Asian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. They or their ancestors came from Asian countries, particularly Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Laos, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. About 20 million people of Asian descent live in the United States. Asian Americans make up the country’s third largest minority group, after Hispanic Americans and African Americans.
The first Asian immigrants who arrived in large numbers in the United States came from southeastern China. They immigrated to Hawaii and California beginning in the 1840’s. In 1882, however, the U.S. government began placing restrictions on Asian immigration because of pressure from white Americans. Many white Americans feared job competition from the newcomers and resented their “foreign” customs. It was not until 1965 that all restrictions against Asian immigration were lifted. Today, their high rate of immigration makes Asian Americans one of the country’s fastest-growing minority groups.
Who Asian Americans are
According to the 2020 U.S. census, about 20 million people of Asian descent live in the United States. This represents about 6 percent of the country’s total population. Asia, the world’s largest continent, has 50 countries, so the Asian American population consists of many different ethnic and cultural groups. Chinese Americans form the largest Asian group and Asian Indians are the second largest group. The next largest groups are Americans of Filipino, Vietnamese, Korean, and Japanese ancestry.
The languages of the many Asian American groups include Chinese, Hindi, Japanese, Javanese, Korean, Tagalog, Thai, and Vietnamese. Asian Americans practice several major religions, including Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Shinto.
Asian American groups differ in physical appearance, language, and culture from one another as well as from other Americans. But Asian Americans have many of the same values most other Americans cherish. For example, most Asian Americans strongly believe in the importance of family. They believe that family members should work together for everyone’s benefit and that relatives should protect and take care of one another.
Success through hard work and self-discipline is another value emphasized in most Asian American families. Children are encouraged to work hard in and out of school to be worthy of the sacrifices their parents make for them. Self-control is also an important value. Children are taught that mature people do not show their feelings too readily.
Where Asian Americans live
Many Asian Americans live in the western United States. According to the 2020 census, only about one-fourth of the total U.S. population lives in the West, but nearly half of the Asian American population make their homes there. About one-third of Asian Americans live in California.
More than 95 percent of Asian Americans live in urban areas. About half of them have homes in cities, and about half live in suburbs. Many of the larger cities have neighborhoods known by such names as Chinatown, Koreatown, Little Manila, Little Saigon, or Little Tokyo. These neighborhoods feature many ethnic restaurants and other businesses.
Asian influences on American culture
Although Asians have been in the New World since the 1500’s, large numbers of Asians first came to the United States in the 1840’s. Since then, they have influenced many areas of American culture. T’ai chi ch’uan is a form of exercise that the Chinese have practiced for centuries. It has become especially popular among older Americans of many ethnicities. Its slow, gentle movements provide good exercise for aging bodies. Taekwondo is a traditional Korean martial art (style of fighting). Korean immigrants popularized it, and many of them now teach it to American youth. Judo is a traditional Japanese form of wrestling. Many U.S. colleges offer it in physical education programs. Both judo and taekwondo are Olympic sports.
Many Asian foods have become a regular part of American meals. Americans of all races are familiar with many Chinese foods, such as dumplings and kung pao chicken, spicy deep-fried chicken cubes with nuts. Dim sum, a variety of dumplings and other bite-size morsels, is another popular Chinese dish. A favorite for some Americans is sushi, a Japanese dish of vinegar-flavored rice and raw fish or vegetables. Many U.S. restaurants and groceries offer sushi. Restaurants that serve spicy Thai or Indian food are also popular. Some U.S. grocery stores carry naan, an Indian flat bread. Many supermarkets carry tofu, soybean curd that can be sautéd, braised, or grilled. Tofu originated in China more than 1,000 years ago. Many Americans enjoy the Korean dish kimchi (also spelled gimchi), a highly seasoned mix of pickled cabbage, radishes, and other vegetables. Korean beef barbecue is also popular with many Americans. Many U.S. groceries sell soy milk, a traditional drink in many Asian countries, as an alternative to cow’s milk.
Acupuncture is a traditional Chinese method of relieving pain and treating disease by inserting needles in the body. It has become accepted by the American medical profession as a way to treat certain ailments. Yoga is a traditional South Asian spiritual practice of meditation and exercise. It has become a popular form of exercise for Americans from all walks of life.
History of Asian immigration
In 1763, a small group of Filipinos settled in what is now Louisiana. But the first wave of Asian immigration to the United States did not begin until the mid-1800’s, more than 200 years after the first wave of European immigration.
One major reason that Asians did not leave their homelands was that their societies were relatively stable. Asia did not experience the revolutions that brought political, economic, and social changes to Europe. The people had little reason to leave in search of a better life. But by the mid-1800’s, the traditional Asian systems began to prove ineffective in the face of increasing social problems.
The first major social crises erupted in China. The government began to weaken under repeated foreign invasions, domestic revolts, and problems caused by overpopulation. The rulers could no longer control people who wanted to leave the country.
The first wave of Asian immigration.
