A recent report said the Dallas-Fort Worth area will lead the nation in Asian American population growth from 2022 to 2023, with Collin County driving that growth.
Those who work closely with the region’s Asian American and Pacific Islander communities welcome the growth but say there is still much work to be done to address the needs of the growing population, including language access and political participation.
The report is the first of a three-part series that the Austin-based nonprofit Asian Texans for Justice will release before the election, said Lily Trew, executive director of the group.
“When you look at think tanks, research institutes and universities across Texas, there are very few institutions doing meaningful research on the state of the Asian American community today,” Trieu said.
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According to the report, Texas will lead the nation in Asian population growth, adding 91,000 people between 2022 and 2023. About 44,000 of the increase will be in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and about 20,000, or 22%, will be in Collin County.
The report found that Asian Indians are the largest group of Asian Americans in Dallas-Fort Worth, making up about 35% of the total Asian residents, followed by Vietnamese residents at just over 15%.
Chanda Parbhu said she wasn’t surprised by the findings, which she first noticed in 2018. Her organization, the SAAVETX Educational Foundation, is a nonpartisan nonprofit that promotes voting in South Asian communities.
Following Fort Bend County near Houston, she has witnessed a steady increase in South Asian American voters in Collin County over the past five years.
“Some of that growth has been a little bit largest in Collin County and now it’s starting to trickle down into Denton County,” she added.
When Parbhu moved to North Texas in the 1980s, many of his community members settled in Garland and Richardson, and now he sees Collin County cities like Murphy and Allen as among his target areas to attract voters.
She said she has sensed excitement within her community surrounding former and current presidential candidates of South Asian descent, including Vice President Kamala Harris and Nikki Haley.
Parbhu is also meeting people who have recently become citizens and are planning to vote for the first time in the 2024 presidential elections.
“We have several people who say they are really worried about the stigmatization of immigrants and want to secure their status as U.S. citizens so they won’t be deported,” she said.
Parbhu said neither party has done enough to reach out to South Asian voters in Texas.
“The work that we’re doing is bridging the gap of anyone reaching out to our community and making sure that everyone understands the importance of this upcoming election,” she added.
Sushma Malhotra, president of the Indian Association of North Texas, said the association has seen a surge in attendance at events and services it hosts since the COVID-19 pandemic, including its annual Anand Bazaar event, which often draws more than 15,000 people. IANT was founded in 1962.
In response to the growing number of local and small Indian organizations popping up in the D-FW region, she said, IANT has begun hosting a new event to bring the groups together in 2022. The annual event will give representatives of these groups a chance to introduce themselves to one another.
Malhotra said North Texans have also seen increased demand in recent years for services provided by the Indian Consulate General, which is based in Houston. Just under 43 percent of Indian residents in the Dallas-Fort Worth area are U.S. citizens, about 14 percentage points lower than the overall number of people in the area who identify as Asian American and Pacific Islander, according to a survey by Asian Texans for Justice.
She said the consulate sometimes hosts “consular camps” for residents who need help with paperwork such as passport renewals or emergency visa applications.
Registration for these events can fill up within “10 to 15 minutes,” Malhotra said.
In a statement to the Dallas Morning News, Indian Consul General DC Manjunath said he and other officials make frequent visits to the “DFW region,” including attending cultural events presented by groups like IANT.
“While there are no plans as of now to set up a standalone office in the DFW region, options are currently being explored to set up collection counters for official outsourcing agency VFS to accept applications for the region at a central location,” he said.
Multiple city officials in Dallas and the surrounding area told the News they were aware of the increase and had adjusted services and programs accordingly.
“About 30 years ago,” Dallas offered naturalization ceremonies to residents who became citizens, according to Christina da Silva, deputy director of the city’s Office of Equity and Inclusion. The city resumed the ceremonies in 2022 to accommodate the growing number of residents seeking U.S. citizenship.
“We know our community is growing,” da Silva said. “The immigrant community in general is growing, but the Asian American community in particular is growing.”
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According to a joint report released this spring by the American Immigration Council and the city of Dallas, 23.2% of Dallas residents were immigrants in 2022. Of those, about 10% of residents identify as Asian or Pacific Islander.
Jeff Timbs, library programs director for the City of Allen, said he has seen the city’s Asian community grow over the past 12 to 14 years, describing the growth as a “ripple effect” that has begun to further impact library services.
