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Asian Americans are
Americans Americans are the Citizenship of the United States, citizens and United States nationality law, nationals of the United States, United States of America.; ; Law of the United States, U.S. federal law does not equate nationality with Race (hu ...
with ancestry from the continent of Asia (including
naturalized Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-national of a country acquires the nationality of that country after birth. The definition of naturalization by the International Organization for Migration of the ...
Americans who are
immigrants Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as permanent residents. Commuters, tourists, and other short- ...
from specific regions in
Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...
and descendants of those immigrants). Although this term had historically been used for all the indigenous peoples of the continent of Asia, the usage of the term "Asian" by the
United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...
denotes a racial category that includes people with origins or ancestry from
East Asia East Asia is a geocultural region of Asia. It includes China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan, plus two special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau. The economies of Economy of China, China, Economy of Ja ...
,
South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...
,
Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...
, and
Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...
. It excludes people with ethnic origins from
West Asia West Asia (also called Western Asia or Southwest Asia) is the westernmost region of Asia. As defined by most academics, UN bodies and other institutions, the subregion consists of Anatolia, the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Mesopotamia, the Armenian ...
, who were historically classified as 'white' and will be categorized as
Middle Eastern Americans Middle Eastern Americans are Americans of Middle Eastern background. Although once considered Asian Americans, the modern definition of "Asian American" now excludes people with West Asian backgrounds. According to the 2020 United States census ...
starting from the 2030 census.
Central Asian Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...
ancestries (including
Afghan Afghan or Afgan may refer to: Related to Afghanistan *Afghans, historically refers to the Pashtun people. It is both an ethnicity and nationality. Ethnicity wise, it refers to the Pashtuns. In modern terms, it means both the citizens of Afghanist ...
, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik,
Turkmen Turkmen, Türkmen, Turkoman, or Turkman may refer to: Peoples Historical ethnonym * Turkoman (ethnonym), ethnonym used for the Oghuz Turks during the Middle Ages Ethnic groups * Turkmen in Anatolia and the Levant (Seljuk and Ottoman-Turkish desc ...
, and Uzbek) were previously not included in any racial category but have been designated as "Asian" as of 2024. The "Asian" census category includes people who indicate their race(s) on the census as "Asian" or reported entries such as "
Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...
,
Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...
,
Bangladeshi Bangladeshis ( ) are the citizens and nationals of Bangladesh, a South Asian country centred on the transnational historical region of Bengal along the Bay of Bengal, eponymous bay. Bangladeshi nationality law, Bangladeshi citizenship was fo ...
, Filipino,
Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overseas Vietnamese, Vietnamese people living outside Vietna ...
,
Indonesian Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to: * Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia ** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago ** Indonesian ...
,
Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...
,
Japanese 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 diaspor ...
,
Pakistani Pakistanis (, ) are the citizens and nationals of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Pakistan is the fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the second-largest Muslim population as of 2023. As much as ...
, Thai, and Other Asian". In 2020, Americans who identified as Asian alone (19,886,049) or in combination with other races (4,114,949) made up 7.2% of the US population. Chinese, Indian, and Filipino Americans make up the largest share of the Asian American population with 5.5 million, 5.2 million, and 4.6 million people respectively. These numbers equal 23%, 20%, and 18% of the total Asian American population, or 1.5%, 1.2%, and 1.2% of the total US population. Vietnamese Americans are the 4th largest Asian American population, and Korean Americans are the 5th largest with both populations making up 8% of the Asian American population respectively. Although migrants from Asia have been in parts of the contemporary United States since the 17th century, large-scale immigration did not begin until the mid-19th century. Nativist immigration laws during the 1880s–1920s excluded various Asian groups, eventually prohibiting almost all Asian immigration to the continental United States. After immigration laws were reformed during the 1940s–1960s, abolishing national origins quotas, Asian immigration increased rapidly. Analyses of the 2010 census have shown that, by percentage change, Asian Americans are the fastest-growing racial group in the United States.


Terminology

As with other
racial Race is a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society. The term came into common usage during the 16th century, when it was used to refer to groups of va ...
and
ethnicity An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people with shared attributes, which they Collective consciousness, collectively believe to have, and long-term endogamy. Ethnicities share attributes like language, culture, common sets of ancestry, ...
-based
terms Term may refer to: Language *Terminology, context-specific nouns or compound words **Technical term (or ''term of art''), used by specialists in a field ***Scientific terminology, used by scientists *Term (argumentation), part of an argument in d ...
, formal and common usage have changed markedly through the short history of this term. Prior to the late 1960s, people of various Asian ancestries were usually referred to as ''Yellow'', ''
Oriental The Orient is a term referring to the East in relation to Europe, traditionally comprising anything belonging to the Eastern world. It is the antonym of the term ''Occident'', which refers to the Western world. In English, it is largely a meto ...
'', ''Asiatic'', ''
Brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing and painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors Orange (colour), orange and black. In the ...
'', ''
Mongoloid Mongoloid () is an obsolete racial grouping of various peoples indigenous to large parts of Asia, the Americas, and some regions in Europe and Oceania. The term is derived from a now-disproven theory of biological race. In the past, other terms ...
'', or ''Hindoo''. Additionally, the American definition of 'Asian' originally included
West Asia West Asia (also called Western Asia or Southwest Asia) is the westernmost region of Asia. As defined by most academics, UN bodies and other institutions, the subregion consists of Anatolia, the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Mesopotamia, the Armenian ...
n ethnic groups, particularly
Turkish Americans Turkish Americans () or American Turks are Americans of ethnic Turkish origin. The term "Turkish Americans" can therefore refer to ethnic Turkish immigrants to the United States, as well as their American-born descendants, who originate eith ...
,
Armenian Americans Armenian Americans () are citizens or residents of the United States who have total or partial Armenian ancestry. They form the second largest community of the Armenian diaspora after Armenians in Russia. The first major wave of Armenian immig ...
,
Assyrian Americans Assyrian Americans () refers to individuals of ethnic Assyrian ancestry born or residing within the United States. Assyrians are an indigenous Middle Eastern ethnic group native to Mesopotamia in West Asia who descend from their ancient cou ...
,
Iranian Americans Iranian-Americans, also known as Persian-Americans, are United States citizens or nationals who are of Iranian ancestry, or who hold Iranian citizenship. Most Iranian-Americans arrived in the United States after 1979, as a result of the Irani ...
,
Kurdish Americans Kurds in the United States () refers to people born in or residing in the United States of Kurdish origin or those considered to be ethnic Kurds. The majority of Kurdish Americans are recent migrants from Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. Most h ...
,
Jewish Americans American Jews (; ) or Jewish Americans are Americans, American citizens who are Jews, Jewish, whether by Jewish culture, culture, ethnicity, or Judaism, religion. According to a 2020 poll conducted by Pew Research, approximately two thirds of Am ...
of
Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...
ern descent, and certain
Arab Americans Arab Americans ( or ) are Americans who trace ancestry to any of the Arab immigration to the United States, various waves of immigrants from the Arabic-speaking countries. In the United States census, Arabs are racially classified as White Amer ...
, although in modern times, these groups are now considered
Middle Eastern American Middle Eastern Americans are Americans of Middle Eastern background. Although once considered Asian Americans, the modern definition of "Asian American" now excludes people with West Asian backgrounds. According to the 2020 United States census ...
and grouped under
White Americans White Americans (sometimes also called Caucasian Americans) are Americans who identify as white people. In a more official sense, the United States Census Bureau, which collects demographic data on Americans, defines "white" as " person hav ...
in the census.

