From across the Pacific
The U.S. Asian population is diverse. A record 22 million Asian Americans trace their roots to more than 20 countries in East and Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent, each with unique histories, cultures, languages and other characteristics.
Why is Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Month in May?
In 1977, the U.S. Congress chose the first 10 days of May to commemorate the history and contributions of Asian American communities here in the U.S. The week’s observance became a month, the very month in which the first Japanese immigrants came to the U.S. in 1843. Another event in May is the completion of the transcontinental railroad (May 10, 1869) and the majority of workers who laid those railroad tracks were Chinese immigrants.
There are 20.6 million people who identify as Asian, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander alone (not in combination with another race), making up 6.2% of the nation’s population, according to the 2020 census.
Metropolitan area | Population from Asia | Percent of metro area
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim | 1,695,000 | 12.8%
New York-Newark | 1,680,000 | 8.7%
San Francisco-Oakland-Berkley | 824,000 | 17.5%
Washington-Arlington | 510,000 | 8.2%
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara | 506,000 | 25.4%
Chicago | 497,000 | 5.2%
Houston | 415,000 | 6%
Dallas-Fort Worth | 389,000 | 5.3%
Seattle-Tacoma | 383,000 | 9.9%
San Diego | 299,000 | 9%
In 2019, approximately 42% of immigrants from Asia (ages 5 and over) reported limited English proficiency, compared to 46% of all immigrants. Those from Eastern Asia were the most likely to be Limited English Proficient (LEP), at 53%, followed by immigrants from South Eastern Asia (45%), Western Asia (37%) and South Central Asia (29%).
The U.S. Census Bureau defines Asian regions as:
Eastern Asia includes China, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea and Taiwan.
South Central Asia includes Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
South Eastern Asia includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar (Burma), the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste (East Timor) and Vietnam.
Western Asia includes Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cyprus, Georgia, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
The term “Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander” refers to people having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa or other Pacific Islands. Pacific Islanders include diverse populations that differ in language and culture. They are of Polynesian, Micronesian and Melanesian cultural backgrounds.
Immigrant population by region of birth
Migration from Asia to the United States has risen sharply since the mid-1960s, following the end of exclusionary immigration laws enacted in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that severely limited arrivals from countries across the Asian continent.
Of the migrants from Asia worldwide in 2020, 60% resided in other Asian countries. About 20% resided in Europe and another 15% in Northern America, according estimates from the United Nations Population Division.
Income and Poverty
Immigrants from Asia have significantly higher incomes than the total foreign- and U.S.-born populations. In 2019, the median income of households headed by an immigrant from Asia was $88,000, compared to $64,000 and $66,000 for overall immigrant and U.S.-born households, respectively. Households headed by immigrants from India ($132,000), Taiwan ($104,000), Malaysia and the Philippines ($99,000 each) and Israel ($93,000) had the highest median income among all immigrant groups from Asia, while Saudi ($37,000), Iraqi ($44,000) and Afghani ($47,000) households had the lowest median incomes.
Population projection
Asian Americans are projected to be the nation’s largest immigrant group by the middle of the century. Single-race, non-Hispanic Asians are projected to become the largest immigrant group in the country, surpassing Hispanics in 2055.
7.2 million
The number of the Asian alone population 25 years and older who had a bachelor’s degree or higher level of education.
581,200
The estimated number of Asian-owned employer firms in the United States in 2019, which is about 1 out of 10.
1.6 million
The estimated number of people who identified as Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone or in combination in the United States in 2020.
7,331
The Census Bureau estimated number of NHPI-owned businesses in the U.S. in 2019.
Immigration Pathways and Naturalization
Immigrants from Asia are more likely than the overall foreign-born population to be naturalized citizens. As of 2019, 61% of the 14.1 million immigrants from Asia in the United States were U.S. naturalized citizens, compared to 52% of all immigrants. Immigrants from Cambodia (81%), Laos (80%), Taiwan and Lebanon (78% each) and Vietnam and Iran (76% each) had the highest naturalization shares, while those from Saudi Arabia (27%), Japan (34%), Nepal (36%) and Afghanistan (415) were the least likely to be naturalized.
