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Korean Americans are
Americans Americans are the citizens and nationals of the United States of America.; ; Although direct citizens and nationals make up the majority of Americans, many dual citizens, expatriates, and permanent residents could also legally claim Ame ...
of Korean ancestry (mostly from
South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
). In 2015, the Korean-American community constituted about 0.56% of the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
population, or about 1.82 million people, and was the fifth-largest Asian Americans subgroup, after the Chinese Americans, Filipino Americans, Indian Americans, and Vietnamese Americans communities. The U.S. is home to the largest Korean diaspora community in the world.


Demographics

According to the 2010 Census, there were approximately 1.7 million people of Korean descent residing in the United States, making it the country with the second-largest Korean population living outside Korea (after the People's Republic of
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
). The ten states with the largest estimated Korean American populations were
California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
(452,000; 1.2%), New York (141,000, 0.7%),
New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delawa ...
(94,000, 1.1%),
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...
(71,000, 0.9%),
Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
(68,000, 0.3%),
Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
(62,400, 0.9%),
Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...
(61,500, 0.5%), Georgia (52,500, 0.5%),
Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean t ...
(49,000, 0.8%),
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
(41,000, 0.3%), and
Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the ...
(31,000, 0.4%).
Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
was the state with the highest concentration of Korean Americans, at 1.8%, or 23,200 people. The two metropolitan areas with the highest Korean American populations as per the 2010 Census were the
Greater Los Angeles area Greater Los Angeles is the second-largest metropolitan region in the United States with a population of 18.5 million in 2021, encompassing five counties in Southern California extending from Ventura County in the west to San Bernardino ...
Combined Statistical Area Combined statistical area (CSA) is a United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) term for a combination of adjacent metropolitan statistical area, metropolitan (MSA) and micropolitan statistical areas (µSA) across the 50 US states and ...
(334,329) and the Greater New York
Combined Statistical Area Combined statistical area (CSA) is a United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) term for a combination of adjacent metropolitan statistical area, metropolitan (MSA) and micropolitan statistical areas (µSA) across the 50 US states and ...
(218,764). The Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area ranks third, with approximately 93,000 Korean Americans clustered in Howard and Montgomery Counties in Maryland and Fairfax County in Virginia.
Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban ...
and the New York City metropolitan area have the largest populations of Koreans outside of the Korean Peninsula. Among Korean Americans ''born in Korea'', the Los Angeles metropolitan area had 226,000 as of 2012; New York (including Northern New Jersey) had 153,000 Korean-born Korean Americans; and Washington had 60,000. The percentage of Korean Americans in Bergen County, New Jersey, in the New York City Metropolitan Area, 6.3% by the 2010 United States Census (increased to 6.9% by the 2011 American Community Survey), is the highest of any county in the United States. All of the nation's top ten municipalities by percentage of Korean population as per the 2010 Census are located within Bergen County, while the concentration of Korean Americans in Palisades Park, New Jersey, in Bergen County, is the highest of any municipality in the United States, at 52% of the population. Between 1990 and 2000, Georgia was home to the fastest-growing Korean community in the U.S., growing at a rate of 88.2% over that decade. There is a significant Korean American population in the Atlanta metropolitan area, mainly in
Gwinnett County Gwinnett County ( ) is located in the north central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. It forms part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. In 2020, the population was 957,062, making it the second-most populous county in Georgia (after Fulton ...
(2.7% Korean) and Fulton County (1.0% Korean). According to the statistics of the Overseas Korean Foundation and the Republic of Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 107,145 South Korean children were adopted into the United States between 1953 and 2007. In a 2005
United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of th ...
survey, an estimated 432,907 ethnic Koreans in the U.S. were native-born Americans, and 973,780 were foreign-born. Korean Americans that were naturalized citizens numbered at 530,100, while 443,680 Koreans in the U.S. were not American citizens. While people living in North Korea cannot—except under rare circumstances—leave their country, there are many people of North Korean origin living in the U.S., a substantial portion who fled to the south during the
Korean War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Korean War , partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict , image = Korean War Montage 2.png , image_size = 300px , caption = Clockwise from top:{ ...
and later emigrated to the United States. Since the
North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004 Signed into Law of the United States, U.S. law by President of the United States, President George W. Bush on October 18, 2004, the North Korean Human Rights Act is intended to promote human rights and freedom to North Korean refugees by: #Provi ...
allowed North Korean defectors to be admitted as refugees, about 130 have settled in the U.S. under that status.