The term "Asian American" was coined by historian-activists
Yuji Ichioka Yuji Ichioka (, June 23, 1936 – September 1, 2002) was a Japanese American historian and civil rights activist, widely regarded as the preeminent scholar of Japanese American history. Ichioka was a pioneer in the field of Asian American ...
and
Emma Gee Emma Gee (1939 – April 15, 2023) was an American activist, scholar, lecturer, and writer, best known for helping to coin the term "Asian Americans, Asian American" and co-founding the Asian American Political Alliance with her later husband, Y ...
in 1968 during the founding of the Asian American Political Alliance, and they were also credited with popularizing the term, which meant to be used to frame a new "inter-ethnic-pan-Asian American self-defining political group". This effort was part of
New Left The New Left was a broad political movement that emerged from the counterculture of the 1960s and continued through the 1970s. It consisted of activists in the Western world who, in reaction to the era's liberal establishment, campaigned for freer ...
anti-war An anti-war movement is a social movement in opposition to one or more nations' decision to start or carry on an armed conflict. The term ''anti-war'' can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during conf ...
and
anti-imperialist Anti-imperialism in political science and international relations is opposition to imperialism or neocolonialism. Anti-imperialist sentiment typically manifests as a political principle in independence struggles against intervention or influenc ...
activism, directly opposing what was viewed as an unjust
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
. Prior to being included in the "Asian" category in the 1980s, many Americans of South Asian descent usually classified themselves as ''Caucasian'' or ''other''. Changing patterns of immigration and an extensive period of exclusion of Asian immigrants have resulted in demographic changes that have in turn affected the formal and common understandings of what defines Asian American. For example, since the removal of restrictive "national origins" quotas in 1965, the Asian American population has diversified greatly to include more of the peoples with ancestry from various parts of Asia. Today, "Asian American" is the accepted term for most formal purposes, such as government and academic research, although it is often shortened to ''Asian'' in common usage. The most commonly used definition of Asian American is the US Census Bureau definition, which includes all people with origins in
East Asia East Asia is a geocultural region of Asia. It includes China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan, plus two special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau. The economies of Economy of China, China, Economy of Ja ...
,
South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...
, and
Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...
.United States Census Bureau,
Census 2000 Summary File 1 Technical Documentation
'', 2001, at Appendix B-14. "A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam. It includes ''Asian Indian'', ''Chinese'', ''Filipino'', ''Korean'', ''Japanese'', ''Vietnamese'', and ''Other Asian''."
This is chiefly because the census definitions determine many governmental classifications, notably for equal opportunity programs and measurements. According to the
Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP), a University of Oxford publishing house. The dictionary, which published its first editio ...
, "Asian person" in the United States is most often thought of as a person of
East Asian East Asia is a geocultural region of Asia. It includes China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan, plus two special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau. The economies of Economy of China, China, Economy of Ja ...
descent. In vernacular usage, "Asian" is usually used to refer to those of East or
Southeast Asian Southeast Asia is the geographical southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Australian mainland, which is part of Oceania. Southeast Asia is ...
descent, with
South Asians Ethnic groups in South Asia are ethnolinguistic groupings within the diverse populations of South Asia, including the countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Afghanistan is variously considered to be a p ...
not included as often. This differs from the US census definition, and the Asian American Studies departments in many universities consider all those of East, South, or Southeast Asian descent to be "Asian".


Census definition

In the
US census The United States census (plural censuses or census) is a census that is legally mandated by the Constitution of the United States. It takes place every ten years. The first census after the American Revolution was taken in 1790 under Secretar ...
, people with origins or ancestry in East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Central Asia are classified as part of the Asian race; while those with origins or ancestry in parts of West Asia (
Israelis Israelis (; ) are the Israeli citizenship law, citizens and nationals of the Israel, State of Israel. The country's populace is composed primarily of Israeli Jews, Jews and Arab citizens of Israel, Arabs, who respectively account for 75 percen ...
,
Turks Turk or Turks may refer to: Communities and ethnic groups * Turkish people, or the Turks, a Turkic ethnic group and nation * Turkish citizen, a citizen of the Republic of Turkey * Turkic peoples, a collection of ethnic groups who speak Turkic lang ...
,
Persians Persians ( ), or the Persian people (), are an Iranian ethnic group from West Asia that came from an earlier group called the Proto-Iranians, which likely split from the Indo-Iranians in 1800 BCE from either Afghanistan or Central Asia. They ...
,
Kurds Kurds (), or the Kurdish people, are an Iranian peoples, Iranic ethnic group from West Asia. They are indigenous to Kurdistan, which is a geographic region spanning southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syri ...
,
Assyrians Assyrians (, ) are an ethnic group indigenous to Mesopotamia, a geographical region in West Asia. Modern Assyrians share descent directly from the ancient Assyrians, one of the key civilizations of Mesopotamia. While they are distinct from ot ...
,
Arabs Arabs (,  , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of yea ...
, etc.) and the
Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...
(
Georgians Georgians, or Kartvelians (; ka, ქართველები, tr, ), are a nation and Peoples of the Caucasus, Caucasian ethnic group native to present-day Georgia (country), Georgia and surrounding areas historically associated with the Ge ...
,
Armenians Armenians (, ) are an ethnic group indigenous to the Armenian highlands of West Asia.Robert Hewsen, Hewsen, Robert H. "The Geography of Armenia" in ''The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times Volume I: The Dynastic Periods: From Antiq ...
,
Azerbaijanis Azerbaijanis (; , ), Azeris (, ), or Azerbaijani Turks (, ) are a Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group living mainly in the Azerbaijan (Iran), Azerbaijan region of northwestern Iran and the Azerbaijan, Republic of Azerbaijan. They are predomin ...
,
Chechens The Chechens ( ; , , Old Chechen: Нахчой, ''Naxçoy''), historically also known as ''Kistin, Kisti'' and ''Durdzuks'', are a Northeast Caucasian languages, Northeast Caucasian ethnic group of the Nakh peoples native to the North Caucasus. ...
,
Circassians The Circassians or Circassian people, also called Cherkess or Adyghe (Adyghe language, Adyghe and ), are a Northwest Caucasian languages, Northwest Caucasian ethnic group and nation who originated in Circassia, a region and former country in t ...
, etc.) are classified under the "Middle Eastern and
North African North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...
" race.United States Census Bureau, 2000 Census of Population, Public Law 94-171 Redistricting Data File.. (archived fro
the original
on November 3, 2001).
As such, "Asian" and "African" ancestry are seen as racial categories only for the purpose of the census, with the definition referring to ancestry from parts of the Asian and African continents outside of parts of West Asia and
North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...
. In 1980 and before, census forms listed particular Asian ancestries as separate groups, along with ''white'' and ''black or negro''. Asian Americans had also been classified as "other".Lee, Gordon. ''Hyphen'' magazine. . 2003. January 28, 2007 (archived fro
the original
on March 17, 2008).
In 1977, the federal
Office of Management and Budget The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP). The office's most prominent function is to produce the president's budget, while it also examines agency pro ...
issued a directive requiring government agencies to maintain statistics on racial groups, including on "Asian or Pacific Islander". By the 1990 census, "Asian or Pacific Islander (API)" was included as an explicit category, although respondents had to select one particular ancestry as a subcategory. Beginning with the 2000 census, two separate categories were used: "Asian American" and "Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander".


