the Asian population in East Meadow at almost 18%. "In the seven years since, we have seen multiple Asian areas represented by our neighbors and now have more Chinese neighbors just on our block alone."
A 2012 report by the Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C., summed up the Asian immigrant journey.
"Asian immigrants first came to the U.S. in significant numbers more than a century and a half ago — mainly as low-skilled male laborers who mined, farmed and built the railroads. They endured generations of officially sanctioned racial prejudice," such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the National Origins Act of 1924, "which extended the immigration ban to include virtually all of Asia; and the forced relocation and internment of about 120,000 Japanese Americans" after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, the report said.
The Pew report said "large-scale" immigration from Asia emerged with the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, a population that the report said has "increasingly become more skilled and educated."
The Asian population on Long Island, including those in combination with two or more races, reached an estimated 252,957 in 2023, up 4.4%, or 10,761 people, from the year before, Newsday has previously reported.
Looking over a longer period, between 2014 and 2023, Long Island’s Asian-alone population rose nearly 41%, going from 173,648 to 244,787, according to the Census Bureau’s one-year American Community Survey for each of those years.
The Asian community on Long Island among the foreign-born population shows the predominant groups by far hail from China and India in Nassau, at 27,237 and 26,622, respectively, according to 2019-2023 ACS data. In Suffolk, the same two countries predominate, but at far lower numbers: those from China at 9,858, and from India at 9,230. Other top Asian countries of origin for the Island’s foreign-born are, in Nassau: South Korea, with 9,291; Pakistan, 8,986; and the Philippines, 8,675. In Suffolk: Pakistan, 8,579; South Korea, 3,556; and the Philippines, 3,508.
While data shows Asians as a group fair well economically, Farrah Mozawalla, CEO of the Syosset-based nonprofit Asian American Institute for Research and Engagement, said there nevertheless was economic disparity among subsets of Asians. "All Asians are lumped into one group. We can’t see the disparities. There are Asian groups that are extremely affluent, then there are others who are not," Mozawalla said, listing doctors and lawyers on the high end, then Uber drivers and gas station attendants on the lower end. "There are many people, even on Long Island, that are in need of services."
Still, Asians have higher median incomes on Long Island, data shows.
The 2023 median household income on Long Island was far higher than the national average, at $141,568 in Nassau and $124,045 in Suffolk. Among Asian households, the 2023 median in Nassau was $164,976 and in Suffolk, $132,415.
Dev Ratnam, president of Polymag Inc., which makes magnets for industrial use, recalled his journey to business owner when he arrived in the United States in the 1960s from Hyderabad, India. He studied first in Canada, worked there a few years, before attending Penn State University, where he earned his doctorate in 1970, he said.
He bought Polymag in 1976, which was based in Bellport, then Hicksville and now is in Oyster Bay. Ratnam is 83 and lives in Mill Neck, along Nassau’s North Shore, with his family. He is winding down his company, he said. "I’m almost retired."
"Long Island is a great place to find jobs and even open a business," Ratnam said, "a nice place to live and settle down."
With John Valenti
The refrain is the same from a cross-section of Asian leaders: The reason the Asian population on Long Island is growing is because of their desire for good schools and a safe, comfortable environment in which to raise their families.
The growth of the Asian population has helped diversify the racial and ethnic makeup of Long Island as it increased nearly 41% between 2014 and 2023, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey.
Several communities in North Hempstead Town have large concentrations of Asians: Herricks, Lake Success, Manhasset Hills and Searingtown had Asian residents topping 50% in the 2020 census; while Jericho and Syosset in Oyster Bay Town also had large concentrations, at 48% and 36%, respectively, leading to large percentages of Asian students in the school districts where they live.
"They like to come to Long Island, especially the North Shore. They want their kids in the best schools, [so they] can go to the best colleges," said Betty Leong, a board member and former president of the Chinese Center on Long Island. Leong is a transplant to Long Island who grew up in Manhattan’s Chinatown, then lived in Flushing, Queens, before moving to North New Hyde Park in 2002.
WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND
- The Asian population on Long Island has grown just over 40% in nearly a decade, rising from 173,648 in 2014 to 244,287 in 2023, according to the Census Bureau.
- Many Asian cultural leaders say the growth of the Asian population on Long Island reflects a desire for their children to be in the best school districts.
- The 2023 median household income among Asians was $164,976 in Nassau and $132,415 in Suffolk. The Long Island household median income was $141,568 in Nassau and $124,045 in Suffolk.
Christine Liu, a Democratic North Hempstead Town councilmember, noted that the schools in her district are highly ranked.