History

One of the first Korean Americans was
Seo Jae-pil Soh Jaipil or Seo Jae-pil (January 7, 1864 – January 5, 1951), also known as Philip Jaisohn, was a Korean- American political activist and physician who was a noted champion of the Korean independence movement, the first Korean naturalized cit ...
, or Philip Jaisohn, who came to America shortly after participating in an abortive coup with other progressives to institute political reform in 1884. He became a citizen in 1890 and earned a medical degree in 1892 from what is now George Washington University. Throughout his life, he strove to educate Koreans in the ideals of freedom and
democracy Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose g ...
, and pressed the U.S. government for
Korean independence The Korean independence movement was a military and diplomatic campaign to achieve the independence of Korea from Japan. After the Japanese annexation of Korea in 1910, Korea's domestic resistance peaked in the March 1st Movement of 1919, whic ...
. He died during the
Korean War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Korean War , partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict , image = Korean War Montage 2.png , image_size = 300px , caption = Clockwise from top:{ ...
. His home is now a museum, cared for by a social services organization founded in his name in 1975. A prominent figure among the Korean immigrant community is
Ahn Chang Ho Ahn Changho, sometimes An Chang-ho (; , November 9, 1878 – March 10, 1938) was a Korean independence activist and one of the early leaders of the Korean-American immigrant community in the United States. He is also referred to by his pen na ...
, pen name Dosan, a
Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
social activist. He came to the United States in 1902 for education. He founded the Friendship Society in 1903 and the Mutual Assistance Society. He was also a political activist during the Japanese occupation of Korea. Another prominent figure among the Korean immigrant community was
Syngman Rhee Syngman Rhee (, ; 26 March 1875 – 19 July 1965) was a South Korean politician who served as the first president of South Korea from 1948 to 1960. Rhee was also the first and last president of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Ko ...
(이승만), a Methodist. He came to the United States in 1904 and earned a
bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to si ...
at George Washington University in 1907, a master's degree at
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...
, and a
PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * '' Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. al ...
from
Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
in 1910. In 1910, he returned to Korea and became a political activist. He later became the first
president of the Republic of Korea The president of the Republic of Korea (), also known as the president of South Korea (often abbreviated to POTROK or POSK; ), is the head of state and head of government of the Republic of Korea. The president leads the State Council, and is ...
. In 1903, the first group of Korean laborers came to
Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
on January 13, now known annually as ''Korean-American Day'', to fill in gaps created by problems with Chinese and Japanese laborers. Between 1904 and 1907, about 1,000 Koreans entered the mainland from Hawaii through San Francisco. Many Koreans dispersed along the Pacific Coast as farm workers or as wage laborers in mining companies and as section hands on the railroads.
Picture bride The term picture bride refers to the practice in the early 20th century of immigrant workers (chiefly Japanese, Okinawan, and Korean) in Hawaii and the West Coast of the United States and Canada, as well as Brazil selecting brides from their nativ ...
s became a common practice for marriage to Korean men. Between 1905 and 1910, political activities in Korean American communities surged in opposition towards Japanese aggression towards Korea. Organizations formed throughout the US, much of which was concentrated in Hawaii and California. In 1909, two of the largest Korean-American organizations would merge to form the Korean National Association, the largest Korean immigrant organization in North America. Leaders included An Changho, Syngman Rhee and
Park Yong-man Park Yong-man (); (2 July 1881 – 17 October 1928) was a Korean nationalist and independence activist who, after spending time in prison for reformist activities, immigrated to the United States of America. There Park was involved in the estab ...
. This organization along with others would play key roles in the
Korean independence movement The Korean independence movement was a military and diplomatic campaign to achieve the independence of Korea from Japan. After the Japanese annexation of Korea in 1910, Korea's domestic resistance peaked in the March 1st Movement of 1919, whic ...
between 1910 and 1945. After the annexation of Korea by
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...
in 1910, Korean migration to the United States was virtually halted. The Immigration Act of 1924 or sometimes referred to as the ''Oriental Exclusion Act'' was part of a measured system excluding Korean immigrants into the US. In 1952 with the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, opportunities were more open to Asian Americans, enabling Korean Americans to move out of enclaves into middle-class neighborhoods. When the
Korean War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Korean War , partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict , image = Korean War Montage 2.png , image_size = 300px , caption = Clockwise from top:{ ...
ended in 1953, small numbers of students and professionals entered the United States. A larger group of immigrants included women married with U.S. servicemen. In 1953, South Korea had allowed international adoption. This had stemmed from the result of the Korean war as it left many children displaced. As a result of allowing external adoption in South Korea, a majority of the children have been adopted from families across the United States. With the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, Koreans became one of the fastest growing Asian groups in the United States, surpassed only by
Filipinos Filipinos ( tl, Mga Pilipino) are the people who are citizens of or native to the Philippines. The majority of Filipinos today come from various Austronesian ethnolinguistic groups, all typically speaking either Filipino, English and/or other ...
. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 abolished the quota system that had restricted the numbers of Asians allowed to enter the United States. Large numbers of Koreans, including some from North Korea who had come via South Korea, have been immigrating ever since, putting Korea in the top six countries of origin of immigrants to the United States since 1975. The reasons for immigration are many including the desire for increased freedom and the hope for better economic opportunities. In the 1980s and 1990s Koreans became noted not only for starting small businesses such as dry cleaners or convenience stores, but also for diligently planting churches. They would venture into abandoned cities and start up businesses which happened to be predominantly African American in demographics. This would sometimes lead to publicized tensions with customers as dramatized in movies such as Spike Lee's ''
