For the first time, the number of Asians moving to the United States has surpassed that of Hispanics, reflecting a slowdown in illegal immigration while American employers increase their demand for high-skilled workers.
 
An expansive study by the Pew Research Center details what it describes as "the rise of Asian-Americans," a highly diverse and fast-growing group making up roughly 5 percent of the US population. Mostly foreign-born and naturalized citizens, their numbers have been boosted by increases in visas granted to specialized workers and to wealthy investors as the US economy becomes driven less by manufacturing and more by technology.
 
"Too often the policy debates on immigration fixate on just one part -- illegal immigration," said Karthick Ramakrishnan, a political science professor at the University of California-Riverside and a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. "US 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.
 
About 430,000 Asians, or 36 percent of all new immigrants, arrived in the US in 2010, according to the latest census data. That's compared to about 370,000 who were Hispanic.
 
The Pew analysis, released yesterday, said the tipping point for Asian immigrants likely occurred during 2009 as illegal immigrants crossing the border from Mexico sharply declined due to increased immigration enforcement and a dwindling supply of low-wage work in the weak US economy. Many Mexicans in the US have also been heading back to their country, putting recent net migration at a standstill.
 
As recently as 2007, about 390,000 of new immigrants to the US were Asian, compared to 540,000 who were Hispanic.
 
The shift to increased Asian immigration, particularly of people from India, China and South Korea, coincides with changes in US immigration policy dating to the 1990s that began to favor wealthy and educated workers. The policy, still in place but subject to caps that have created waiting lists, fast-tracks visas for foreigners willing to invest at least half a million dollars in US businesses or for workers in high-tech and other specialized fields who have at least a bachelor's degree.
 
International students studying at US colleges and universities also are now most likely to come from Asian countries, roughly six in 10. Some are able to live and work in the US after graduation. Asian students, both foreign born and US born, earned 45 percent of all engineering PhDs in 2010, as well as 38 percent of doctorates in math and computer sciences and 33 percent of doctorates in the physical sciences.
 
Several bills pending in Congress seek to address some of the visa backlogs, through measures such as eliminating per-country limits on employment-based visas or encouraging investment in the real estate market.