Debates and criticism

The definition of ''Asian American'' has variations that derive from the use of the word ''American'' in different contexts. Immigration status, citizenship (by birthright and by naturalization), acculturation, and language ability are some variables that are used to define ''American'' for various purposes and may vary in formal and everyday usage. For example, restricting ''American'' to include only US citizens conflicts with discussions of Asian American businesses, which generally refer both to citizen and non-citizen owners. A 2023
Pew Research Center The Pew Research Center (also simply known as Pew) is a nonpartisan American think tank based in Washington, D.C. It provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and the world. It ...
survey of Asian Americans found that 28% self-identify as "Asian", with 52% preferring to refer to themselves by more specific ethnic groupings and 10% simply self-identifying as "American". In a PBS interview from 2004, a panel of Asian American writers discussed how some groups include people of Middle Eastern descent in the Asian American category. Asian American author Stewart Ikeda has noted, "The definition of 'Asian American' also frequently depends on who's asking, who's defining, in what context, and why... the possible definitions of 'Asian-Pacific American' are many, complex, and shifting... some scholars in Asian American Studies conferences suggest that Russians, Iranians, and Israelis all might fit the field's subject of study."
Jeff Yang Jeff Yang ( zh, t=楊致和; born ) is an American writer, journalist, businessman, and business/media consultant who writes the ''Tao Jones'' column for ''The Wall Street Journal''. Previously, he was the "Asian Pop" columnist at the ''San Fra ...
, of ''
The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...
'', writes that the
panethnic Panethnicity is a political neologism used to group various ethnic groups together based on their related cultural origins; geographic, linguistic, religious, or "racial" (i.e. phenotypic) similarities are often used alone or in combination to dr ...
definition of Asian American is a unique American construct, and as an identity is "in
beta Beta (, ; uppercase , lowercase , or cursive ; or ) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 2. In Ancient Greek, beta represented the voiced bilabial plosive . In Modern Greek, it represe ...
". The majority of Asian Americans feel ambivalence about the term "Asian American" as a term by which to identify themselves. Pyong Gap Min, a sociologist and Professor of Sociology at
Queens College Queens College (QC) is a public college in the New York City borough of Queens. Part of the City University of New York system, Queens College occupies an campus primarily located in Flushing. Queens College was established in 1937 and offe ...
, has stated the term is merely political, used by Asian American activists and further reinforced by the government. Beyond that, he feels that South Asians and East Asians do not have commonalities in "culture, physical characteristics, or pre-migrant historical experiences". Scholars have grappled with the accuracy, correctness, and usefulness of the term Asian American. The term "Asian" in Asian American most often comes under fire for only encompassing some of the diverse peoples of Asia, and for being considered a racial category instead of a non-racial "ethnic" category. This is namely due to the categorization of the racially different South Asians and East Asians as part of the same "race". Furthermore, it has been noted that West Asians (whom are not considered "Asian" under the US census) share some cultural similarities with Indians but very little with East Asians, with the latter two groups being classified as "Asian". Scholars have also found it difficult to determine why Asian Americans are considered a "race" while Americans of Hispanic and Latino heritage are a non-racial "ethnic group", given how the category of Asian Americans similarly comprises people with diverse origins.Lee, S.S., Mountain, J. & Koenig, B.A. (2001). The Meanings of Race in the New Genomics: Implications for Health Disparities Research. '' Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law, and Ethics 1,'' (1). Pages 43, 44, & 45
Wayback Machine link
However, it has been argued that South Asians and East Asians can be "justifiably" grouped together because of Buddhism's origins in South Asia and contemporary practice in East Asia. In contrast, leading
social science Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among members within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the ...
s and
humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture, including Philosophy, certain fundamental questions asked by humans. During the Renaissance, the term "humanities" referred to the study of classical literature a ...
scholars of race and Asian American identity point out that because of the racial constructions in the United States, including the social attitudes toward race and those of Asian ancestry, Asian Americans have a "shared racial experience". Because of this shared experience, the term Asian American is argued as still being a useful
panethnic Panethnicity is a political neologism used to group various ethnic groups together based on their related cultural origins; geographic, linguistic, religious, or "racial" (i.e. phenotypic) similarities are often used alone or in combination to dr ...
category because of the similarity of some experiences among Asian Americans, including stereotypes specific to people in this category. Despite this, others have stated that many Americans do not treat all Asian Americans equally, highlighting the fact that "Asian American" is generally synonymous with people of East Asian descent, thereby excluding people of Southeast Asian and South Asian origin. Some South and Southeast Asian Americans may not identify with the Asian American label, instead describing themselves as "Brown Asians" or simply "Brown", due to the perceived racial and cultural differences between them and East Asian Americans.