Do the Right Thing ''Do the Right Thing'' is a 1989 American comedy-drama film produced, written, and directed by Spike Lee. It stars Lee, Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Richard Edson, Giancarlo Esposito, Bill Nunn, John Turturro, and Samuel L. Jackso ...
'' and the Los Angeles riots of April 1992. Their children, along with those of other Asian Americans, would also be noted in headlines and magazine covers in the 1980s for their numbers in prestigious universities and highly skilled white collar professions. Favorable socioeconomic status and
education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty ...
have led to the painting of Asian Americans, including Korean Americans, as a " model minority". However, this label is a controversial one: many individuals claim that the "model minority" label derides other communities of color and dismisses the challenges that the Korean Americans, and other Asian American ethnic groups, face. For instance, 12.8% of all Korean Americans live at or below the poverty line. A large number of Korean Americans do not have health insurance due to language access barriers. Furthermore, older Korean Americans, who are at significant risk of developing mental health conditions, are less likely to access mental health services even when exhibiting symptoms. This is due to stigma and cultural misconceptions regarding mental health conditions. Los Angeles has emerged as a major center of the Korean American community. It experienced rapid transition in the 1990s, with heavy investment by Korean banks and corporations, and the arrival of tens of thousands of Koreans, as well as even larger numbers of
Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties for ...
s. Many entrepreneurs opened small businesses, and were hard hit by the 1992 Los Angeles riots. More recently, L.A.'s Koreatown has been perceived to have experienced declining political power secondary to re-districting and an increased crime rate, prompting an exodus of Koreans from the area. Furthermore, the aftermath of the 1992 riots witnessed a large number of Koreans from Southern California moving to the
San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area G ...
and opening businesses and buying property near downtown Oakland, furthering the growth of that city's Koreatown until the early 2000s. According to Park (1998) the violence against Korean Americans in 1992 stimulated a new wave of political activism among Korean Americans, but it also split them into two main camps. The "liberals" sought to unite with other minorities in Los Angeles to fight against racial oppression and scapegoating. The "conservatives," emphasized law and order and generally favored the economic and social policies of the Republican Party. The conservatives tended to emphasize the political differences between Koreans and other minorities, specifically blacks and Hispanics. Abelmann and Lie, (1997) report that the most profound result was the politicization of Korean Americans, all across the U.S. The younger generation especially realized they had been too uninvolved in American politics, and the riot shifted their political attention from South Korea to conditions in the United States. Also accelerated by the 1992 riots, Orange County's Korean population grew from its starting point in Koreatown, Garden Grove. As of 2020, Orange County had the second largest number of Korean Americans of any county in America, neighboring Los Angeles County has the most, numbering over 100,000. Koreans originally moved into Garden Grove after Olympic gold medalist Sammy Lee (diver) bought a home in the 1950s signaling to other ethnic minorities that they could move into Orange County. Since then, Koreans have spread throughout northern Orange County, mainly concentrating in Buena Park, Fullerton, Cerritos, Palma, Cypress, and Irvine. Garden Grove is now home to more than 1,500 Korean businesses, and has held a Korean festival, night market, and parade every year since 1983. Mostly older and more traditional Korean businesses and food are found in Garden Grove, while newer and trendier Seoul based chains often locate in Buena Park and Irvine. The Source OC is a multi-level Korean themed mall in Buena Park that houses over 100 restaurants, as well as korean themed bars, a school, K-pop stores, and a PC gaming cafe. A substantial number of affluent Korean American
professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and sk ...
s have settled in Bergen County, New Jersey since the early 2000s (decade) and have founded various academically and communally supportive organizations, including the Korean Parent Partnership Organization at the
Bergen County Academies Bergen County Academies (BCA) is a tuition-free public magnet high school located in Hackensack, New Jersey that serves students in the ninth through twelfth grades from Bergen County, New Jersey. The school was founded by John Grieco, also fou ...
magnet high school and The Korean-American Association of New Jersey. Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck, New Jersey, within Bergen County, has undertaken an effort to provide comprehensive health care services to underinsured and uninsured Korean patients from a wide area with its ''Korean Medical Program'', drawing over 1,500 Korean American patients to its annual health festival. Bergen County's Broad Avenue Koreatown in Palisades Park has emerged as a dominant nexus of Korean American culture, and its Senior Citizens Center provides a popular gathering place where even Korean grandmothers were noted to follow the dance trend of the worldwide viral hit '' Gangnam Style'' by South Korean " K-pop" rapper Psy in September 2012; while the nearby Fort Lee Koreatown is also emerging as such. The Chusok Korean Thanksgiving harvest festival has become an annual tradition in Bergen County, attended by several tens of thousands. Bergen County's growing Korean community was cited by county executive Kathleen Donovan in the context of Hackensack, New Jersey attorney Jae Y. Kim's appointment to Central Municipal Court judgeship in January 2011. Subsequently, in January 2012, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie nominated attorney Phillip Kwon of Bergen County for New Jersey Supreme Court justice, although this nomination was rejected by the state's Senate Judiciary Committee, and in July 2012, Kwon was appointed instead as deputy general counsel of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. According to ''
The Record The Record may refer to: Music * ''The Record'' (album), a 1982 studio album by the hardcore-punk band Fear * The Records, an English power pop band * '' Their Greatest Hits: The Record'', a 2001 greatest-hits album by the pop-music group Bee G ...
'' of Bergen County, the U.S. Census Bureau has determined the county's Korean American population—2010 census figures put it at 56,773 (increasing to 63,247 by the 2011 American Community Survey)—grew enough to warrant language assistance during elections, and Bergen County's Koreans have earned significant political respect. As of May 2014, Korean Americans had garnered at least four borough council seats in Bergen County.


