Editing Asian Americans (section)

==History==
{{Main|History of Asian Americans}}
{{See also|Asian immigration to the United States}}

===Early immigration===
[[File:5ViewsOfStMaloLouisiana1883.jpg|thumb|Five images of the [[Filipino people|Filipino]] settlement at [[Saint Malo, Louisiana]]]]

Because Asian Americans or their ancestors immigrated to the United States from many different countries, each Asian American population has its own unique immigration history.<ref name="RoAAPEW2012" />

[[Filipinos]] have been in the territories that would become the United States since the 16th century.<ref>{{cite book |first=Joaquin |last=Gonzalez |title=Filipino American Faith in Action: Immigration, Religion, and Civic Engagement |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vxdJXdqPuuEC&q=filipino%20landing%20morro%20bay&pg=PA20 |access-date=May 11, 2013 |year=2009 |publisher=NYU Press |isbn=9780814732977 |pages=21–22 |archive-date=March 26, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210326122530/https://books.google.com/books?id=vxdJXdqPuuEC&q=filipino+landing+morro+bay&pg=PA20 |url-status=live }}<br />{{cite book |first=E. Jr. |last=San Juan |chapter=Emergency Signals from the Shipwreck |series=SUNY series in global modernity |title=Toward Filipino Self-Determination |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9Cprm26URewC&q=filipino%20morro%20bay&pg=PA101 |access-date=May 11, 2013 |year=2009 |publisher=SUNY Press |isbn=9781438427379 |pages=101–102 |archive-date=March 26, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210326122540/https://books.google.com/books?id=9Cprm26URewC&q=filipino+morro+bay&pg=PA101 |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1635, an "East Indian" is listed in [[Jamestown, Virginia]];<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nps.gov/jame/historyculture/upload/African%20Americans%20on%20Jamestown%20Island.pdf |title=A Study of the Africans and African Americans on Jamestown Island and at Green Spring, 1619–1803 |author=Martha W. McCartney |author2=Lorena S. Walsh |author3=Ywone Edwards-Ingram |author4=Andrew J. Butts |author5=Beresford Callum |year=2003 |work=Historic Jamestowne |publisher=[[National Park Service]] |access-date=May 11, 2013 |archive-date=November 4, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104205831/http://www.nps.gov/jame/historyculture/upload/African%20Americans%20on%20Jamestown%20Island.pdf |url-status=live }}<br />{{cite news |url=http://www.indiacurrents.com/articles/2007/05/16/indian-slaves-in-colonial-america |title=Indian Slaves in Colonial America |author=Francis C. Assisi |date=May 16, 2007 |newspaper=India Currents |access-date=May 11, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121127200048/http://www.indiacurrents.com/articles/2007/05/16/indian-slaves-in-colonial-america |archive-date=November 27, 2012 }}</ref> preceding wider settlement of Indian immigrants on the [[East Coast of the United States|East Coast]] in the 1790s and the [[West Coast of the United States|West Coast]] in the 1800s.<ref>{{cite book |last=Okihiro |first=Gary Y. |title=The Columbia Guide To Asian American History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2ZDkwy7CURgC&q=south%20asian%20slaves%20jamestown&pg=PA178 |access-date=May 10, 2013 |year=2005 |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |isbn=9780231115117 |page=178 |archive-date=March 26, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210326122535/https://books.google.com/books?id=2ZDkwy7CURgC&q=south+asian+slaves+jamestown&pg=PA178 |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1763, Filipinos established the small settlement of [[Saint Malo, Louisiana]], after fleeing mistreatment aboard [[New Spain|Spanish]] [[Manila galleon|ships]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/ancestorsintheamericas/time_06.html |title=Filipinos in Louisiana |website=[[PBS]] |access-date=January 5, 2011 |archive-date=March 21, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120321101112/http://www.pbs.org/ancestorsintheamericas/time_06.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Since there were no Filipino women with them, these "Manilamen", as they were known, married [[Cajuns|Cajun]] and indigenous women.<ref>{{cite book |title=Southeast Asian Americans |last=Wachtel |first=Alan |year=2009 |publisher=Marshall Cavendish |isbn=978-0-7614-4312-4 |page=80 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i_SzmVM1lCAC&q=louisiana+manilamen+marriage&pg=PR4 |access-date=December 5, 2010 |archive-date=March 26, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210326122534/https://books.google.com/books?id=i_SzmVM1lCAC&q=louisiana+manilamen+marriage&pg=PR4 |url-status=live }}</ref> Filipino farmworkers also played a major role in U.S. agriculture in the early 1900s. They often faced poor working conditions and discrimination.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Filipino Experience in the U.S. |publisher=Class Material |year=2024 |access-date=May 15, 2025}}</ref> The first Japanese person to come to the United States, and stay any significant period of time was [[Nakahama Manjirō]] who reached the East Coast in 1841, and [[Joseph Heco]] became the first Japanese American [[Citizenship of the United States#Naturalized citizenship|naturalized US citizen]] in 1858.<ref>{{cite book|author=John E. Van Sant|title=Pacific Pioneers: Japanese Journeys to America and Hawaii, 1850–80|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w1LIkmYaLWsC&pg=PA22|year=2000|publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn=978-0-252-02560-0|page=22|access-date=October 16, 2015|archive-date=January 3, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160103004328/https://books.google.com/books?id=w1LIkmYaLWsC&pg=PA22|url-status=live}}<br />{{cite book|author1=Sang Chi|author2=Emily Moberg Robinson|title=Voices of the Asian American and Pacific Islander Experience|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=55GHYJlvf7YC&pg=PA377|date=January 2012|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-59884-354-5|page=377|access-date=October 16, 2015|archive-date=January 3, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160103004328/https://books.google.com/books?id=55GHYJlvf7YC&pg=PA377|url-status=live}}<br />{{cite book|author=Joseph Nathan Kane|title=Famous first facts: a record of first happenings, discoveries and inventions in the United States|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PaYEAAAAYAAJ|year=1964|publisher=H. W. Wilson|page=161|access-date=October 16, 2015|archive-date=May 10, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160510190257/https://books.google.com/books?id=PaYEAAAAYAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>