Demographics

The demographics of Asian Americans describe a heterogeneous group of people in the United States who can trace their ancestry to one or more countries in East, South, Southeast, or Central Asia. Because they compose 7.3% of the entire US population, the diversity of the group is often disregarded in media and news discussions of "Asians" or of "Asian Americans". While there are some commonalities across ethnic subgroups, there are significant differences among different Asian ethnicities that are related to each group's history. The Asian American population is greatly urbanized, with nearly three-quarters of them living in metropolitan areas with population greater than 2.5 million. , California had the largest population of Asian Americans of any state, and Hawaii was the only state where Asian Americans were the majority of the population. The demographics of Asian Americans can further be subdivided into, as listed in alphabetical order: * East Asian Americans, including
Chinese Americans Chinese Americans are Americans of Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans have ancestors from mainland China, Hong Kong ...
, Hong Kong Americans,
Japanese Americans are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian Americans, Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 United States census, 2000 census, they have declined in ...
,
Korean Americans Korean Americans () are Americans of full or partial Korean ethnicity, Korean ethnic descent. While the broader term Overseas Korean in America () may refer to all ethnic Koreans residing in the United States, the specific designation of Kore ...
, Macanese Americans,
Mongolian Americans Mongolian Americans () are American citizens who are of full or partial Mongolian ancestry. The term Mongol American is also used to include ethnic Mongol immigrants from groups outside of Mongolia as well, such as Kalmyks, Buryats, and people ...
, Ryukyuan Americans,
Taiwanese Americans Taiwanese Americans ( Chinese: 臺灣裔美國人; pinyin: ''Táiwān yì měiguó rén''; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: ''Tâi-Bí-jîn'') are Americans of Taiwanese ancestry, including American-born descendants of migrants from the Republic of China (Taiwan) ...
,
Tibetan Americans Tibetan Americans are Americans of Tibetan ancestry. As of 2020, more than 26,700 Americans are estimated to have Tibetan ancestry. The majority of Tibetan Americans reside in Queens, New York. History Ethnic Tibetans began to immigrate to the ...
, and
Uyghur Americans Uyghur Americans () are Americans of Uyghurs, Uyghur ethnicity. Most Uyghurs emigrated from Xinjiang, China, to the United States from the late 1980s onwards, with a significant number arriving after July 2009. History Uyghurs' history in the ...
. This group makes up around 38% of the Asian-American population. *
South Asian Americans South Asian Americans are Americans of South Asian ancestry. The term refers to those who can trace back their heritage to South Asia, which includes the countries of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and the Maldives. The ...
, including
Baloch Americans Baloch Americans () are Americans of Baloch descent. A 2015 eight-part documentary by VSH News, the first Balochi language news channel, called ''Balochs in America'', shows that Baloch Americans live in different parts of the United States, i ...
,
Bangladeshi Americans Bangladeshi Americans () are American citizens with Bangladeshi origin or descent. Bangladeshi Americans are predominantly Bengali-speaking Muslims. Since the early 1970s, Bangladeshi immigrants have arrived in significant numbers to become o ...
,
Bhutanese Americans Bhutanese Americans are Americans of Bhutanese descent. According to the 2010 census there are 19,439 Americans of Bhutanese descent. However, many Lhotshampa, Nepali-Bhutanese came to the U.S. via Nepal as Bhutanese refugees, political refugees ...
,
Indian Americans Indian Americans are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly from India. The terms Asian Indian and East Indian are used to avoid confusion with Native Americans in the United States, who are also referred to as "Indians" or "Am ...
,
Indo-Caribbean Americans Indo-Caribbean Americans or Indian-Caribbean Americans or Indo-West Indian American, are Americans who trace their ancestry ultimately to India, though whose recent ancestors lived in the West Indies or Caribbean, where they migrated beginning i ...
, Indo-Fijian Americans,
Maldivian Americans Maldivian Americans are Americans whose ethnic origins lie fully or partially in any part of the Maldives The Maldives, officially the Republic of Maldives, and historically known as the Maldive Islands, is an Archipelagic state, archipelag ...
,
Nepalese Americans Nepalese Americans are Americans of Nepalese ancestry. Immigration from Nepal to the United States began in the 20th century, and many have been able to establish themselves as American nationals. The history of immigration from Nepal to Amer ...
,
Pakistani Americans Pakistani Americans () are citizens of the United States who have full or partial ancestry from Pakistan, or more simply, Pakistanis in America. They can be from different ethnic groups in Pakistan like Punjabi or Muhajir. The term may also re ...
, Pashtun Americans, and
Sri Lankan Americans Sri Lankan Americans (, ) are Americans of full or partial Sri Lankan ancestry. Sri Lankan Americans are persons of Sri Lankan origin from various Sri Lankan ethnic backgrounds. The people are classified as South Asian in origin. History Sri ...
. This group makes up around 25% of Asian Americans. * Southeast Asian Americans, including Bruneian Americans,
Burmese Americans Burmese Americans ( ) are Americans of full or partial Burmese ancestry, encompassing individuals of all ethnic backgrounds with ancestry in present-day Myanmar (or Burma), regardless of specific ethnicity. As a subgroup of Asian Americans, Burme ...
,
Cambodian Americans Cambodian Americans, also Khmer Americans, are Americans of Cambodian or Khmer ancestry. In addition, Cambodian Americans are also Americans with ancestry of other ethnic groups of Cambodia, such as the Chams and Chinese Cambodians. According t ...
,
Filipino Americans Filipino Americans () are Americans of Filipino ancestry. Filipinos in North America were first documented in the 16th century and other small settlements beginning in the 18th century. Mass migration did not begin until after the end of the Sp ...
,
Hmong Americans Hmong Americans ( RPA: ''Hmoob Mes Kas'', Pahawh Hmong: "") are Americans of Hmong ancestry. Many Hmong Americans immigrated to the United States as refugees in the late 1970s, with a second wave in the 1980s and 1990s. Over half of the Hmong ...
,
Indonesian Americans Indonesian Americans are migrants from the multiethnic country of Indonesia to the United States, and their U.S.-born descendants. In both the 2000 and 2010 United States census, they were the 15th largest group of Asian Americans recorded in ...
, Iu Mien Americans,
Karen Americans Karen Americans () are Americans of full or partial Karen ancestry. They are a recent but rapidly growing immigrant population in the United States. Many Karen who emigrate are refugees as a result of violence in their homeland. Many come ei ...
,
Laotian Americans Laotian Americans () are Americans who trace their ancestry to Laos. Laotian Americans are included in the larger category of Asian Americans. The major immigrant generation were generally refugees who escaped Laos during the Laotian Civil War, ...
,
Malaysian Americans Malaysian Americans () are Americans of Malaysian ancestry. Rather than a single ethnic group, Malaysian Americans descend from a variety of ethnic groups that inhabit the Southeast Asian country of Malaysia, all of which speak different langua ...
,
Singaporean Americans Singaporean Americans refers to Americans with Singaporean heritage or ancestry. Since the Singaporean government does not permit multiple- citizenshipsbr>it is not lawful for a person to hold both the Singaporean and American citizenships. Ther ...
,
Thai Americans Thai Americans (; formerly referred to as Siamese Americans) are Americans of Thai ancestry. The Thai American population is racially and ethnically diverse, consisting of many Thais who identify as mixed race. History in the United States Sia ...
, Timorese Americans, and
Vietnamese Americans Vietnamese Americans () are Americans of Vietnamese people, Vietnamese ancestry. They constitute a major part of all overseas Vietnamese. As of 2023, over 2.3 million people of Vietnamese descent live in the United States, making them the fourth ...
. This group makes up around 32% of Asian-Americans. * Central Asian Americans, including
Afghan Americans Afghan Americans ( ''Amrikāyi-hāye Afghān tabar'', ''Da Amrīka Afghanan'') are Americans with ancestry from Afghanistan. They form the largest Afghan diaspora, Afghan community in North America with the second being Afghan Canadians. Afghan ...
,
Kazakh Americans Kazakh Americans () are Americans of full or partial Kazakh ancestry. Although in the 1960s the population of Kazakh origin in United States was estimated at 30,030, the 2000 Census put the population size at less than 300. According to the Amer ...
,
Kyrgyz Americans Kyrgyz Americans () are Americans of full or partial Kyrgyz descent. The majority of Kyrgyz Americans have emigrated to the United States from Kyrgyzstan since the country's independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. History Most Kyrgyz migran ...
, Tajik Americans,
Turkmen Americans Central Asian Americans are Americans with ancestry from Central Asia. They include Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik, Turkmen, and Uzbek individuals. People of Afghan, Baloch, and Uyghur descent are also sometimes classified as Central Asians. Althoug ...
, and
Uzbek Americans Uzbek Americans () are Americans of Uzbek descent as well as non-Uzbek former citizens of Uzbekistan. The community also includes those who have dual American and Uzbek citizenship. History Uzbek families have migrated to the United States sin ...
. This group makes up around 1.5% of Asian-Americans. This grouping is by country of origin before immigration to the United States, and not necessarily by ethnicity, as for example (nonexclusive), Singaporean and Malaysian Americans may be of
Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...
,
Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...
, or Malay descent. Asian Americans include multiracial or mixed race persons with origins or ancestry in both the above groups and another race, or multiple of the above groups. In 2020, 1.2% of the US population identified as multiracial Asian, with this group making up over 16% of the Asian American population.


