Asian Immigrants

SIGNIFICANCE: Almost an entire century after the first wave of Chinese immigrants to California laid a strong foundation of Asian immigration during the 1850s, Asian immigrants faced racist legal barriers seeking to exclude them from the United States. After these barriers were lowered during the 1940s and finally fell in 1965, Asian immigration flourished. By 2007, some 14.5 million people of full or partial Asian descent lived in the United States, accounting for almost five percent of the U.S. populationarly twenty-first century trends showing promise of continued growth.

Asian immigration to the United States began in earnest during the mid-nineteenth century when the California gold rush attracted thousands of Chinese miners. By that time, Asian workers were also beginning to immigrate to the kingdom of Hawaii, which the United States would annex as a territory in 1898 and later make into a state. Immigration to Hawaii thus contributed to U.S. immigration. The Indigenous peoples of Hawaii and other Pacific Islands that came under the control of the United States were not immigrant they are often counted among Asian Americans.

When the first 4,000 Chinese miners arrived in California between 1849 and 1850, they found significant legal obstacles to Asian immigrants already in place. As early as 1790, the U.S. Congress limited the right of immigrants to become naturalized U.S. citizens to free White people. The state of California tried to prevent further Chinese immigration by passing laws of its own in 1855 and 1858later ruled unconstitutional. The 1860 U.S. Census listed Asian residents for the first time. Almost all the 34,933 Asians in the country the census counted were Chinese living in California90 percent of them were male. At that time, they accounted for only 0.1 percent of the entire U.S. population.

Passage of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868 inadvertently aided Asian immigrants. The amendment explicitly granted citizenship to all persons born in the United States, which meant children born to Asians in the United States were automatically American citizens. During that same year, the United States and China signed the Burlingame Treaty. Tdocument affirmed the mutual right of emigration but granted only residencynot naturalization rightsto immigrants from each country. With the gold rush over, thousands of Chinese immigrants worked on the new transcontinental railroad that would link California to the East in 1869.

In 1869, the first Japanese immigrants arrived in California. Nevertheless, the 1870 U.S. Census showed the vast majority of 63,199 Asians in America were still Chinese49,277 of whom lived in Californiawith only 55 Japanese adding to the Asian total.

The federal Page Law of 1875 outlawed importing immigrants against their will, transporting them in slave-like conditions, or bringing them into the United States if they were convicts or prostitutes. Hostile White Californians unjustly believed many Chinese immigrants fell into these categories. The U.S. Census of 1880 counted 105,465 Chinese living in the United States, along with 145 Japanesealmost all in the West, particularly California.

In 1882, the U.S. Congress passed the infamous Chinese Exclusion Act. The act prohibited the further immigration of laborers from China for ten years, forbade Chinese laborers in America to bring in their wives from China, and affirmed Chinese ineligibility for naturalizationnly Chinese merchants and scholars were allowed to come to the U.S. The act severely halted growth of the Chinese population in America. Consequently, the 1890 U.S. Census revealed an increase of only 2,000 Chinese over the previous decade, a total of 107,472. There were also 2,039 Japanese U.S. residents. Facing hostility in California and the West, Chinese immigrants began to move to the Northeast, the Midwest, and the South.

While the Chinese Exclusion Act was renewed for another ten years, the 1890s saw a surge in Japanese immigration to America. To ensure a positive, family-based immigrant society, Japan encouraged the emigration of both men and women. In California, many Japanese took to labor-intensive farmingcultivating produce and flowers. The 1900 U.S. Census showed a total of 114,189 Asian residents and a tenfold increase of Japanese residents24,326, he Chinese population increased to 89,863 against considerable legal odds.

From 1907 to 1908, a series of “Gentlemen’s Agreements” between the governments of Japan and the United States established no more Japanese laborers would immigrate to America. Instead, Japan promoted the emigration of women to help form Japanese families in the United States. The 1910 U.S. Census showed 72,157 Japanese residents and 71,531 Chinese. For the first time, Japanese outnumbered Chinese in the United States. Indicative of the growing diversity of Asian immigrants, the census also showedfor the first time2,545 Hindus, who were mainly Asian Indians, as well as 462 Koreans and 160 Filipinos. Most of the latter were students who came after the Philippines became a U.S. colony in 1898.