Flatbush boycott

In 1990, Korean-American owned shops were boycotted in the Flatbush section of the
borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle Ag ...
of
Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
in New York City. The boycott started by Black Nationalist, Sonny Carson, lasted for six months and became known as the Flatbush boycott.


Comfort women controversy

In May 2012, officials in Bergen County's borough of Palisades Park, New Jersey rejected requests by two
diplomatic Diplomatics (in American English, and in most anglophone countries), or diplomatic (in British English), is a scholarly discipline centred on the critical analysis of documents: especially, historical documents. It focuses on the conventions, p ...
delegations from Japan to remove a small monument from a public park, a
brass Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other wi ...
plaque on a block of stone, dedicated in 2010 to the memory of comfort women, thousands of women, many Koreans, who were forced into sexual slavery by
Japanese soldiers Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese dia ...
during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
. Days later, a South Korean delegation endorsed the borough's decision. However, in neighboring Fort Lee, various Korean American groups could not reach consensus on the design and wording for such a monument as of early April 2013. In October 2012, a similar memorial was announced in nearby Hackensack, to be raised behind the Bergen County Courthouse, alongside memorials to the Holocaust, the Great Irish Famine, the Armenian genocide, and Slavery in the United States and was unveiled in March 2013. An apology and monetary compensation of roughly $8,000,000 by Japan to South Korea in December 2015 for these crimes largely fell flat in Bergen County, where the first U.S. monument to pay respects to comfort women was erected.


East Sea controversy

According to ''
The Record The Record may refer to: Music * ''The Record'' (album), a 1982 studio album by the hardcore-punk band Fear * The Records, an English power pop band * '' Their Greatest Hits: The Record'', a 2001 greatest-hits album by the pop-music group Bee G ...
'', the Korean-American Association of New Jersey petitioned Bergen County school officials in 2013 to use textbooks that refer to the Sea of Japan as the ''East Sea'' as well. In February 2014, Bergen County lawmakers announced legislative efforts to include the name East Sea in future New Jersey school textbooks. In April 2014, a bill to recognize references to the Sea of Japan also as the East Sea in
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...
textbooks was signed into law.