The news in 1848 that gold had been discovered on John Sutter’s California property attracted many people to the state. In 1849, about 700 Chinese arrived hoping to find work mining gold. They were poor peasants from southeastern China. Most of them could not even pay their fare to the United States. They got loans from merchants in their own country and made promises to pay off their debts after they found work in America.
By the end of 1850, there were 4,000 Chinese in California. By 1860, the United States had a Chinese population of about 35,000, most of whom lived in California. By then, Chinese laborers were well known to industrialists and plantation owners in both North and South America. Sugar plantation owners in Hawaii recruited Chinese laborers, and railroads sent labor recruiters to China. Chinese laborers were the primary work force for the western half of the Transcontinental Railroad, which connects California and other settlements and territories in the West with the eastern United States.
California civic leaders and industrialists greeted the first arrivals of Chinese laborers with enthusiasm. But soon, white workers came to believe that Chinese workers were rivals for jobs. The U.S. Democratic Party and labor unions campaigned against Chinese immigration. The general American public became fearful that Chinese would overrun the United States. In numerous instances, mobs attacked and killed Chinese immigrants. In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which prohibited all Chinese laborers from immigrating to the United States. The act permitted only merchants, teachers, and certain other groups from China to come to the United States.
The act was the first of numerous restrictions the U.S. government placed on Asian immigration. The restrictions resulted in part because many white American workers feared job competition from Asian immigrants, many of whom were forced to work for low wages. In addition, some Americans argued that Asians could not be assimilated (incorporated) into American society because of their physical and cultural differences.
The second wave.
Hawaii did not become a state until 1959. But by the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, it was the destination for several Asian immigrant groups. The first group were Chinese workers. Between 1852 and 1900, some 50,000 came to work on sugar plantations. The second group consisted of Japanese workers. Like the Chinese, they were recruited by an association of owners of Hawaiian sugar plantations. Between 1885 and 1894, the association recruited almost 29,000 Japanese as contract laborers, workers imported under an agreement to work for a particular employer.
After the Japanese fulfilled their contracts, most of them settled in Hawaii or in the Pacific Coast States of California, Oregon, and Washington. They worked first as farm hands and later grew vegetables on land they purchased or rented.
In the early 1900’s, the Japanese population in the Pacific Coast States began to face the same opposition that had arisen against Chinese workers. In 1905, an organization that later became the Asiatic Exclusion League was established in California to work toward halting the immigration of Japanese people and other Asians. In 1908, the United States and Japan reached an understanding that became known as the gentlemen’s agreement. The agreement restricted new Japanese immigration to the relatives of immigrants who had already settled in the United States. The gentlemen’s agreement was not a law, and it was never put into writing. Japan cooperated voluntarily to avoid the fate of China, which was specifically excluded from immigration into the United States.
Arrivals of the early 1900’s.
The Hawaiian plantation owners began looking for other sources of labor in the early 1900’s. Their Japanese workers had organized labor unions and frequently went on strike, demanding higher wages and better living conditions. The plantation owners turned to Korea, where the people had recently suffered through war and famine. During the early 1900’s, the Hawaiians recruited more than 7,000 Korean laborers. But Korean immigration halted in 1905. Japanese workers had complained to their government that Korean workers were being used as strikebreakers. Japan, then in the process of taking control of Korea, put pressure on the Korean government to stop immigration to Hawaii. Most Koreans in Hawaii remained there. A small group migrated to the U.S. Pacific Coast.
In 1906, the plantation owners began bringing in workers from the Philippines. By 1931, about 110,000 Filipino laborers had arrived. During the early 1900’s, a small number of Filipinos went to Alaska for seasonal work in the fishing industry. Others found agricultural work in such states as California and Oregon.
Groups of immigrants from India began arriving in the United States in the early 1900’s. Most of the immigrants were young men from farm households in search of job opportunities. They arrived by ship in British Columbia, Canada, and then many made their way south into the United States. Most of them found work in lumber mills in Washington state or on farms in central California. Like other Asians before them, they faced opposition from local citizens. In 1907, a mob in Bellingham, Washington, rioted against Asian Indian sawmill workers. The mob attacked the homes of the Asians and drove the immigrants out of town. Most of the immigrants fled to Canada.
Asian immigration halted.
In 1917, Congress passed one of the country’s most restrictive immigration laws. The law prohibited immigrants from an area known as the Asiatic Barred Zone from coming to the United States. This area included most of Asia and a majority of islands in the Pacific Ocean.
The Immigration Act of 1924 excluded any Asians who had not been barred by the 1917 law. The legislation closed the doors of the country to Asians—with one exception. People from the Philippines were allowed entry. At that time, the Philippines was a U.S. colony, so Filipinos could freely enter the country. However, the Tydings-McDuffie Act of 1934 limited immigration from the Philippines to an annual quota of 50.
World War II and Japanese Americans.
Japan’s attack on the U.S. military base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Dec. 7, 1941, brought the United States into World War II (1939-1945). The attack also stirred hostility against Japanese Americans. Many people associated Japanese Americans with the enemy who had destroyed U.S. Navy ships.