The Immigration Act of 1917 established the Asiatic Barred Zone, a vast region of Asia from which no immigration to the United States was to be permitted. The zone included all of Asia with the exception of Japan, a World War I ally of the United States, and the Philippinesthen a U.S. dependency. Coinciding with a rise of racist attacks on Asian communities in the United States during the 1920s, the Immigration Act of 1924 barred entry to all Asians other than Filipinos. However, the right of Filipinos to immigrate was terminated by legal subterfuge in 1934. Despite these barriers, Asian immigrants were able to make their living in America their children treasured their U.S. citizenship. Ethnic Asian enclaves such as Chinatowns in major cities provided comfort to many Asians in face of white hostility.

World War II and After

After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the United States reacted harshly against Japanese Americans. Executive Order 9066signed by U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942directed federal authorities to relocate from their homes on the West Coast all persons of Japanese ancestry. This directive applied to aliens and U.S. citizens alike. Eventually, more than 110,000 ethnic Japanese were sent to relocation camps dispersed in remote regions of the Far West.

The internment order was the infamous high water mark of anti-Asian U.S. sentiment. The Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed in 1943, as the United States and China were wartime allies. Repeal of the discriminatory law carried much symbolic weight. By 1944, internees were starting to be released from the Japanese relocation centerswhich were finally closed in 1945. Meanwhile, Japanese American volunteer soldiers fought bravely in World War II.

After World War II ended in 1945, U.S. immigration policy shifted positively toward Asian immigration. In 1946, Filipinos and Asian Indians were given the right to become naturalized citizens. In 1947, Asian American soldiers were allowed to bring home their Asian spouses. After Mao Zedong’s Communist Party created the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the United States granted refugee status to 5,000 Chinese studying in America.

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 gave Asian immigrants the right to become U.S. citizens. The act set national quotas for immigration while establishing nonquota immigration rights for spouses and unmarried children of U.S. citizens. This provision greatly helped male Asian immigrantsparticularly Chinese and Filipinosbring in their wives after they obtained citizenship.

Indicative of the act’s positive effect on Asian immigration, the number of Asian Americans living in the continental United Stateswhich had risen from 254,918 in 1940 to 321,033 in 1950climbed to 565,443 in the 1960 U.S. Census. The census did not distinguish between citizens and alien residents, evertheless, its data offer a valuable tool to measure the success of Asian immigration. When Hawaii became a U.S. state in 1959, it added 315,000 Asian Americans to the U.S. population and more than 100,000 people of either full or partial Hawaiian descent. In Hawaii, Asian Americans immediately won political power, as Daniel Inouye and Hiram Fong became the first two Hawaiian representatives in the U.S. Congress. In 1962, Inouye became the first Asian American senatore served in that position until his death in 2012.

Benefits from Immigration Liberalization

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 eliminated national quotas and established race-blind immigration. Instead of quotas for individual nationsas beforeeach nation could send up to 20,000 immigrants per year to the United Statesincluding people with special skills. The Eastern Hemisphereincluding Asiawas allotted an annual total of 170,000 immigrants.

The 1970 U.S. Census showed 1,538,721 Asian Americansincluding 100,179 Hawaiians and Pacific Islanderslived in the United States. They accounted for 0.8 percent of the population. As only Japanese, Chinese, Filipinos, and Koreans were counted as “Asian Americans,” Asian minorities from other countriessuch as Indiafell into the census’ “Other” category. Consequently, the total Asian American population was undercounted.

After communist regimes took power in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos during the mid-1970s, the composition of Asian immigration to the United States altered significantly. To welcome new Southeast Asian refugees, Congress passed the Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act on May 23, 1975. The 1980 U.S. Census showed of the 3,500,439 Asian Americansincluding Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders261,729 were Vietnamese. Six years earlier, only 260 Vietnamese people were known to be in the United Statesmost of them students.