''Sewol'' ferry tragedy memorial in the United States

In May 2014, the Palisades Park Public Library in New Jersey created a memorial dedicated to the victims of the tragic sinking of the ''Sewol'' ferry off the South Korean coast on April 16, 2014.


Nail salon abuse

According to a 2015 investigation by ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', abuse by Korean nail salon owners in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
and
Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United States and the 18 ...
was rampant, with 70 to 80% of nail salon owners in New York being Korean, per the Korean American Nail Salon Association; with the growth and concentration in the number of salons in New York City far outstripping the remainder of the United States since 2000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Abuses routinely included underpayment and non-payment to employees for services rendered, exacting poor working conditions, and stratifying pay scales and working conditions for Korean employees above non-Koreans.


Recent statistics

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea estimates the number of Koreans to be 224,600 as of 2013. However, it's hard to determine the accuracy of this reporting due to the figures being sourced from the Korean Consulate in Korea, and the channels of various Korean-affiliated organizations. For example, tens of thousands of immigrant women who have been married to USFK since the 1950s and who have been adopted since the liberation of the United States have not been identified in the Korean consulate statistics.


Languages

Korean Americans can speak a combination of
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...
and Korean depending on where they were born and when they immigrated to the United States. New immigrants often use a mixture of Korean and English ( Konglish), a practice also known as code-switching.


Memorials and celebrities

A number of U.S. states have declared January 13 as Korean American Day in order to recognize Korean Americans' impact and contributions. In 1903, the first group of Korean laborers came to Hawaii on January 13, to fill in gaps created by problems with Chinese and Japanese laborers. Celebrities are named at List of Korean Americans.


Politics

In a poll from the Asia Times before the
2004 U.S. Presidential Election The 2004 United States presidential election was the 55th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 2, 2004. The Republican ticket of incumbent President George W. Bush and his running mate incumbent Vice President Dick Che ...
, Korean Americans narrowly favored Republican candidate George W. Bush by a 41% to 38% margin over Democrat John Kerry, with the remaining 19% undecided or voting for other candidates. However, according to a poll done by the AALDEF{{{Cn, date=November 2022 the majority of Korean Americans that voted in the 2004 Presidential Election favored Democrat John Kerry by a 66% to 33% margin over Republican candidate George W. Bush. {{citation, periodical=AALDEF, title=The Asian American Vote in the 2008 Presidential Election, year=2009, last=Lee, first=Bryan, url=http://www.aaldef.org/docs/AALDEF-ExitPoll-2008.pdf, access-date=2012-04-12, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181017012249/http://www.aaldef.org/docs/AALDEF-ExitPoll-2008.pdf, archive-date=2018-10-17, url-status=dead And another poll done by the AALDEF suggest the majority of Korean Americans that voted in the 2008 Presidential Election favored Democrat
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...
by a 64% to 35% margin over Republican John McCain In the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election, Korean Americans favored Democrat
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...
over Republican John McCain, around 59% to 41%. However, there are still more registered Republican Korean Americans than registered Democrats. Korean-Americans, due to their Republican and Christian leanings, overwhelmingly supported California's constitutional gay marriage ban, Proposition 8. According to a multilingual exit poll from the 2012 election, 77% of Korean Americans voted for Democrat
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...
, while only 20% voted for Republican Mitt Romney.{{cite web, title=2012 AALDEF exit poll, url=http://aaldef.org/AALDEF%202012%20Exit%20Poll%20Presentation.pdf, publisher=Aaldef.org, access-date=9 January 2018, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130928003350/http://aaldef.org/AALDEF%202012%20Exit%20Poll%20Presentation.pdf, archive-date=28 September 2013, url-status=dead The poll also showed that 60% of Korean Americans identify themselves as being Democrats, while only 14% of Korean Americans identify themselves as being Republican. In the 2016 presidential election, a majority of Korean Americans (75%) voted for Hillary Clinton.