Chinese sailors first came to [[Hawaii]] in 1789,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10524/132/1/JL08005.pdf |title=Chinese Merchant-Adventurers and Sugar Masters in Hawaii: 1802–1852 |author=Wai-Jane Cha |publisher=University of Hawaii at Manoa |access-date=January 14, 2011 |archive-date=September 18, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090918192450/http://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10524/132/1/JL08005.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> a few years after Captain [[James Cook]] came upon the island. Many settled and married [[Native Hawaiians|Hawaiian]] women. Most Chinese, [[Koreans|Korean]] and Japanese immigrants in Hawaii or San Francisco arrived in the 19th century as laborers to work on sugar plantations or construction place.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Xiaojian Zhao|author2=Edward J.W. Park Ph.D.|title=Asian Americans: An Encyclopedia of Social, Cultural, Economic, and Political History [3 volumes]: An Encyclopedia of Social, Cultural, Economic, and Political History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3AxIAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA357|date=November 26, 2013|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-59884-240-1|pages=357–358|access-date=October 16, 2015|archive-date=January 3, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160103004328/https://books.google.com/books?id=3AxIAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA357|url-status=live}}</ref> There were thousands of Asians in Hawaii when it was annexed to the United States in 1898.<ref>Ronald Takaki, ''Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans'' (2nd ed. 1998) pp 133–78</ref> Later, Filipinos also came to work as laborers, attracted by the job opportunities, although they were limited.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://opmanong.ssc.hawaii.edu/filipino/cali.html |title=Filipino Migrant Workers in California |author=The Office of Multicultural Student Services |year=1999 |publisher=University of Hawaii |access-date=January 12, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141204034225/http://opmanong.ssc.hawaii.edu/Filipino/cali.html |archive-date=December 4, 2014 }}<br />{{cite journal |last1=Castillo |first1=Adelaida |year=1976 |title=Filipino Migrants in San Diego 1900–1946 |journal=The Journal of San Diego History |volume=22 |issue=3 |publisher=San Diego Historical Society |url=http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/76summer/migrants.htm |access-date=January 12, 2011 |archive-date=June 4, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604203743/http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/76summer/migrants.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Ryukyuan people|Ryukyuans]] would start migrating to Hawaii in 1900.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://manoa.hawaii.edu/okinawa/wordpress/?page_id=78|title=Center for Okinawan Studies|access-date=2020-01-11|archive-date=January 1, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200101095035/http://manoa.hawaii.edu/okinawa/wordpress/?page_id=78|url-status=live}}</ref> Many Chinese immigrants played key roles in building the Transcontinental Railroad, but their stories were often left out of mainstream history. According to a PBS article, “Descendants of Chinese Laborers Reclaim Railroad’s History,” families today are working to recover and honor those forgotten histories.<ref>{{cite web |title=Descendants of Chinese Laborers Reclaim Railroad's History |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/descendants-of-chinese-laborers-reclaim-railroads-history |website=PBS NewsHour |date=May 10, 2021}}</ref>

