Asians California

Every day, Yoshiaki Nishiba bounces among three disparate cultures. Raised north of Tokyo, he now lives south of San Diego and spends a good part of every business day at his family-owned manufacturing plant in eastern Tijuana. He navigates his German-made car knowingly through Tijuana's pothole-pocked streets, and he talks easily about why he is more comfortable investing his own money in Southern California than back home. "It's out of hand in Japan," he said, his English impeccable.

Southern California's Vietnamese population grew sharply in the 1990s despite ebbing immigration, drawing newcomers from elsewhere in the state and nation into a powerful cluster that now exceeds 230,000, census information released today shows. That includes 135,548 in Orange County alone, where the Vietnamese American community surged almost 89% and won demographic bragging rights over rival centers in the San Jose area and Texas.

A flood of highly potent Asian heroin suddenly pouring into the West Coast in record amounts has law enforcement officials worried about a possible surge of violence among newly emerging Thai, Cambodian and Laotian drug rings bent on expanding their markets. One top federal official warned that the situation has the potential for violence in California similar to the "cocaine cowboy" wars that plagued Florida in the 1970s when rival drug dealers engaged in shoot-outs in the streets. The top U.S.

The number of hate crimes against Asians reported in California increased 20% last year, according to an annual audit of such incidents. Although the number of such crimes rose in Northern California, outreach efforts in the southern part of the state and an improved economy may have led to a slight decrease in the region, said Karen Narasaki, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium, which conducted the survey released Tuesday.

California is the nation's most racially diverse state, with a greater percentage of Asian and Latino residents than any other state and the second-highest number of blacks and American Indians of any state, census figures show. According to data compiled from the 1990 census and released this week, the 29.8 million people living in California listed themselves as 69% white, 9.6% Asian, 7.4% black, 0.8% native American and 13.2% "other." The state's 2.

Anglos and Asians in California more commonly own their homes, while Latinos and blacks usually rent, according to preliminary data from the 1990 census. For people of any race or ethnicity, home ownership has become an elusive goal for a majority of California's baby boomers. They were age 25 to 44 when the census was conducted, and in that group only 45% who are the head of a household own their home.

The number of hate crimes against Asians reported in California increased 20% last year, according to an annual audit of such incidents. Although the number of such crimes rose in Northern California, outreach efforts in the southern part of the state and an improved economy may have led to a slight decrease in the region, said Karen Narasaki, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium, which conducted the survey released Tuesday.

Farmers Insurance Group has conducted a statewide discrimination campaign against Southeast Asians, discouraging their business by deliberately boosting the prices it quotes them for auto insurance, according to lawsuits filed by consumers and two former Farmers agents. Farmers denies the charges.

A "festering hatred" of racial and ethnic minorities drove Patrick Purdy to massacre five children in a Stockton schoolyard last January, an extreme example of a growing trend of hate crimes, Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp said Friday.

Southern California's Vietnamese population grew sharply in the 1990s despite ebbing immigration, drawing newcomers from elsewhere in the state and nation into a powerful cluster that now exceeds 230,000, census information released today shows. That includes 135,548 in Orange County alone, where the Vietnamese American community surged almost 89% and won demographic bragging rights over rival centers in the San Jose area and Texas.

As did the multitudes of World War II veterans and baby boomers who transformed Southern California in decades past, a great influx of Asian and Latino immigrants is leading to epochal shifts in the region's housing market. New studies show that one in every five home buyers in Southern California is foreign-born. That ratio is expected to rise dramatically in the coming years as more immigrants establish themselves and enter prime home-buying age.

Tawa Supermarkets, whose flagship 99 Ranch Markets is a favorite of Asian consumers throughout Southern California, got its start because a Taiwanese immigrant named Roger Chen missed the flavors of home. Chen, who moved to Orange County with his family in 1983, found himself driving to Chinatown each weekend to buy Tong I cookies, his favorite brand of soy sauce and the green vegetable tong ho (a must for Chinese hot pot).

Legal immigration to the United States, fueled by a decade of changes in immigration law and dominated by Latin American and Asian arrivals, surged 27% in 1996, with 915,900 foreigners receiving visas to come to or remain in the country permanently.

They are both 28-year-old lawyers with the same last name. They came to this country as children and seem paragons of immigrant achievement, proof that the battered American dream still has plenty of life to it. They both have crammed debates and forums about Proposition 209 into their schedules. But there the similarity ends. Jerry Kang is doing everything he can to defeat the initiative, which would end state and local government-sponsored affirmative action aimed at women and minorities.

South Vietnamese army Col. Trinh Canh spent 10 years in Communist re-education camps after the U.S. withdrawal from his country. Now an elderly refugee living on welfare in Orange County, he fears another U.S. retreat, this one from the War on Poverty. Canh is among tens of thousands of Californians caught in an ironic twist brought about by the new welfare reform law: Some people brought to the country by the foreign policy of the past may be left behind in the domestic policy of the future.

Six years ago, Ot Bonsynat and his family were sitting in their Long Beach home when a bullet crashed through their living room window, killing his wife and 17-year-old daughter. Bonsynat, a churchgoing man who fled the Communists in Laos and Cambodia, raised his surviving five children alone, teaching them that God and education are important ingredients in life. That faith was tested again over the weekend as devastating tragedy revisited Bonsynat and his family.

The setting smacked of bureaucracy and the Establishment: To the right of the Monterey Park City Hall lobby sat the Police Department complaint desk. Scattered about the ground-floor lobby were offices of planners, building inspectors and other government enforcers.

Acknowledging that its amnesty program has not been a success among Asians, the Immigration and Naturalization Service on Tuesday promoted three Asian-Americans to help set up an outreach program to send agency vans into Asian business areas and translate information to recruit more applicants.

Farmers Insurance Group has conducted a statewide discrimination campaign against Southeast Asians, discouraging their business by deliberately boosting the prices it quotes them for auto insurance, according to lawsuits filed by consumers and two former Farmers agents. Farmers denies the charges.

Asian immigrants admitted to California in fiscal year 1991: Country of birth number Philippines 26,253 China 11,926 Korea 6,493 Taiwan 5,528 Hong Kong 4,416 Thailand 3,079 Japan 1,599 Source: U.S. Department of Justice Where Asians live in California: City County Total Asian Percentage Population Population Monterey Park Los Angeles 60,738 34,022 56.0 Cerritos Los Angeles 53,240 23,441 44.0 Daly City San Mateo 92,311 39,010 42.3 Hercules Contra Costa 16,829 7,011 41.