Korean Americans in Congress

Elected in 1992,
Jay Kim Jay Chang Joon Kim (; born March 27, 1939) is a Korean-American politician and former member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California and ambassador for Korean-American relations. He was the first Korean American to be elected to ...
was the first Korean American person elected to Congress. He represented portions of Orange County, California. He was defeated for re-election in the Republican primary in 1998. In 2018, Andy Kim was elected to Congress from central New Jersey, becoming the first Democratic and second overall Korean American to serve in Congress. The 2020 elections saw the first three Korean American women elected to Congress, Republicans Young Kim and
Michelle Steel Michelle Eunjoo Steel ( Park, born June 21, 1955) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for California's 45th congressional district since 2023, previously representing the 48th congressional district from 2021 to 2023. A ...
of California and Democrat
Marilyn Strickland Marilyn Strickland (born September 25, 1962) is an American politician who is the U.S. representative from Washington's 10th congressional district. The district is based in the state capital of Olympia, and also includes much of eastern Tacom ...
of Washington. Out of the five Korean Americans elected to the U.S. Congress{{When, date=November 2022, only Andy Kim was born in the United States: Jay Kim, Young Kim, Michelle Steel, and Marilyn Strickland were all born in Korea and immigrated, with Strickland having a father in the American military.


Religion

{{Pie chart , thumb = right , caption = Religious Makeup of Korean-Americans (2012) , label1 =
Protestantism Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
, value1 = 61 , color1 = DarkBlue , label2 = Unaffiliated , value2 = 23 , color2 = Gray , label3 = Catholicism , value3 =10 , color3 = Purple , label4 = , value4 = , color4 = , label5 =
Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
, value5 = 6 , color5 = Gold Korean Americans have historically had a very strong Christian—particularly Protestant—heritage. Between 60% and 65% identify as Christian; 40% of those consist of immigrants who were not Christians at the time of their arrival in the United States. There are about 4,000 Korean Christian churches in the United States. According to a 2016 survey, Presbyterian churches accounted for 42%, followed by Baptists (17%) and Methodists (12%). However, according to a recent{{When, date=November 2022 study by UC Riverside, 64% of Korean American Christians identify as Presbyterians, followed by Methodists (11%) and Baptists (7%). There are{{When, date=November 2022 only 89 Korean Buddhist temples in the United States; the largest such temple, Los Angeles' Sa Chal Temple, was established in 1974.{{citation, title=Being Buddhist in a Christian World: Gender and Community in a Korean American Temple, last=Suh, first=Sharon A., publisher=University of Washington Press, isbn=0-295-98378-7, pages=3–5, year=2004 A small minority, about 2 to 10% of Korean Americans are Buddhist.{{cite book, last=Lee, first=Jonathan H. X., author2=Kathleen M. Nadeau, title=Encyclopedia of Asian American folklore and folklife, publisher=ABC-CLIO, year=2011, pag
703
isbn=978-0-313-35066-5, url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofas00leej/page/703
Reasons given for the conversion of immigrant Korean families to Christianity include the responsiveness of Christian churches to immigrant needs as well as their communal nature, whereas Buddhist temples foster individual spirituality and practice and provide fewer social networking and business opportunities, as well as social pressure from other Koreans to convert. Most Korean American Christians do not practice traditional Confucian ancestral rites practiced in Korea (in Korea, most Catholics, Buddhists, and nonbelievers practice these rites).


