Chinese Immigration in 1800s
The first major immigration of people from Asia to the United States involved the Chinese. From the time of the California gold rush of 1849 until the early 1880s, it is estimated that as many as 250,000 Chinese immigrated to the United States, with the vast majority coming from the Pearl River delta of Guangdong Province. Many hoped to strike it rich in California, the "Golden Mountain," and then return home. A few fulfilled that dream, but most stayed in the United States, two-thirds in California, where they faced intense discrimination. They became the object of political posturing that portrayed "cheap Chinese labor" as a threat to American workers.
After the Civil War (1861–65), at the same time most African-Americans were able to gain citizenship with the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, an exception was carved out for Asian immigrants. They were designated "aliens ineligible to citizenship." The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 (22 Stat. 58) then stopped the entry of Chinese into the country, except for a few merchants and students. As a result, China became the source of the United States's first illegal aliens. Besides jumping ship or illegally crossing borders, many took advantage of the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco, which destroyed the city's vital statistics records, to gain legal status by forging U.S. birth certificates. By law, any male of Chinese heritage born in the United States had the right to return to China for any children he fathered (although he could not bring back the alien mother). As a result, many of these fraudulent U.S. citizens escorted to the United States a host of "paper sons." Despite this traffic and other means of illegal entry, the Chinese American population actually declined from the 1880s to the 1920s. Laws regulating Chinese immigration to the United States did not change until World War II, when China became an ally and President Franklin D. Roosevelt persuaded Congress to repeal the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1943.
Other nationalities that comprise the Asian-American category also immigrated to the United States before World War II. The Japanese first came to the United States in significant numbers during the 1890s, although many laborers had previously settled in Hawaii. Like the Chinese, the Japanese mostly lived in the western United States. There was some call for a "Japanese Exclusion Act," but because Japan was an emerging Pacific power, such legislation was never passed. Overall, Japanese immigrants fared better than their Chinese counterparts and soon outpaced them in population. However, when Japan and the United States went to war in 1941, approximately 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent, including many who were native-born U.S. citizens, were removed from their homes and confined in detention camps. It is noteworthy that although the United States was also at war with Germany and Italy, citizens of German and Italian descent or birth were not subject to incarceration because of their heritage.
Before World War II, Filipinos, Asian Indians, and Koreans represented a negligible share of the Asian-American population. In Historical Census Statistics on Population Totals by Race, 1790 to 1990, and by Hispanic Origin, 1970 to 1990, for the United States, Regions, Division, and States (September 2002, http://www.census.gov/population/documentation/twps0056/twps0056.pdf), Campbell Gibson and Kay Jung state that in 1940 there were 254,918 Asian-Americans living in the United States; 126,947 were Japanese, 77,504 were Chinese, and 45,563 were Filipino. Asian Indians totaled some 2,405, and Koreans numbered even fewer. As was the case with Puerto Ricans, Filipinos began to immigrate to the United States in the years following the Spanish—American War, when their country was annexed and eventually granted commonwealth status. Designated "American nationals," Filipinos held a unique position: They were not eligible for citizenship, but they also could not be prevented from entering the United States. Many Filipinos immigrated during the 1920s looking for work, but the Great Depression of the 1930s stemmed this flow. Asian Indians had come to the United States in small numbers, generally settling in New York City and other eastern ports, but it was not until the early years of the twentieth century that they began immigrating to the West Coast, generally entering through western Canada. Koreans came to the United States from Hawaii, where several thousand had immigrated between 1903 and 1905. Both Asian Indians and Koreans, however, would lose their eligibility to enter the United States following the Immigration Act of 1917 (39 Stat. 874), accounting for their small populations before World War II. Once the Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed, however, the door was also open for Filipinos and Asian Indians to gain entry to the United States as well as to earn citizenship during the postwar years. The Korean War (1950–53) led to a long-term U.S. military presence in Korea, resulting in a number of Korean-born wives of military personnel relocating to the United States. In addition, many Korean-born children were adopted and brought to the United States. A larger influx of Koreans, a family immigration, took place in the mid-1960s.
Sharp Rise in Immigration
Asian and Pacific Islander immigration during the 1980s can be divided into two "streams." The first stream came from Asian countries that already had large populations in the United States (such as the People's Republic of China, Korea, and the Philippines). These immigrants, many of whom were highly educated, came primarily for family reunification and through employment provisions of the immigration laws. The second stream consisted primarily of immigrants and refugees from the war-torn countries of Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia). They were admitted under U.S. policies that supported political refugees after the Vietnam War (1965–73), as well as those escaping unstable economic and political conditions in neighboring countries. Between 1975 and 1994 more than 1.2 million refugees arrived in the United States from Southeast Asia and China.
According to the 2000 census, China was the top Asian country of origin for Asian-Americans, with 2.3 million residents tracing their roots to China. The Philippines was next with 1.9 million, and India rounded out the top three with 1.7 million reported residents. Approximately 1.1 million Asian-Americans had ancestral origins in Korea, and about the same number had origins in Vietnam. (See Table 1.3.) Among Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, Native Hawaiians had the highest population, at 140,652. (See Table 1.4.)
Geographic Distribution
Asians and Pacific Islanders are much more likely than non-Hispanic whites to live in the West (51.1% and 19.2%, respectively). While more than half of Asian-Americans living in the United States live in the West, another 18.9% live in the South, 18.6% live in the Northeast, and only 11.5% live in the Midwest. (See Figure 1.6.)
In The Asian and Pacific Islander Population in the United States: March 2002 (May 2003, http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/p20-540.pdf), Terrance Reeves and Claudette Bennett report that 95% of Asians and Pacific Islanders live in metropolitan areas, while only 78% of non-Hispanic whites live in metropolitan areas. Jessica S. Barnes and Claudette E. Bennett in The Asian Population: 2000 (February 2002, http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/c2kbr01-16.pdf) and Elizabeth M. Grieco in The Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander Population: 2000 (December 2001, http://www.census.gov/prod/2001pubs/c2kbr01-14.pdf) state that New York, Los Angeles, and San Jose, California, were the three cities with the largest populations of Asian-Americans, while Honolulu, Los Angeles, and San Diego, California, were the three cities with the largest Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander populations.
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