Large-scale migration from Asia to the United States began when Chinese immigrants arrived on the [[West Coast of the United States|West Coast]] in the mid-19th century.<ref>{{cite book|author=L. Scott Miller|title=An American Imperative: Accelerating Minority Educational Advancement|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dCekZUesEjIC&pg=PA19|year=1995|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-07279-2|page=19|access-date=October 16, 2015|archive-date=January 3, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160103004328/https://books.google.com/books?id=dCekZUesEjIC&pg=PA19|url-status=live}}</ref> Forming part of the [[Gold Rush of 1849|California gold rush]], these early Chinese immigrants participated intensively in the mining business and later in the construction of the [[First transcontinental railroad|transcontinental railroad]]. By 1852, the number of Chinese immigrants in San Francisco had jumped to more than 20,000. A wave of Japanese immigration to the United States began after the [[Meiji Restoration]] in 1868.<ref>{{cite book |author=Richard T. Schaefer |title=Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Society |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=STR1AwAAQBAJ&pg=PT872 |date=March 20, 2008 |publisher=SAGE Publications |isbn=978-1-4522-6586-5 |page=872 |access-date=October 16, 2015 |archive-date=January 3, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160103004328/https://books.google.com/books?id=STR1AwAAQBAJ&pg=PT872 |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1898, all Filipinos in the Philippine Islands became American nationals when the United States took over colonial rule of the islands from [[Spain]] following the latter's defeat in the [[Spanish–American War]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=38974 |title=The Legal Entanglements of Empire, Race, and Filipino Migration to the United States |author=Stephanie Hinnershitz-Hutchinson |date=May 2013 |website=Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online |access-date=August 7, 2014 |archive-date=August 8, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140808171836/http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=38974 |url-status=live }}<br />{{cite book |last=Baldoz |first=Rick |date=2011 |title=The Third Asiatic Invasion: Migration and Empire in Filipino America, 1898–1946 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qtn31sdI4j8C&q=Filipinos%20american%20nationals%201898&pg=PA204 |publisher=NYU Press |page=204 |isbn=9780814709214 |access-date=August 7, 2014 |archive-date=March 26, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210326122531/https://books.google.com/books?id=qtn31sdI4j8C&q=Filipinos+american+nationals+1898&pg=PA204 |url-status=live }}</ref> The PBS documentary series Asian Americans highlights these stories and explores how Asian American communities have shaped the U.S. across centuries.<ref>{{cite web |title=Asian Americans |url=https://www.pbs.org/show/asian-americans/ |website=PBS |access-date=May 15, 2025}}</ref>