"Education is the top priority in most Asian cultures," Liu said, "and families are willing to move here and invest in their children’s future and livelihood."
Tim Lau, co-president of the Chinese American Association of Syosset, said in an interview: "I’m a Realtor for Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty. I know many people come here for the schools."
Lau’s personal journey brought him to the United States from Hong Kong to study in 1987 as a teenager, landing at a prep school in upstate Pawling, then attending U.S. colleges and settling down with family in Syosset since 2000.
The growth in the Asian population also has meant businesses have grown more diverse to serve new cultures that call Long Island home.
"When I first came to New York, I had to go to Chinatown in the city for grocery shopping," Lau recalled. "Then I went to Flushing. Now ... there are a lot of Chinese supermarkets in Nassau County. It’s a big, big change."
Bina Sabapathy of Old Bethpage, an immediate past president of the India Association of Long Island, has a similar reflection. She remembers when she came to the United States to join her husband on Long Island in 1985: "I hardly would find Indians on the streets. We’d go to Jackson Heights [in Queens] to shop even for Indian food. ... Now, you name it, everything is available in Hicksville." In the 2020 census, Hicksville’s Asian population was just over 32%.
Jingsi Christina Wu, an associate professor of media studies at Hofstra University, has seen the change play out where she lives.
"We live in a very diverse town on Long Island," Wu said. "But when we moved to East Meadow in 2018, we were the only Chinese household on our block." The 2020 census put the Asian population in East Meadow at almost 18%. "In the seven years since, we have seen multiple Asian areas represented by our neighbors and now have more Chinese neighbors just on our block alone."
Immigrant journey
A 2012 report by the Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C., summed up the Asian immigrant journey.
"Asian immigrants first came to the U.S. in significant numbers more than a century and a half ago — mainly as low-skilled male laborers who mined, farmed and built the railroads. They endured generations of officially sanctioned racial prejudice," such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the National Origins Act of 1924, "which extended the immigration ban to include virtually all of Asia; and the forced relocation and internment of about 120,000 Japanese Americans" after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, the report said.
The Pew report said "large-scale" immigration from Asia emerged with the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, a population that the report said has "increasingly become more skilled and educated."
The Asian population on Long Island, including those in combination with two or more races, reached an estimated 252,957 in 2023, up 4.4%, or 10,761 people, from the year before, Newsday has previously reported.
Looking over a longer period, between 2014 and 2023, Long Island’s Asian-alone population rose nearly 41%, going from 173,648 to 244,787, according to the Census Bureau’s one-year American Community Survey for each of those years.
The Asian community on Long Island among the foreign-born population shows the predominant groups by far hail from China and India in Nassau, at 27,237 and 26,622, respectively, according to 2019-2023 ACS data. In Suffolk, the same two countries predominate, but at far lower numbers: those from China at 9,858, and from India at 9,230. Other top Asian countries of origin for the Island’s foreign-born are, in Nassau: South Korea, with 9,291; Pakistan, 8,986; and the Philippines, 8,675. In Suffolk: Pakistan, 8,579; South Korea, 3,556; and the Philippines, 3,508.
Economic disparity
While data shows Asians as a group fair well economically, Farrah Mozawalla, CEO of the Syosset-based nonprofit Asian American Institute for Research and Engagement, said there nevertheless was economic disparity among subsets of Asians. "All Asians are lumped into one group. We can’t see the disparities. There are Asian groups that are extremely affluent, then there are others who are not," Mozawalla said, listing doctors and lawyers on the high end, then Uber drivers and gas station attendants on the lower end. "There are many people, even on Long Island, that are in need of services."
Still, Asians have higher median incomes on Long Island, data shows.
The 2023 median household income on Long Island was far higher than the national average, at $141,568 in Nassau and $124,045 in Suffolk. Among Asian households, the 2023 median in Nassau was $164,976 and in Suffolk, $132,415.
Dev Ratnam, president of Polymag Inc., which makes magnets for industrial use, recalled his journey to business owner when he arrived in the United States in the 1960s from Hyderabad, India. He studied first in Canada, worked there a few years, before attending Penn State University, where he earned his doctorate in 1970, he said.
He bought Polymag in 1976, which was based in Bellport, then Hicksville and now is in Oyster Bay. Ratnam is 83 and lives in Mill Neck, along Nassau’s North Shore, with his family. He is winding down his company, he said. "I’m almost retired."
"Long Island is a great place to find jobs and even open a business," Ratnam said, "a nice place to live and settle down."
With John Valenti
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