Asian American population by state (2020 Census)


Proportion in each county

File:Asian Americans 1860 County.png, 1860 File:Asian Americans 1870 County.png, 1870 File:Asian Americans 1880 County.png, 1880 File:Asian Americans 1890 County.png, 1890 File:Asian Americans 1990 County.png, 1990 File:Asian Americans 2000 County.png, 2000 File:Asian Americans 2010 County.png, 2010 File:Asian Americans 2020 County.png, 2020


Ancestry

According to estimates from the 2024
American Community Survey The American Community Survey (ACS) is an annual demographics survey program conducted by the United States Census Bureau. It regularly gathers information previously contained only in the long form of the United States census, decennial census ...
, the Asian American population was composed of the following groups:


Language

In 2010, there were 2.8 million people (age 5 and older) who spoke one of the
Chinese language Chinese ( or ) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and List of ethnic groups in China, many minority ethnic groups in China, as well as by various communities of the Chinese diaspora. Approximately 1.39& ...
s at home; after the
Spanish language Spanish () or Castilian () is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. Today, it is a world language, gl ...
, it is the third most common language in the United States. Other sizable
Asian languages Asia is home to hundreds of languages comprising several families and some unrelated isolates. The most spoken language families on the continent include Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Japonic, Dravidian, Indo-European, Afroasiatic, Turkic, ...
are Hindustani (Hindi/Urdu),
Tagalog Tagalog may refer to: Language * Tagalog language, a language spoken in the Philippines ** Old Tagalog, an archaic form of the language ** Batangas Tagalog, a dialect of the language * Tagalog script, the writing system historically used for Tagal ...
,
Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overseas Vietnamese, Vietnamese people living outside Vietna ...
, and
Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...
, with all four having more than 1 million speakers in the United States. In 2012,
Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...
, California, Hawaii,
Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...
, Massachusetts,
Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...
,
Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...
, New Jersey, New York, Texas, and Washington were publishing election material in Asian languages in accordance with the
Voting Rights Act The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting. It was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson during the height of the civil rights movem ...
; these languages include Tagalog,
Mandarin Chinese Mandarin ( ; zh, s=, t=, p=Guānhuà, l=Mandarin (bureaucrat), officials' speech) is the largest branch of the Sinitic languages. Mandarin varieties are spoken by 70 percent of all Chinese speakers over a large geographical area that stretch ...
,
Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overseas Vietnamese, Vietnamese people living outside Vietna ...
, Spanish,
Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...
, and
Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
. Election materials were also available in
Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub- ...
,
Japanese 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 diaspor ...
, Khmer,
Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...
, and Thai. A 2013 poll found that 48 percent of Asian Americans considered media in their native language as their primary news source. The 2000 census found the more prominent languages of the Asian American community to include the Chinese languages (
Cantonese Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...
,
Taishanese Taishanese (), alternatively romanized in Cantonese as Toishanese or Toisanese, in local dialect as Hoisanese or Hoisanwa, is a Yue Chinese language native to Taishan, Guangdong. Even though they are related, Taishanese has little mutual i ...
, and
Hokkien Hokkien ( , ) is a Varieties of Chinese, variety of the Southern Min group of Chinese language, Chinese languages. Native to and originating from the Minnan region in the southeastern part of Fujian in southeastern China, it is also referred ...
),
Tagalog Tagalog may refer to: Language * Tagalog language, a language spoken in the Philippines ** Old Tagalog, an archaic form of the language ** Batangas Tagalog, a dialect of the language * Tagalog script, the writing system historically used for Tagal ...
,
Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overseas Vietnamese, Vietnamese people living outside Vietna ...
,
Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...
, Japanese, Hindi,
Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...
,
Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of South India ** Telugu literature, is the body of works written in the Telugu language. * Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Tel ...
, and
Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub- ...
. In 2008, the Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Tagalog, and Vietnamese languages are all used in elections in Alaska, California, Hawaii, Illinois, New York, Texas, and Washington state.EAC Issues Glossaries of Election Terms in Five Asian Languages Translations to Make Voting More Accessible to a Majority of Asian American Citizens
. Election Assistance Commission. June 20, 2008. (Archived fro
the original
on July 31, 2008).


Sexuality

According to a Gallup survey conducted from June to September 2012, 4.3% of Asian Americans self-identify as
LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...
, compared to 3.4% of the general American population. This makes the Asian-American population disproportionately over-represented within the LGBT community.
In a Gallup survey conducted in 2017, 4.9 percent of Asian Americans identified as LGBT, representing the second-highest growth of LGBT representation in the United States, behind
Hispanic Americans Hispanic and Latino Americans are Americans who have a Spaniards, Spanish or Latin Americans, Latin American background, culture, or family origin. This demographic group includes all Americans who identify as Hispanic or Latino (demonym), ...
.