===Exclusion era===
Under United States law during this period, particularly the [[Naturalization Act of 1790]], only "free white persons" were eligible to naturalize as American citizens. Ineligibility for citizenship prevented Asian immigrants from accessing a variety of rights, such as voting.<ref>{{cite book|last=Ngai|first=Mae M.|title=Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America – Updated Edition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X1dzAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA2|date=27 April 2014|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-5023-5|page=2|access-date=March 14, 2020|archive-date=June 1, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200601053859/https://books.google.com/books?id=X1dzAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA2|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Bhicaji Balsara]] became the first known Indian-born person to gain naturalized US citizenship.<ref>{{cite book |author=Elliott Robert Barkan |title=Immigrants in American History: Arrival, Adaptation, and Integration [4 volumes]: Arrival, Adaptation, and Integration |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SOvskj0HNt8C&pg=PT301 |date=17 January 2013 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-59884-220-3 |page=301 |access-date=March 17, 2018 |archive-date=May 28, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200528103822/https://books.google.com/books?id=SOvskj0HNt8C&pg=PT301 |url-status=live }}</ref> Balsara's naturalization was not the norm but an exception; in a pair of cases, ''[[Ozawa v. United States]]'' (1922) and ''[[United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind]]'' (1923), the Supreme Court upheld the racial qualification for citizenship and ruled that Asians were not "white persons". Second-generation Asian Americans, however, could become US citizens due to the [[Birthright citizenship in the United States|birthright citizenship]] clause of the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourteenth Amendment]]; this guarantee was confirmed as applying regardless of race or ancestry by the Supreme Court in ''[[United States v. Wong Kim Ark]]'' (1898).<ref>{{cite journal |last=Soodalter |first=Ron |year=2016 |title=By Soil Or By Blood |journal=American History |volume=50 |issue=6 |pages=56–63 }}<br />Not including children of diplomats.</ref>