Cuisine

"Korean American cuisine" can be described as a fusion of traditional Korean cuisine with American culture and tastes. Dishes such as " Korean tacos" have emerged from the contacts between Korean bodega owners and their Mexican workers in the Los Angeles area, spreading from one food truck (
Kogi Korean BBQ Kogi Korean BBQ is a fleet of five fusion food trucks in Los Angeles famous both for their combination of Korean with Mexican food and also for their reliance on Internet technology, especially Twitter and YouTube, to spread information abou ...
) in November 2008 to the national stage eighteen months later. According to Chef Roy Choi (of Kogi Korean BBQ fame), sundubu-jjigae was a dish developed by Korean immigrants in Los Angeles. In 2021, '' Thrillist'' named Bergen County, New Jersey as America’s best Korean barbecue destination. Often, chefs borrow from Korean flavors and preparation techniques that they will integrate into the style they are most comfortable with (whether it be Tex-Mex, Chinese or purely American). Even a classic staple of the American diet, the hamburger, is available with a Korean twist—
bulgogi ''Bulgogi'' (불고기; ; from Korean ''bul-gogi'' ), literally "fire meat", is a ''gui'' (구이; Korean-style grilled or roasted dish) made of thin, marinated slices of meat, most commonly beef, grilled on a barbecue or on a stove-top gri ...
(Korean BBQ) burgers. With the popularity of cooking and culinary sampling, chefs, housewives, food junkies and culinary aficionados have been bolder in their choices, favoring more inventive, specialty and ethnic dishes. Already popular in its subset populations peppered throughout the United States, Korean food debuted in the many Koreatowns found in metropolitan areas including in
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...
; Garden Grove and Bunea Park in
Orange County, California Orange County is located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in Southern California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,186,989, making it the third-most-populous county in California, the sixth-most-populous in the United States, ...
;
Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...
and
Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
; Palisades Park and Fort Lee in Bergen County, New Jersey; Annandale, Virginia;
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...
;
Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,7 ...
;
Dallas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...
; and
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
. Korean cuisine has unique and bold flavors, colors and styles; these include kimchi, an often spicy dish made of salted and fermented vegetables ( baechu-kimchi, kkaktugi), long-fermented pastes ( gochujang,
doenjang ''Doenjang'' * (; "thick sauce") or soybean paste is a type of fermented bean paste made entirely of soybean and brine. It is also a byproduct of soup soy sauce production. It is sometimes used as a relish. History The earliest soybean fer ...
), rice cake or noodle dishes and stews ( tteok-bokki, naengmyun), marinated and grilled meats (
bulgogi ''Bulgogi'' (불고기; ; from Korean ''bul-gogi'' ), literally "fire meat", is a ''gui'' (구이; Korean-style grilled or roasted dish) made of thin, marinated slices of meat, most commonly beef, grilled on a barbecue or on a stove-top gri ...
, galbi), and many seafood dishes using fish cakes, octopus, squid, shellfish and fish. The Korean dining scene was noted to have grown sharply in New Jersey during 2018.
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190103212049/https://www.nj.com/expo/life-and-culture/g66l-2019/01/17cb8ba3108536/the-18-most-popular-new-jersey.html, date=2019-01-03 Accessed January 3, 2019.
Broad Avenue in Bergen County's Palisades Park Koreatown in New Jersey has evolved into a List of Korean desserts, Korean dessert destination as well; while a five-mile long " Kimchi Belt" has emerged in the Long Island Koreatown in New York.{{cite web, url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/17/dining/critics-notebook-pete-wells-explores-korean-restaurants-in-queens.html, title=In Queens, Kimchi Is Just the Start - Pete Wells Explores Korean Restaurants in Queens, author=Pete Wells, newspaper=The New York Times, date=December 16, 2014, access-date=December 16, 2014, archive-date=December 16, 2014, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141216200832/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/17/dining/critics-notebook-pete-wells-explores-korean-restaurants-in-queens.html, url-status=live Korean coffeehouse chain Caffe Bene, also serving misugaru, has attracted Korean American entrepreneurs as franchisees to launch its initial expansion into the United States, starting with Bergen County, New Jersey and the New York City Metropolitan Area.


Undocumented immigration

{{See also, Illegal immigration to the United States, Asian American#Illegal immigration, l2=Illegal immigration amongst Asian Americans In 2012, the
Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-ter ...
estimated that there were 230,000 "unauthorized immigrants" born in South Korea; they are the seventh-largest nationality of undocumented immigrants behind those from
Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...
, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, the
Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...
and
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...
.{{cite web , url=https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/ois_ill_pe_2012_2.pdf , title=Estimates of the Unauthorized Immigrant Population Residing in the United States: January 2012 , author=Nancy Rytina , author2=Bryan C. Baker , date=January 2012 , work=DHS Office of Immigration Statistics , publisher= United States Department of Homeland Security , access-date=April 16, 2016 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180818013207/https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/ois_ill_pe_2012_2.pdf , archive-date=August 18, 2018 , url-status=dead