“We started looking at some of the demographic data that the Allen Independent School District had and discovered that the district was reporting over 60 different languages being spoken in students’ homes,” Timms said.
Tims said the library has increased its offerings of books in languages other than English and Spanish, as well as Hindi, Chinese and Korean, to serve the area’s growing Asian population, and has also increased the number of events it hosts showcasing different Asian cultures.
Economic factors may play a role in Asian American growth in the area, said Michael Tiu, president of the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the National Association of Asian American Professionals, which aims to provide resources and empower Asian American professionals, according to its website.
He said large companies such as Toyota and JPMorgan Chase have expanded or opened headquarters or offices in the area, bringing new jobs to the area.
As a result, Tieu said, attendance at the group’s events has increased — for example, the group’s attendance has increased “150 to 250 percent” over the past few years.
Tieu added that as the number of chapter members has grown, the expenses for the organization’s networking socials and professional development workshops have increased.
Abi Dube, president of the Dallas South Asian Bar Association, said he moved to Southlake three years ago. Dube is a partner at the law firm Baker McKenzie.
Dube said the group’s membership has grown by about 33 percent since moving to North Texas, and she feels a “strong desire to get more involved.” Recently, the group held a gala to benefit CHETNA DFW, a nonprofit that supports South Asian victims of domestic violence.
“We have a lot of members in Richardson. We have a lot of members in Frisco, and they’re always saying, ‘Hey, can we do more events here?’
The growth of Asian Americans in the D-FW region has also strengthened Asian-owned businesses.
The first India Bazaar store was founded in Plano by the Pabari family in 2004. Since then, it has expanded into a chain with at least 10 locations in the D-FW area. The Pabari family opened a new store in Carrollton last year, and the growth shows no signs of stopping, co-founder and president Anand Pabari told The News.
India Bazaar plans to open six to eight more stores over the next three years, due in part to increased demand from North Texas’ growing South Asian community, he said.
Pabari said there has been a “360-degree change” since his family moved to the area in 1998. He said business remains strong despite growing competition from other large Indian grocery chains such as Patel Brothers.
“I believe everyone is growing,” Pavli said, “It’s healthy competition. At the same time, if you’re doing the right things, there’s growth.”
Mo Liang, 36, moved to North Texas in May 2023 to expand his business, Siu Long Kang Hot Pot, opening his first location in Richardson’s Chinatown earlier this month and plans to open a second location in Carrollton by the end of the year.
Liang said North Texas’ growing economy and Asian American population were factors in his decision to open a franchise in Richardson.
Having lived in big cities all his life, Liang said he moved his family to Allen because he wanted a more suburban lifestyle.
“I’m not yearning for or obsessed with city life. My priorities right now are commute times, sleep times and having the best school zone for my kids,” he said.
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The median household income of Texans who identify as Asian is higher than the median household income of Texans who identify as white, black, Hispanic or Latino, according to part of the report from Asian Texans for Justice.
Not everyone in the Asian American and Pacific Islander American community is thriving, said Trieu, of the Asian Texans for Justice.
“In these tough times when people are tightening their purse strings, it’s important to recognize that these public benefit programs also impact our communities and state lawmakers are proposing and changing those benefits,” she said. “We want to dispel the minority myth. We really want to counter this rhetoric that Asian Americans don’t really need assistance from local and state government.”
John Jun, running as a Republican for the Texas House of Representatives’ 115th District, said he has witnessed an increase in civic engagement among the Asian American community in Coppell, where he served on the city council for five years.
Jun said he doesn’t believe the Asian American population is tied to a particular political party. Jun, who helped found the DFW Korean American Association, said he worked with people from both parties during his time with the civic engagement group.
“This time, I ran as a Republican candidate, but I always thought I represented everyone in my district,” he said.
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Tammy Meinershagen, the first woman of Korean descent elected to the Frisco City Council, said her campaign was not centered on her identity as an Asian American.
She said her appreciation for representation has grown since she was elected.
“All of a sudden, I was hearing from different Asian organizations saying, ‘Thank you so much for running,'” she recalled. “And it wasn’t just Frisco. I was suddenly overwhelmed and I thought, ‘This really means a lot to us, that we feel represented.'”
She said she would like to see more people from the Asian American and Pacific Islander American community run for office.
“I think the first step for Asian Americans is to raise your hand, get involved, have a seat at the table and make space for yourself,” she said.
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