From the 1880s to the 1920s, the United States passed laws inaugurating an era of exclusion of Asian immigrants. While the overall number of Asian immigrants was relatively small compared to those from other regions, their concentration in the West contributed to the rise of nativist sentiment, often referred to as the "[[yellow peril]]." Congress passed [[Chinese Exclusion Act|restrictive legislation]] which prohibited nearly all Chinese immigration to the United States in the 1880s.<ref>Takaki, ''Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans'' (1998) pp 370–78</ref> Japanese immigration was sharply curtailed by a [[Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907|diplomatic agreement]] in 1907. The [[Asiatic Barred Zone Act]] in 1917 further barred immigration from nearly all of Asia, the "Asiatic Zone".<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Rothman |first1=Lily |last2=Ronk |first2=Liz |date=2 February 2017 |title=Congress Tightened Immigration Laws 100 Years Ago. Here's Who They Turned Away |url=https://time.com/4645728/1917-immigration-law-photos/ |magazine=Time |access-date=14 March 2019 |quote=Excluded from entry in 1917 were not only convicted criminals, chronic alcoholics and people with contagious diseases, but also people with epilepsy, anarchists, most people who couldn't read and almost everyone from Asia, as well as laborers who were "induced, assisted, encouraged, or solicited to migrate to this country by offers or promises of employment, whether such offers or promises are true or false" and "persons likely to become a public charge". |archive-date=June 30, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200630192013/https://time.com/4645728/1917-immigration-law-photos/ |url-status=live }}<br />{{cite magazine |last=Boissoneault |first=Lorraine |date=6 February 2017 |title=Literacy Tests and Asian Exclusion Were the Hallmarks of the 1917 Immigration Act |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-america-grappled-immigration-100-years-ago-180962058/ |magazine=Smithsonian |access-date=14 March 2019 |quote=The act also levied an $8 tax on every adult immigrant (about $160 today) and barred all immigrants from the "Asiatic zone". |archive-date=March 19, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190319064156/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-america-grappled-immigration-100-years-ago-180962058/ |url-status=live }}<br />{{cite web |url=https://www.history.com/news/the-birth-of-illegal-immigration |title=The Birth of 'Illegal' Immigration |last=Little |first=Becky |date=7 September 2017 |website=History |access-date=14 March 2019 |quote=A decade later, the Asiatic Barred Zone Act banned most immigration from Asia, as well as immigration by prostitutes, polygamists, anarchists, and people with contagious diseases. |archive-date=March 14, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190314192930/https://www.history.com/news/the-birth-of-illegal-immigration |url-status=live }}<br />{{USCongRec|1917|876|date=5 February 1917}}<br />{{cite book |author=Uma A. Segal |title=A Framework for Immigration: Asians in the United States |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KVViCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA134 |date=14 August 2002 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-50633-5 |page=134 |quote=Less than ten years later, Congress passed the Immigration Act of February 5, 1917 (commonly known as the Barred Zone Act), which enumerated the classes of people who were ineligible to enter the United States. Among them were those who were natives of a zone defined by latitude and longitude the geographic area identified became known as the Asiatic Barred Zone, and the act clearly became the Asiatic Barred Zone Act. Under the Asiatic Barred Zone Act, the only Asians allowed entry into the United States were Japanese and Filipinos. |access-date=March 15, 2019 |archive-date=June 4, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200604014326/https://books.google.com/books?id=KVViCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA134 |url-status=live }}<br />{{cite web |url=https://www.loc.gov/law/help/statutes-at-large/64th-congress/session-2/c64s2ch29.pdf |title=CHAP. 29. – An Act To regulate the immigration of aliens to, and the residence of aliens in, the United States. |author=Sixty-Fourth Congress |date=5 February 1917 |website=Library of Congress |access-date=14 March 2019 |quote=unless otherwise provided for by existing treaties, persons who are natives of islands not possessed by the United States adjacent to the Content of Asia, situate south of the twentieth parallel latitude north, west of the one hundred and sixtieth meridian of longitude east of Greenwich, and north of the tenth parallel of latitude south, or who are natives of any country, province, or dependency situate on the Continent of Asia west of the one hundred and tenth meridian of longitude east from Greenwich and east of the fiftieth meridian of longitude east from Greenwich and south of the fiftieth parallel of latitude north, except that portion of said territory situate between the fiftieth and the sixty-fourth meridians of longitude east from Greenwich and the twenty-fourth and thirty-eighth parallels of latitude north, and no alien now in any way excluded from, or prevented from entering, the United States shall be admitted to the United States. |author-link=64th United States Congress |archive-date=April 12, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412011546/https://www.loc.gov/law/help/statutes-at-large/64th-congress/session-2/c64s2ch29.pdf |url-status=live }} [http://library.uwb.edu/Static/USimmigration/39%20stat%20874.pdf Alt URL] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190508163451/http://library.uwb.edu/Static/USimmigration/39%20stat%20874.pdf |date=May 8, 2019 }}</ref> The [[Immigration Act of 1924]] provided that no "alien ineligible for citizenship" could be admitted as an immigrant to the United States, consolidating the prohibition of Asian immigration.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Franks |first=Joel |year=2015 |title=Anti-Asian Exclusion In The United States During The Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries: The History Leading To The Immigration Act Of 1924 |journal=Journal of American Ethnic History |volume=34 |issue=3 |pages=121–122 |doi=10.5406/jamerethnhist.34.3.0121}}<br />Takaki, ''Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans'' (1998) pp 197–211</ref>

===World War II===
President Roosevelt issued [[Executive Order 9066]] on February 19, 1942, resulting in the [[internment of Japanese Americans]], among others. Over 100,000 people of Japanese descent, mostly on the West Coast, were forcibly removed, in an action later considered ineffective and racist.<ref>{{cite web |title=Executive Order 9066: Resulting in Japanese-American Incarceration (1942) |url=https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/executive-order-9066 |website=National Archives |language=en |date=22 September 2021}}</ref> Japanese Americans were kept isolated in military camps just because of their race, including children, old persons and the young generation. 'Issei:The first generation' and 'Children of the camps' are two great documentaries representing the situation of Japanese  Americans during World War II.