Religion

According to a
Pew Research Center The Pew Research Center (also simply known as Pew) is a nonpartisan American think tank based in Washington, D.C. It provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and the world. It ...
survey conducted from July 5, 2022, to January 27, 2023, the religious landscape of Asian Americans is both diverse and evolving, encompassing Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and the unaffiliated. These religious identities often intersect with cultural practices, creating a unique blend of spirituality that varies significantly across subgroups. Beyond formal identification, many Asian Americans express cultural or ancestral connections to religious traditions, highlighting the multifaceted role of religion in their lives.Asian Americans: A Mosaic of Faiths
(overview)
Archive
.
Pew Research The Pew Research Center (also simply known as Pew) is a nonpartisan American think tank based in Washington, D.C. It provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and the world. It als ...
. July 19, 2020. Retrieved on May 3, 2020.
Christianity has experienced the largest decline, dropping from 42% in 2012 to 34% in 2023, reflecting increasing secularisation in the United States and immigration from countries in which Christianity is a minority religion (China and India in particular). This development has been accompanied by a rise in traditional Asian religions, with the people identifying with them doubling during the same decade.


Christianity

Christianity encompasses the largest tradition, accounting for 34% of Asian American adults. This group is evenly split by Catholics (17%) and Protestants (16%), including 10% who identify as evangelical Protestants. Beyond formal religious identification, an additional 18% report a cultural or familial closeness to Christianity. Filipino and Korean Americans display particularly strong affiliations with Christianity. Among Filipino Americans, 74% identify as Christian, and when considering those who feel culturally close to Christianity, this figure rises to 90%. Among Korean Americans, 59% identify as Christians, and 81% express some connection to the faith. Most Filipino Americans are Catholic (57%), whereas Korean Americans tend to be Protestant, with 34% identifying as evangelical Protestants.


Unaffiliated

The religiously unaffiliated encompasses individuals identifying as atheist, agnostic, or "nothing in particular." The share of those who are religiously unaffiliated has increased from 26% in 2012 to 32% in 2023. Despite a lack of formal religious affiliation, a significant number of religiously unaffiliated Asian Americans maintain a connection to various religious or philosophical traditions due to cultural or ancestral reasons. In total, only 12% of Asian Americans report having no connection to any religious or philosophical tradition. Among Asian Americans, Chinese and Japanese Americans are more likely to be religiously unaffiliated, with 56% and 47% respectively identifying as such. Both groups are also more likely to feel a cultural or ancestral connection to a faith tradition despite their lack of formal religious affiliation. Conversely, Indian, Filipino, and Vietnamese Americans are considerably less likely to be religiously unaffiliated and more likely to express some form of connection to a religious tradition.


Buddhism

According to a 2023 Pew Research Center report, approximately 11% of Asian American adults identify as Buddhists, a slight decline from 14% in 2012. Beyond formal identification, an additional 21% report feeling culturally or ancestrally connected to Buddhism, bringing the total with some affiliation to one-third of Asian Americans. Among Vietnamese Americans, 37% identify as Buddhist - the highest proportion among major Asian American subgroups. Among Japanese and Chinese Americans, formal Buddhist affiliation is less pronounced, but cultural connections remain robust. For instance, while only 19% of Japanese Americans identify as Buddhist, a significant share feel a closeness to Buddhist traditions, reflecting its philosophical and cultural integration into their heritage. Notably, home-based worship through shrines or altars is prevalent, with 63% of Asian American Buddhists practising such rituals compared to lower attendance rates at formal religious services.


Hinduism

About 11% of Asian American adults identify as Hindu, which has been stable since 2012. Indian Americans constitute the largest group of Hindus, with nearly half (48%) identifying with this tradition. Moreover, an additional 19% of Asian Americans report feeling a cultural or ancestral connection to Hinduism, reflecting the interplay between religious and cultural identities. Altogether, two-thirds of Indian Americans express some form of affiliation with Hinduism, reflecting its central role within this community. Hinduism among Asian Americans is notable for its private worship practices. Nearly 79% of Asian American Hindus use an altar, shrine, or religious symbol for worship at home - the highest percentage among Asian American religious groups. At the same time, 31% of Hindus also report attending religious services at least monthly.


Islam

Islam represents about 6% of Asian Americans, with an additional 3% expressing a cultural connection to the faith. South Asian Americans, predominantly those of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin, account for the largest share of Muslims followed by those of Indian origin. For many Asian American Muslims, religion plays a central role in daily life. About 60% report that religion is very important to them, and 54% attend mosque services at least monthly. This group also emphasises communal practices, with a strong focus on maintaining religious traditions within family and community settings.


History


Early immigration

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.
Filipinos Filipinos () are citizens or people identified with the country of the Philippines. Filipinos come from various Austronesian peoples, all typically speaking Filipino language, Filipino, Philippine English, English, or other Philippine language ...
have been in the territories that would become the United States since the 16th century. In 1635, an "East Indian" is listed in
Jamestown, Virginia The Jamestown settlement in the Colony of Virginia was the first permanent British colonization of the Americas, English settlement in the Americas. It was located on the northeast bank of the James River, about southwest of present-day Willia ...
; preceding wider settlement of Indian immigrants on the East Coast in the 1790s and the West Coast in the 1800s. In 1763, Filipinos established the small settlement of
Saint Malo, Louisiana Saint Malo ( ) was a small fishing village that existed along the shore of Lake Borgne in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana as early as the mid-18th century until it was destroyed by the 1915 New Orleans hurricane. Located along Bayou Saint Malo ...
, after fleeing mistreatment aboard
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...
ships A ship is a large vessel that travels the world's oceans and other navigable waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research and fishing. Ships are generally distinguished from boats, ...
. Since there were no Filipino women with them, these "Manilamen", as they were known, married
Cajun The Cajuns (; French: ''les Cadjins'' or ''les Cadiens'' ), also known as Louisiana ''Acadians'' (French: ''les Acadiens''), are a Louisiana French ethnicity mainly found in the US state of Louisiana and surrounding Gulf Coast states. Whi ...
and indigenous women. Filipino farmworkers also played a major role in U.S. agriculture in the early 1900s. They often faced poor working conditions and discrimination. The first Japanese person to come to the United States, and stay any significant period of time was
Nakahama Manjirō , also known as John Manjirō (or John Mung), was a Japanese samurai and translator who was one of the first Japanese people to visit the United States and an important translator during the Bakumatsu, opening of Japan.* He was a fisherman bef ...
who reached the East Coast in 1841, and Joseph Heco became the first Japanese American
naturalized US citizen Citizenship of the United States is a legal status that entails Americans with specific rights, duties, protections, and benefits in the United States. It serves as a foundation of fundamental rights derived from and protected by the Constitu ...
in 1858. Chinese sailors first came to
Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...
in 1789, a few years after Captain
James Cook Captain (Royal Navy), Captain James Cook (7 November 1728 – 14 February 1779) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer, and cartographer famous for his three voyages of exploration to the Pacific and Southern Oceans, conducted between 176 ...
came upon the island. Many settled and married Hawaiian women. Most Chinese,
Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...
and Japanese immigrants in Hawaii or San Francisco arrived in the 19th century as laborers to work on sugar plantations or construction place. There were thousands of Asians in Hawaii when it was annexed to the United States in 1898. Later, Filipinos also came to work as laborers, attracted by the job opportunities, although they were limited.
Ryukyuans The are a Japonic-speaking East Asian ethnic group indigenous to the Ryukyu Islands, which stretch from the island of Kyushu to the island of Taiwan. With Japan, most Ryukyuans live in the Okinawa Prefecture or Kagoshima Prefecture. They sp ...
would start migrating to Hawaii in 1900. 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. Large-scale migration from Asia to the United States began when Chinese immigrants arrived on the West Coast in the mid-19th century. Forming part of the
California gold rush The California gold rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the U ...
, these early Chinese immigrants participated intensively in the mining business and later in the construction of the
transcontinental railroad A transcontinental railroad or transcontinental railway is contiguous rail transport, railroad trackage that crosses a continent, continental land mass and has terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks may be via the Ra ...
. 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 The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...
in 1868. In 1898, all Filipinos in the Philippine Islands became American nationals when the United States took over colonial rule of the islands from
Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
following the latter's defeat in the
Spanish–American War The Spanish–American War (April 21 – August 13, 1898) was fought between Restoration (Spain), Spain and the United States in 1898. It began with the sinking of the USS Maine (1889), USS ''Maine'' in Havana Harbor in Cuba, and resulted in the ...
. The PBS documentary series Asian Americans highlights these stories and explores how Asian American communities have shaped the U.S. across centuries.