Notable people

{{main list, List of Korean Americans


See also

{{Portal, North Korea, South Korea, United States * Asian Americans * Demographics of the United States *
Greater Dallas Korean American Chamber of Commerce Greater Dallas Korean American Chamber of Commerce (GDKACC) is a chamber of commerce that represents Korean-American businesses and institutions in Koreatown, Dallas, Texas and in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. The Greater Dallas Korean Americ ...
*
International adoption of South Korean children The international adoption of South Korean children was at first started as a result of a large number of orphaned mixed children from the Korean War after 1953, but later included orphaned Korean children. Religious organizations in the United S ...
*
Joseon–United States Treaty of 1882 A Treaty of Peace, Amity, Commerce and Navigation (, Hanja: 朝美修好通商條約), also known as the Shufeldt Treaty, was negotiated between representatives of the United States and Korea in 1882. The treaty was written in English and Hanj ...
* KoreAm * Korean diaspora * Korean National Association * Koreans in New York City * Koreans in Washington, D.C. *
Koreans Koreans ( South Korean: , , North Korean: , ; see names of Korea) are an East Asian ethnic group native to the Korean Peninsula. Koreans mainly live in the two Korean nation states: North Korea and South Korea (collectively and simply r ...
* Koreatown * Koreatown, Fort Lee * Koreatown, Long Island *
Koreatown, Los Angeles Koreatown ( ko, 코리아타운) is a neighborhood in central Los Angeles, California, centered near Eighth Street and Irolo Street. Koreans began immigrating in larger numbers in the 1960s and found housing in the Mid-Wilshire area. Many open ...
* Koreatown, Manhattan * Koreatown, Palisades Park * Koreatown, Philadelphia * List of American writers of Korean descent * List of Korean Americans * National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (NAKASEC) – progressive immigrant rights organization * yKAN *
History of Korean Americans in Greater Los Angeles As of 2008, the sixty thousand ethnic Koreans in Greater Los Angeles constituted the largest Korean community in the United States. Their number made up 15 percent of the country's Korean American population.Kim, Jongyun, p75 History A first w ...


References

{{Reflist


Further reading

* Abelmann, Nancy and Lie, John. ''Blue Dreams: Korean Americans and the Los Angeles Riots.'' (1995). 272 pp. * Kibria, Nazli. ''Becoming Asian American: Second-Generation Chinese and Korean American Identities'' (2003) * Kim, Ilpyong J. ''Korean-Americans: Past, Present, and Future'' (Hollym International, 2004). * Kim, Katherine Yungmee. ''Los Angeles's Koreatown'' (2010) * Korean American Historical Society, comp. ''Han in the Upper Left: A Brief History of Korean Americans in the Pacific Northwest.'' (Seattle: Chin Music, 2015. 103 pp.) * Kwak, Tae-Hwan, and Seong Hyong Lee, eds. ''The Korean American Community: Present and Future'' (Seoul: Kyungnam University Press, 1991). * Lehrer, Brian. ''The Korean Americans'' (Chelsea House, 1988). * Min, Pyong Gap. ''Caught in the Middle: Korean Communities in New York and Los Angeles.'' (1996). 260 pp. * {{cite web, author=Min, Pyong Gap, url=https://www.qc.cuny.edu/Academics/Centers/RCKC/Documents/Koreans%20Immigration%20to%20the%20US.pdf, title=KOREANS' IMMIGRATION TO THE U. S: HISTORY AND CONTEMPORARY TRENDS, publisher=The Research Center for Korean Community, Queens College of CUNY, date=2011-01-27 * Nash, Amy. "Korean Americans." in ''Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America,'' edited by Thomas Riggs, (3rd ed., vol. 3, Gale, 2014), pp. 23–39
online
* Oh, Arissa H., "From War Waif to Ideal Immigrant: The Cold War Transformation of the Korean Orphan," ''Journal of American Ethnic History'' (2012), 31#1 pp 34–55. * Park, Kyeyoung. ''The Korean American Dream: Immigrants and Small Business in New York City'' (1997) * Park, Kyu Young. ''Korean Americans in Chicago'' (2003) * Patterson, Wayne. ''The Korean Frontier in America: Immigration to Hawaii, 1896–1910'' (University of Hawaii Press, 1988). * Patterson, Wayne, and Hyung-Chan Kim. ''Koreans in America'' (Lerner Publications, 1992) * Takaki, Ronald. ''From the Land of Morning Calm: The Koreans in America'' (Chelsea House, 1994). * Won Moo Hurh. ''The Korean Americans'' (Greenwood Press, 1998).


External links

{{Commons category, Korean diaspora in the United States
Korean Cultural Center

KoreanAmericanStory.org: A Non-profit Organization Dedicated to Preserving Stories of Korean-Americans

Arirang – Interactive History of Korean Americans
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927061412/http://www.arirangeducation.com/ , date=2011-09-27


KoreAm Journal

Korean-American Community and Directory

Korean American Foundation

Korean American Heritage Foundation

Korean American Historical Society

Korean American literature

The Korean American Museum

Early Korean Immigrants to America: Their Role in the Establishment of the Republic of Korea
{{Asian Americans {{Korean diaspora {{DEFAULTSORT:Korean American American people of Korean descent
American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...
Asian-American society East Asian American