===Postwar immigration===
World War II-era legislation and judicial rulings{{which|date=March 2021}} gradually increased the ability of Asian Americans to immigrate and become [[United States nationality law|naturalized]] citizens. Immigration rapidly increased following the enactment of the [[Immigration and Nationality Act Amendments of 1965]] as well as the influx of [[refugees#Southeast Asia (Vietnam War)|refugees]] from conflicts occurring in Southeast Asia such as the [[Vietnam War]]. Asian American immigrants have a significant percentage of individuals who have already achieved professional status, a first among immigration groups.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php?id=19089 |title=Asian American Community Participation and Religion: Civic "Model Minorities?" |author=Elaine Howard Ecklund |author2=Jerry Z. Park |work=Project MUSE |publisher=[[Baylor University]] |access-date=March 7, 2012 |archive-date=March 14, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140314210712/http://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php?id=19089 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The number of Asian immigrants to the United States "grew from 491,000 in 1960 to about 12.8 million in 2014, representing a 2,597 percent increase."<ref name="ZongBatalova">Jie Zong & Jeanne Batalova, [http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/asian-immigrants-united-states Asian Immigrants in the United States] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170430234951/http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/asian-immigrants-united-states |date=April 30, 2017 }}, Migration Policy Institute (January 6, 2016).</ref> Asian Americans were the fastest-growing racial group between 2000 and 2010.<ref name="RoAAPEW2012" /><ref>{{cite news |title=Asian-Americans Gain Influence in Philanthropy |first=Kirk |last=Semple |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/09/nyregion/as-asian-americans-numbers-grow-so-does-their-philanthropy.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 8, 2013 |access-date=March 3, 2013 |quote=From 2000–2010, according to the Census Bureau, the number of people who identified themselves as partly or wholly Asian grew by nearly 46%, more than four times the growth rate of the overall population, making Asian-Americans the fastest-growing racial group in the nation. |archive-date=January 15, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130115131258/http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/09/nyregion/as-asian-americans-numbers-grow-so-does-their-philanthropy.html |url-status=live }}</ref> By 2012, more immigrants came from Asia than from Latin America.<ref>{{cite news |last=Semple |first=Ken |date=18 June 2012 |title=In a Shift, Biggest Wave of Migrants Is Now Asian |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/19/us/asians-surpass-hispanics-as-biggest-immigrant-wave.html |work=The New York Times |access-date=3 May 2017 |archive-date=March 26, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210326122530/https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/19/us/asians-surpass-hispanics-as-biggest-immigrant-wave.html |url-status=live }}<br />{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=New Asian 'American Dream': Asians Surpass Hispanics in Immigration |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AofKyizzAko |work=ABC News |location=United States News |date=19 June 2012 |access-date=3 May 2017 |archive-date=April 23, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180423151332/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AofKyizzAko |url-status=live }}<br />{{cite book|author=Jonathan H. X. Lee|title=History of Asian Americans: Exploring Diverse Roots: Exploring Diverse Roots|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hxoUBgAAQBAJ&pg=PR53|date=16 January 2015|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-38459-2|page=53|access-date=May 3, 2017|archive-date=May 30, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200530044826/https://books.google.com/books?id=hxoUBgAAQBAJ&pg=PR53|url-status=live}}</ref> In 2015, Pew Research Center found that from 2010 to 2015 more immigrants came from Asia than from Latin America, and that since 1965; Asians have made up a quarter of all immigrants to the United States.<ref>{{cite news |last=Rivitz |first=Jessica |title=Asians on pace to overtake Hispanics among U.S. immigrants, study shows |url=http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/28/us/pew-study-immigration-asians-hispanics/ |work=CNN |location=Atlanta |date=28 September 2015 |access-date=3 May 2017 |archive-date=June 7, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170607120550/http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/28/us/pew-study-immigration-asians-hispanics/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Asians have made up an increasing proportion of the foreign-born Americans: "In 1960, Asians represented 5 percent of the U.S. foreign-born population; by 2014, their share grew to 30 percent of the nation's 42.4 million immigrants."<ref name="ZongBatalova"/> As of 2016, "Asia is the second-largest region of birth (after Latin America) of U.S. immigrants."<ref name="ZongBatalova"/> In 2013, China surpassed Mexico as the top single country of origin for immigrants to the US.<ref>Erika Lee, [https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2015/07/07/chinese-immigrants-largest-column/29784905/ Chinese immigrants now largest group of new arrivals to the US] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170419090924/https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2015/07/07/chinese-immigrants-largest-column/29784905/ |date=April 19, 2017 }}, ''USA Today'' (July 7, 2015).</ref> Asian immigrants "are more likely than the overall foreign-born population to be naturalized citizens"; in 2014, 59% of Asian immigrants had US citizenship, compared to 47% of all immigrants.<ref name="ZongBatalova"/> Postwar Asian immigration to the US has been diverse: in 2014, 31% of Asian immigrants to the US were from [[East Asia]] (predominantly China and Korea); 27.7% were from [[South Asia]] (predominantly India); 32.6% were from [[Southeast Asia]] (predominantly the Philippines and Vietnam); and 8.3% were from [[West Asia]].<ref name="ZongBatalova"/>