In February 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. It authorized designation of military areas from which “any or all persons may be excluded.” This act permitted the government to bypass the constitutional safeguards of immigrants and American citizens for the reason of “military necessity.” With as little as one week’s warning, the Army removed all people of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast and southern Arizona, and confined them in detention camps. Two-thirds of the people held in the camps were U.S. citizens. Detainees lost not only their freedom but also their homes and jobs. The authorities branded them as “disloyal” and barred them from serving in the military.
Over 110,000 Japanese Americans were confined. The Army sent them to 10 main camps in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming, as well as to other detention facilities. Many of the camps stood in deserts or swamps. Barbed wire fences surrounded the camps, and armed guards kept watch. Each family lived in a single room in Army-style barracks. In 1944, the Supreme Court of the United States accepted the government’s claim of “military necessity” and upheld the mass confinement. Then the court ruled that loyal citizens could not be detained. The government used a questionnaire and background checks to determine who was loyal. It released the Japanese Americans it considered loyal to live in cities far from the Pacific Coast. The government also began to draft Japanese American men into the military.
Thousands of Japanese Americans served in the U.S. armed forces during World War II. Most were in the Army’s 442nd Regimental Combat Unit. The unit fought bravely in Europe and suffered many casualties. Its combat record improved public opinion about the loyalty of Japanese Americans.
In 1980, Representative Norman Y. Mineta of California and Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii sponsored a bill that established the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians. The commission examined the circumstances surrounding Executive Order 9066 and its impact on those affected. The commission’s two-year study concluded that Japanese Americans were innocent victims. The true reasons for the mass detention, it said, were racism, war hysteria, and failed leadership. The commission recommended that the president offer a national apology to Japanese Americans. It also called for a compensatory payment of $20,000 to surviving Japanese Americans who had been in the camps. These and other commission recommendations became law under the Civil Liberties Act of 1988.
Restrictions lifted.
Although World War II brought suffering to many Japanese Americans, it also brought about the first easing of U.S. restrictions on Asian immigration. Because China was fighting as an ally of the United States, many people felt that Chinese immigrants should no longer be barred from the country. In 1943, the government lifted the ban on Chinese immigration and also allowed Chinese immigrants to become citizens. This was the first time that foreign-born Asians were granted the right to U.S. citizenship. In 1946, the government extended similar rights to Filipino and Asian Indian immigrants.
In 1952, Congress passed the Immigration and Nationality Act, also called the McCarran-Walter Act. This law essentially retained the Asiatic Barred Zone provision, but it did allow very limited immigration from the countries within the zone. It extended to all Asian immigrants the right to become U.S. citizens.
The Immigration Act of 1965 eliminated the Asiatic Barred Zone and set immigration quotas per nation. After 1965, large numbers of Asians started moving to the United States, particularly from China, South Korea, and the Philippines.
Arrivals of the late 1900’s.
Millions of Southeast Asians have come to the United States since the mid-1970’s. Most of them fled their homelands as a result of the Vietnam War (1957-1975). The first wave to arrive were Vietnamese political refugees who had worked for the U.S. government or U.S. companies. For the most part, they were educated, skilled workers. Most of the second wave were rural people from Cambodia and Laos, who had less education and fewer job skills.
About three-fourths of the Southeast Asian immigrants settled in 10 states: California, Florida, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. The initial response in most communities where the refugees settled was sympathetic. But in some cases, conflicts arose with local residents when the newcomers began to move into the labor force. Many Vietnamese refugees, for example, found jobs in the shrimp fishing industry in Mississippi, Texas, and other Gulf Coast States. Local fishing crews accused the Southeast Asians of setting too many traps, fishing in areas claimed by American crews, and other offenses. Fighting often broke out, and vandals on both sides damaged their rivals’ boats and fishing nets.
Asian Americans today
Between 2010 and 2020, the number of Asian Americans increased by about 35 percent. Asian Americans were the fastest growing minority group in the United States during that time. In spite of their growth, however, Asian Americans still make up only about 6 percent of the U.S. population. Many Asian Americans live in the western United States.
Like other minorities, Asians face problems of acceptance in American society. Also like other minorities, Asians struggle against inaccurate images that many people have of them. On the one hand, for example, many books and motion pictures have portrayed Asians as either sinister villains or meek servants. On the other hand, sociologists have referred to Asians as the “model minority.” The label implies that all Asians have achieved success through discipline and hard work, and thus other minorities should imitate them. However, although many Asian Americans succeed, many others do not.
Education levels of Asian Americans vary widely, for example. A higher percentage of Asian Americans receive doctorates every year than either Black or Hispanic Americans. Yet many recent Southeast Asian immigrants have little or no formal education and few job skills. Lack of English language skills is a major problem facing many recent Asian immigrants, for whom jobs are hard to find.
Income levels also differ greatly. The median household income among Asian Americans is higher than that for the U.S. population as a whole. However, a higher percentage of Asian people than white people live in poverty. Also, Asian American household income often includes the wages of several people. Many Asian Americans operate small businesses, primarily restaurants, grocery stores, and dry cleaners. Often, the whole family is involved in the business, and some members may work 12 to 14 hours a day.