Exclusion era

Under United States law during this period, particularly the
Naturalization Act of 1790 The Naturalization Act of 1790 (, enacted March 26, 1790) was a law of the United States Congress that set the first uniform rules for the granting of United States citizenship by naturalization. The law limited naturalization to "free whi ...
, 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.
Bhicaji Balsara Bhicaji Framji Balsara (often misrendered as Bhicaji Franyi Balsara; May 30, 1872 – 1962) was an Indian immigrant to the United States, notable for being amongst the first Indians to become a naturalized US citizen. Balsara was a Parsi Zoroastr ...
became the first known Indian-born person to gain naturalized US citizenship. 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 ''United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind'', 261 U.S. 204 (1923), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States decided that Bhagat Singh Thind, an Indian Sikh man who identified himself as an Aryan, was ineligible for naturalized citiz ...
'' (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 clause of the Fourteenth Amendment; this guarantee was confirmed as applying regardless of race or ancestry by the Supreme Court in ''
United States v. Wong Kim Ark ''United States v. Wong Kim Ark'', 169 U.S. 649 (1898), is a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court which held that "a child born in the United States, of parents of Chinese descent, who, at the time of his birth, are subjects of the Em ...
'' (1898). 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 The Yellow Peril (also the Yellow Terror, the Yellow Menace, and the Yellow Specter) is a Racism, racist color terminology for race, color metaphor that depicts the peoples of East Asia, East and Southeast Asia as an existential danger to the ...
." Congress passed restrictive legislation which prohibited nearly all Chinese immigration to the United States in the 1880s. Japanese immigration was sharply curtailed by a diplomatic agreement in 1907. The
Asiatic Barred Zone Act The Immigration Act of 1917 (also known as the Literacy Act or the Burnett Act and less often as the Asiatic Barred Zone Act) was a United States Act that aimed to restrict immigration by imposing literacy tests on immigrants, creating new cate ...
in 1917 further barred immigration from nearly all of Asia, the "Asiatic Zone". The
Immigration Act of 1924 The Immigration Act of 1924, or Johnson–Reed Act, including the Asian Exclusion Act and National Origins Act (), was a United States federal law that prevented immigration from Asia and set quotas on the number of immigrants from every count ...
provided that no "alien ineligible for citizenship" could be admitted as an immigrant to the United States, consolidating the prohibition of Asian immigration.


World War II

President Roosevelt issued
Executive Order 9066 Executive Order 9066 was a President of the United States, United States presidential executive order signed and issued during World War II by United States president Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942. "This order authorized the fo ...
on February 19, 1942, resulting in the
internment of Japanese Americans United States home front during World War II, During World War II, the United States forcibly relocated and Internment, incarcerated about 120,000 people of Japanese Americans, Japanese descent in ten #Terminology debate, concentration camps opera ...
, 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. 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 gradually increased the ability of Asian Americans to immigrate and become
naturalized Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-national of a country acquires the nationality of that country after birth. The definition of naturalization by the International Organization for Migration of the ...
citizens. Immigration rapidly increased following the enactment of the
Immigration and Nationality Act Amendments of 1965 The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, also known as the Hart–Celler Act and more recently as the 1965 Immigration Act, was a federal law passed by the 89th United States Congress and signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The ...
as well as the influx of
refugees A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as ...
from conflicts occurring in Southeast Asia such as the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
. Asian American immigrants have a significant percentage of individuals who have already achieved professional status, a first among immigration groups. 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."Jie Zong & Jeanne Batalova
Asian Immigrants in the United States
, Migration Policy Institute (January 6, 2016).
Asian Americans were the fastest-growing racial group between 2000 and 2010. By 2012, more immigrants came from Asia than from Latin America. 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. 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." As of 2016, "Asia is the second-largest region of birth (after Latin America) of U.S. immigrants." In 2013, China surpassed Mexico as the top single country of origin for immigrants to the US. 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. Postwar Asian immigration to the US has been diverse: in 2014, 31% of Asian immigrants to the US were from
East Asia East Asia is a geocultural region of Asia. It includes China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan, plus two special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau. The economies of Economy of China, China, Economy of Ja ...
(predominantly China and Korea); 27.7% were from
South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...
(predominantly India); 32.6% were from
Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...
(predominantly the Philippines and Vietnam); and 8.3% were from
West Asia West Asia (also called Western Asia or Southwest Asia) is the westernmost region of Asia. As defined by most academics, UN bodies and other institutions, the subregion consists of Anatolia, the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Mesopotamia, the Armenian ...
.