===Asian American movement===
{{Main|Asian American movement}}
[[File:Ken Jeong & Awkwafina.png|thumb|right|[[Awkwafina]] (right) with [[Ken Jeong]]]]

Prior to the 1960s, Asian immigrants and their descendants had organized and agitated for social or political purposes according to their particular ethnicity: Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean, or Asian Indian. The Asian American movement (a term coined by the Japanese American [[Yuji Ichioka]] and the Chinese American [[Emma Gee]]) gathered all those groups into a coalition, recognizing that they shared common problems with racial discrimination and common opposition to [[American imperialism]], particularly in Asia. The movement developed during the 1960s, inspired in part by the [[Civil Rights Movement]] and the [[protests against the Vietnam War]]. "Drawing influences from the [[Black Power]] and antiwar movements, the Asian American movement forged a coalitional politics that united Asians of varying ethnicities and declared solidarity with other Third World people in the United States and abroad. Segments of the movement struggled for community control of education, provided social services and defended affordable housing in Asian ghettoes, organized exploited workers, protested against US imperialism, and built new multiethnic cultural institutions."<ref name="oxford">{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://oxfordre.com/americanhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.001.0001/acrefore-9780199329175-e-21|title=The Asian American Movement|last=Maeda|first=Daryl Joji|encyclopedia=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History|year=2016|doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.013.21|isbn=978-0-19-932917-5|access-date=23 February 2019|archive-date=March 26, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210326122548/https://oxfordre.com/americanhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.001.0001/acrefore-9780199329175-e-21|url-status=live}}</ref> William Wei described the movement as "rooted in a past history of oppression and a present struggle for liberation".<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nlue11bhyb4C|title=Race Pride and the American Identity|last=Rhea|first=Joseph Tilden|date=May 1, 2001|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=9780674005761|page=43|language=en|access-date=June 16, 2016|archive-date=May 30, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200530132053/https://books.google.com/books?id=Nlue11bhyb4C|url-status=live}}</ref> The movement as such was most active during the 1960s and 1970s.<ref name = "oxford"/>

Increasingly Asian American students demanded university-level research and teaching into Asian history and interaction with the United States. They support [[multiculturalism]] and support [[affirmative action]] but oppose colleges' quota on Asian students viewed as discriminatory.<ref>Jeanie Suk Gersen, "The Uncomfortable Truth About Affirmative Action and Asian-Americans" ''The New Yorker'' (2017)</ref><ref>Jennifer Lee, "69% of Asian American Registered Voters Support Affirmative Action" ''AAPI Data'' (2022)</ref><ref>"70% of Asian Americans support affirmative action. Here's why misconceptions persist." ''NBC News'' (November 14, 2020).</ref>