The following is from history.com and is a timeline of Asian American milestones:
Gold Rush Lures New Wave of Immigrants
May 7, 1843: A 14-year-old fisherman named Manjiro becomes the first official U.S. Japanese immigrant after being adopted by American Capt. William Whitfield who rescued the boy and his crew after a shipwreck 300 miles from Japan’s coast. Years later, Manjiro returned to his home country, where he was named a samurai and worked as a political emissary with the West.
1849: Following the discovery of gold in California, Chinese miners head to California seeking riches, with 25,000 arriving by 1851, according to the Library of Congress. With uncertain work and hostile locals, not to mention a language barrier, many Chinese laborers (including more than 10,000 with the Central Pacific Railroad alone) take dangerous work, for little pay, building the transcontinental railroad, which is completed on May 10, 1869.
Page Act, Chinese Exclusion Act Restrict Immigration
March 3, 1875: The Page Act of 1875 is enacted, prohibiting the recruitment of laborers from “China, Japan or any Oriental country” who were not brought to the United States of their own will or who were brought for “lewd and immoral purposes.” The law explicitly bars “the importation of women for the purposes of prostitution.” The act, based on stereotypes and scapegoating, is enforced by invasive and humiliating interrogations at the Angel Island Immigration Station outside San Francisco. It effectively blocks Chinese women from entering the country and stifles the ability of Chinese American men to start families in America.
May 6, 1882: Facing hostile, and often violent treatment from locals, Chinese immigrants are targeted by Congress with the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act, signed into law by President Chester Arthur. The act bans Chinese workers from entering the country and excludes Chinese immigrants from American citizenship. Every 10 years, Congress extends its provision until 1943, when World War II labor shortage pressure and increased anti-Japanese sentiment leads to its demise and Chinese immigrants are allowed to become naturalized citizens
March 3, 1885: In the case Tape v. Hurley, California’s Supreme Court rules that the state entitles “all children” access to public education. The case centers on Mamie Tape, then 8, an American-born daughter of Chinese immigrants whose family sued the San Francisco Board of Education for denying her admission because of her race.
White Coal Miners Target Chinese Workers
September 2, 1885: Angered that they’re taking away “white” jobs, white coal miners attack Chinese laborers in the Wyoming territory during what comes to be known as the Rock Springs Massacre. Twenty-eight Chinese are killed, with 15 more injured by the mob, which also looted and set fire to all of the homes in the area’s Chinatown. Federal troops are brought in to return Chinese miners, who had fled, to Rock Springs, and Congress eventually agrees to compensate the workers for their losses.
May 27-28, 1887: Seven white horse thieves ambush a group of Chinese miners who had set up camp along the Snake River in Oregon, murdering all 34 men and mutilating their bodies before dumping them in the river. Three members of the gang stand trial in the Hells Canyon Massacre, with one testifying for the state, and all are found not guilty by an all-white jury.
January 21, 1910: The immigration station Angel Island opens in California’s San Francisco Bay, serving as the country’s major port of entry for Asian immigrants, with some 100,000 Chinese and 70,000 Japanese being processed through the station over the next 30 years. Known as the “Ellis Island of the West” and located 6 miles off San Francisco’s coast, the island was a military reserve during the Civil War. Immigrants without proper documentation were quarantined there for days to years in a “prison-like environment,” according to the National Parks Service. Closed in 1940, it’s now a California state park.
February 5, 1917: Congress passes the Immigration Act of 1917, which includes an “Asiatic Barred Zone,” banning Chinese, Asian Indians, Burmese, Thai, Maylays and others. Japan is not on the list of those excluded, as prohibitions against immigrants from that country are already in place, nor is the Philippines, as it is a U.S. territory.
Japanese Internment
December 7, 1941: The Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor. Two months later, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, fearing Japanese immigrants or those with Japanese ancestry had taken part in planning the attack, issues an executive order that forces more than 120,000 Japanese Americans living on the West Coast into internment camps.
According to the National Archives, approximately 70,000 of those targeted are U.S. citizens, and no charges are made against any of them. Most lose their homes, businesses and belongings, and are held until the war ends. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signs a law apologizing for the civil liberty injustice with the order to pay $20,000 to each person who had been incarcerated.
Sources: U.S. Census, Migration Policy Institute, Pew Research Center, United Nations Population Division