LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - According to the most recent status data, about 430,000 Asians, or 36 percent of all new immigrants, arrived in the U.S. in 2010. That's compared to about 370,000, or 31 percent, who were Hispanic.

The Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan research center, has reported on "the rise of Asian-Americans." The center has found that Asian workers imported from abroad are making for a highly diverse and fast-growing group, making up nearly six percent of the U.S. population.

The recent crop of new Asian-Americans tends to be foreign-born and naturalized citizens. Increases in visas granted to specialized workers and to wealthy investors are largely the reasons behind the increase, as the U.S. economy becomes less dependant on manufacturing and more by technology.

The tipping point for Asian immigrants, according to the Pew Research Center likely occurred during 2009 as illegal immigrants crossing the border from Mexico declined due to increased immigration enforcement coupled with a dwindling supply of low-wage work in the weak U.S. economy.

People arriving to the U.S. from India, China and South Korea coincides with changes in U.S. immigration policy dating to the 1990s that began to favor wealthy and educated workers.

International students studying at U.S. colleges and universities also are now most likely to come from Asian countries, roughly 6 in 10, and some of them are able to live and work in the U.S. after graduation.

More than 60 percent of Asian immigrants ages 25 to 64 in the past few years have also graduated from college, double the share for new arrivals from other continents.

As a whole, the share of higher-skilled immigrants in the U.S. holding at least a bachelor's degree now outpaces those lacking a high-school diploma, 30 percent to 28 percent.

"Too often the policy debates on immigration fixate on just one part - illegal immigration," Karthick Ramakrishnan, a political science professor at the University of California-Riverside says. "U.S. immigration is more diverse and broader than that, with policy that needs to focus also on high-skilled workers.

"With net migration from Mexico now at zero, the role of Asian-Americans has become more important," he said.

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