click to go to maps and charts
When did Asians first come to America? Tens of thousands of years ago across the Bering land bridge. And much later in the 16th century when Filipinos joined Spanish crews crossing the Pacific and exploring North America. Hawaiians, Chinese, and Filipinos later crewed the American and European ships crisscrossing the Pacific in the decades before the United States seized what would become California, Oregon, Washington, and the American southwest. The California gold rush that began in 1848 brought more, especially Chinese people from the Guangdong region. The US census of 1860 counted more than 34,000 Chinese living in California and small numbers in a few other states. Migration continued briefly but Chinese immigration was brought to a brutal halt when Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) which was followed by murderous "driving out" campaigns which saw deadly violence by white mobs in towns and cities across the West. A population that had grown to 119,000 fell into a long demographic decline. In 1940, only 72,000 persons of Chinese ancestry remained in the United States. This was the first example of the cycles of persecution and expulsion that Asian peoples would face.
This page introduces the history of Asian and Pacific Islanders migration to the United States and between states - a sequence of consequential migrations that have transformed the US. This introductory page leads to a set of interactive maps, charts, and tables found on the Mapping Asian American and Pacific Islander Migrations page. Those visualizations allow us to separately track the migration history of people from many nations in Asia and the Pacific. We also highlight the importance of internal migration by showing state of birth and state of residence for the millions of American born persons of Asian heritage. GO TO MAPPING PAGE
In the decades before and after the turn of the 20th century as Chinese exclusion took effect and as the US seized colonies in the Pacific, Japanese people in substantial numbers along with smaller contingents of Okinawans, Koreans, and South Asians crossed the Pacific. Hawaii and California were the primary destinations with farming or farm work the principal attractions. Anti-Asian hatred soon refocused on the newcomers in the same government-private combination that been used against Chinese people. Federal action squeezed off new immigration while nativist campaigns in western states yielded Alien Land laws and other measures designed to limit economic opportunities.
The 1920 census reported just under 400,000 Asian-ancestored Americans, with Japanese the largest at 225,000 followed by 88,000 Chinese, many of them elderly men marooned in shrinking Chinese American communities. That year, Congress passed the first of two draconian immigration laws that banned all immigration from Asia while imposing nearly as strict limits on immigration from Eastern and Southern Europe. The restrictions did not apply to Filipinos, Guamanians, and others who lived in US colonies. To the consternation of West Coast xenophobes, Filipinos, some of them educated in colonial schools, headed for Hawaii, California, Washington, and Oregon. The 1930 Census counted just under 100,000 Filipinos living in the US. Most were engaged in farm and cannery work, including those who had hoped to earn college degrees. That population number, like nearly all of the tabulations of Asian Americans, was an undercount. Mobile lifestyles, remote rural settings, and the sensible wariness by people who had every reason to seek invisibility mean that we need to regard the census numbers shown on the accompanying maps and charts as low estimates.
Country of origin for foreign-born Asian Americans by decade. Click to explore.
Japanese Americans had faced persecution derived from Depression-era economic tensions, but antagonism also grew as the Empire of Japan and the empire of the United States faced off in the Pacific after 1937. When the Japanese navy attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the United States declared war not merely on the nation of Japan but also against Japanese Americans. In early 1942, more than 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry, many of them US-born citizens, were forced from their homes in West Coast states and locked in hastily constructed but heavily guarded concentration camps hundreds of miles into the interior. When the war ended and internees were released, some had little reason to return to California, Oregon, and Washington. The Japanese American population had begun a dispersion across the United States that can be traced on the accompanying maps.
Populations increased modestly after World War II. Map shows 1960 numbers. Click to explore.
These episodes mark the start of the modest reopening of immigration from Asia. Wars and diplomacy had much to do with this. In the decades that followed combat with Japan, the US would fight a big war in Korea, a big war in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, and fight shadow wars with Communist insurgencies throughout Asia. Immigrants from these conflict regions followed, initially mostly "war brides," later under official refugee programs.
The practice started in Japan, which was fully occupied after the 1945 surrender and hosted US military bases for many decades after. Koreans followed after their pennisula endured a three year war and millions of casualities. Wives of US soldiers, college students, and adoptable infants gained permission to come to the US in modest numbers in the 1950s and 1960s adding to a previously hidden Korean American population that census takers usually counted as Japanese.
People have been coming from new locations in the last fifty years. Where the population before the law changed consisted largely of persons of Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, native Hawaiian, and Korean heritage, since then every country in Asia and the Pacific has contributed. And where before most were US-born second or third generation Americans, in recent decades the population of nearly all heritages is largely foreign-born. Japanese Americans are the exception. Immigration from Japan has been modest in comparison with other countries. That means that Japanese Americans, once the largest Asian origin group, are now less numerous than Chinese, Asian Indian, Filipino, Vietnamese, and Korean Americans.
Vietnamese, Cambodians, Laotians, and Hmong people have come to the United States under the refugee provisions of American law. Would-be migrants from most countries are admitted either because they qualify under their nation's annual quota or because of family connections or professional-class work skills. In 1975, Congress added a special status for former allies of the United States who fled Vietnam and neighboring countries. The maps allow you to track the decade-by-decade numbers and settlement geography of these populations.
Pacific Islander migration geography is shown in this set of maps
Next, please explore the six maps and charts that show the dimensions of migrations from Asia and the Pacific Islands. These interactive visualizations allow you to examine separately the volumes of migration of people of each national heritage and the states in which they settled while distinguising between those born abroad and those born in the United States. Explore
Dramatic migration increases since the 1970s mean that most Asian Americans are foreign born as shown in this 2017 map. Click to explore.