The 1980 census also revealed the number of Asian Indians had risen to 387,223. This made them the fourth-largest Asian American community in the United Statesafter Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino Americans. Each of the latter groups numbered about 700,000 to 800,000 people. In contrast to other Asian immigrants, most Indians arrived in the United States already speaking English, any of them were attracted by the booming American computer and electronics industries.

During the 1980s, Asian immigration to the United States doubled the population of Asian Americans, who numbered 7,273,662or 2.9 percent of the total U.S. population, in 1990. The Immigration Act of 1990 sought to diversify immigration to America. This worked against Asian countries with many potential immigrants, owever, family members were still given preference.

The 2000 U.S. Census recognized the increasing national diversity of Asian Americans. For the first time, it listed six different ethnic categories, as well as “Other Asian.” Also for the first time, people could be listed as members of more than one racial or ethnic category, reflecting the growing significance of interracial marriages. The census counted 11.9 million Asian Americans, including 1.7 million people with mixed Asian heritageor 4.2 percent of the U.S. population.

Asian immigration to the United States continued strongly during the early twenty-first century. In 2007, the American Community Survey (ACS) estimated that almost 13 million Asian Americans and 1 million “Asian/Caucasian” Americans were living in the United States, accounting for 4.7 percent of America’s total population. At the same time, Asian Americans gained much greater visibility in all aspects of U.S. society, including politics, economics, and popular culture. In 2009, Asian people surpassed Latino and Hispanic people as the largest plurality of immigrants to the United States, andaccording to the 2010 U.S. CensusAsian Americans were the fastest-growing population group, making up 5.6 percent of the population. By 2015, according to ACS data, there were almost 18 million Asian Americansthe largest ethnic groups were Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Vietnamese, and Korean, in order. The United States continued to attract Asian immigrants, leading to a strong growth of Asian American communitiesBy 2019, seven percent of the population was composed of Asian Americans.

According to the 2020 U.S. Census, 19.9 million individuals identified as Asian alone4.1 million reported Asian heritage and another race. These individuals made up the fastest growing ethnic group in the U.S.with an 88 percent increase between 2000 and 2019. The majority of these individuals were from China4.2 millionand India4.1 millionbut the Asian diaspora in the U.S. is diverse. More than 23 languages are spoken amongst the 20 groups of Asian individuals who exist in the U.S. Around 73 percent of Asian alone individuals were U.S. citizens, and 31 percent of the foreign-born U.S. population were born in Asia. The majority of Asian Americans lived in Hawaii, California, and New Jersey in 2021composing more than 10 percent of those state's populations. Asian Americans were less likely to live in poverty when compared to Americans overall, more likely to have a bachelor's degree or higher, and around 75 percent spoke English fluently. However, this population was less likely to own a home, and their economic well-being varied greatly between Asian groups.

In 2024 the United States was the final destination for approximately 20 percent of the world's migrants. An estimated 42 million of the population of the United States had been born in other countries. According to 2022 data, Mexico retained its historical top spot as the country of origin for 23 percent of immigrants in the US. The next top three countries, however, were Asian. hese included India with six percent, China with five percent, and the Philippines with four percent.

In the 2020s, Chinese immigration to the United States was notable. Chinese immigrants arrived at the U.S. southern border with Mexico in increasing numbers. In most cases, such individuals had completed long journeys for the opportunity to gain entry into the United States. This typically began with Chinese immigrants flying to Ecuadora country that allowed their entry without strict documentation controls. By the summer of 2024, this situation changed as Ecuador began demanding greater travel documentation in citing the large number of arrivals from China. From Ecuador, Chinese immigrants completed an overland trip to the United States on foot, almost 2,000 miles away. The trip included passage through the notorious Darien Gap a dangerous area rife with criminal gangs that preyed on migrants. 

These Chinese migrants differed from immigrants from other countries in a significant way as any were members of the Chinese middle class and had university degrees. A common sentiment was their frustration with China's heavy-handed approach to the Covid-19 pandemic. These migrants had also been stigmatized by American politicians who routinely categorized them as spies, drug runners, and other types of criminals.

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