Does an employer's favorable treatment of "Asian employees" in hiring new employees answer to a claim of discrimination based on national origin?

As an initial matter, the record does not reveal the national origin of these new hires. An employer's favorable treatment of "Asian" employees does not answer a claim of discrimination based on national origin. See Lam v. University of Hawai'i, 40 F.3d 1551, 1561 n.16 (9th Cir. 1994) ("[I]t is significant that Lam and the Asian male candidate were of different national origins -Lam being Vietnamese-French, the male candidate, Chinese. Lam alleged not only race discrimination but also national origin discrimination, thereby raising this distinction as relevant under Title VII.").