Asian American movement

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 Yuji Ichioka (, June 23, 1936 – September 1, 2002) was a Japanese American historian and civil rights activist, widely regarded as the preeminent scholar of Japanese American history. Ichioka was a pioneer in the field of Asian American ...
and the Chinese American
Emma Gee Emma Gee (1939 – April 15, 2023) was an American activist, scholar, lecturer, and writer, best known for helping to coin the term "Asian Americans, Asian American" and co-founding the Asian American Political Alliance with her later husband, Y ...
) gathered all those groups into a coalition, recognizing that they shared common problems with racial discrimination and common opposition to
American imperialism U.S. imperialism or American imperialism is the expansion of political, economic, cultural, media, and military influence beyond the boundaries of the United States. Depending on the commentator, it may include imperialism through outright mi ...
, particularly in Asia. The movement developed during the 1960s, inspired in part by the Civil Rights Movement and the
protests against the Vietnam War Protests against the Vietnam War took place in the 1960s and 1970s. The protests were part of a movement in opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War. The majority of the protests were in the United States, but some took place aro ...
. "Drawing influences from the
Black Power Black power is a list of political slogans, political slogan and a name which is given to various associated ideologies which aim to achieve self-determination for black people. It is primarily, but not exclusively, used in the United States b ...
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." William Wei described the movement as "rooted in a past history of oppression and a present struggle for liberation". The movement as such was most active during the 1960s and 1970s. Increasingly Asian American students demanded university-level research and teaching into Asian history and interaction with the United States. They support
multiculturalism Multiculturalism is the coexistence of multiple cultures. The word is used in sociology, in political philosophy, and colloquially. In sociology and everyday usage, it is usually a synonym for ''Pluralism (political theory), ethnic'' or cultura ...
and support
affirmative action Affirmative action (also sometimes called reservations, alternative access, positive discrimination or positive action in various countries' laws and policies) refers to a set of policies and practices within a government or organization seeking ...
but oppose colleges' quota on Asian students viewed as discriminatory.


Notable contributions


Arts and entertainment

Asian Americans have been involved in the
entertainment industry Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and Interest (emotion), interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but it is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have deve ...
since the first half of the 19th century, when
Chang and Eng Bunker Chang Bunker (จัน บังเกอร์) and Eng Bunker (อิน บังเกอร์) (May 11, 1811 – January 17, 1874) were Siamese (Thai)-American conjoined twins, conjoined twin brothers whose fame propelled the expression " ...
(the original "Siamese Twins") became naturalized citizens. Throughout the 20th century, acting roles in television, film, and theater were relatively few, and many available roles were for narrow, stereotypical characters.
Bruce Lee Bruce Lee (born Lee Jun-fan; November 27, 1940 – July 20, 1973) was an American-born Hong Kong martial artist, actor, filmmaker, and philosopher. He was the founder of Jeet Kune Do, a hybrid martial arts philosophy which was formed from ...
(born in San Francisco, CA) only achieved movie stardom after leaving the United States for Hong Kong. More recently, young Asian American comedians and film-makers have found an outlet on
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
allowing them to gain a strong and loyal fanbase among their fellow Asian Americans. There have been several Asian American-centric television shows in American media, beginning with ''
Mr. T and Tina ''Mr. T and Tina'' is an American sitcom and a spin-off of '' Welcome Back, Kotter'' starring Pat Morita and Susan Blanchard that aired for five episodes on ABC from September 25 to October 30, 1976. It is one of the first television shows t ...
'' in 1976, and as recent as the TV series ''
Fresh Off the Boat ''Fresh Off the Boat'' is an American television sitcom created by Nahnatchka Khan and produced by 20th Century Fox Television for ABC. It is loosely inspired by the life of chef and food personality Eddie Huang and his 2013 autobiography ...
'' in 2015. In the Pacific, American beatboxer of Hawaii Chinese descent Jason Tom co-founded the Human Beatbox Academy to perpetuate the art of beatboxing through outreach performances, speaking engagements and workshops in
Honolulu Honolulu ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is the county seat of the Consolidated city-county, consolidated City and County of Honol ...
, the westernmost and southernmost major US city of the 50th US state of
Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...
.


Business

When Asian Americans were largely excluded from labor markets in the 19th century, they started their own businesses. They have started convenience and grocery stores, professional offices such as medical and law practices, laundries, restaurants, beauty-related ventures, hi-tech companies, and many other kinds of enterprises, becoming very successful and influential in American society. They have dramatically expanded their involvement across the American economy. Asian Americans have been disproportionately successful in the hi-tech sectors of California's Silicon Valley, as evidenced by the
Goldsea ''Goldsea'' is an American online magazine. The magazine was started in 1998. It is aimed at Asian American Asian Americans are Americans with ancestry from the continent of Asia (including naturalized Americans who are immigrants from sp ...
100 Compilation of America's Most Successful Asian Entrepreneurs. Compared to their population base, Asian Americans today are well represented in the professional sector and tend to earn higher wages. The Goldsea compilation of Notable Asian American Professionals show that many have come to occupy high positions at leading US corporations, including a disproportionately large number as Chief Marketing Officers. Asian Americans have made major contributions to the American economy. In 2012, there were just under 486,000 Asian American-owned businesses in the US, which together employed more than 3.6 million workers, generating $707.6 billion in total receipts and sales, with annual payrolls of $112 billion. In 2015, Asian American and Pacific Islander households had $455.6 billion in spending power (comparable to the annual revenue of
Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores in the United States and 23 other ...
) and made tax contributions of $184.0 billion. Fashion designer and mogul
Vera Wang Vera Ellen Wang (; born June 27, 1949) is an American fashion designer. Wang initially pursued a career in figure skating before transitioning to fashion. She worked for ''Vogue'' and Ralph Lauren before launching her own bridal gown boutique i ...
, who is famous for designing dresses for high-profile celebrities, started a clothing company, named after herself, which now offers a broad range of luxury fashion products.
An Wang An Wang (; February 7, 1920 – March 24, 1990) was a Chinese-American computer engineer and inventor, and cofounder of computer company Wang Laboratories, which was known primarily for its dedicated word processing machines. An Wang was an im ...
founded
Wang Laboratories Wang Laboratories, Inc., was an American computer company founded in 1951 by An Wang and G. Y. Chu. The company was successively headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts (1954–1963), Tewksbury, Massachusetts (1963–1976), Lowell, Massachuse ...
in June 1951.
Amar Bose Amar Gopal Bose (November 2, 1929 – July 12, 2013) was an American entrepreneur and academic. An electrical engineer and sound engineer, he was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for over 45 years. He was also the found ...
founded the
Bose Corporation Bose Corporation () is an American manufacturing company that predominantly sells audio equipment. The company was established by Amar Bose in 1964 and is based in Framingham, Massachusetts. It is best known for its Home audio, home audio syste ...
in 1964.
Charles Wang Charles B. Wang (; August 19, 1944 – October 21, 2018) was a Chinese-American billionaire, businessman, and philanthropist, who was a co-founder and CEO of Computer Associates International, Inc. (later renamed CA Technologies). He was a min ...
founded
Computer Associates CA Technologies, Inc., formerly Computer Associates International, Inc., and CA, Inc., was an American multinational enterprise software developer and publisher that existed from 1976 to 2018. CA grew to rank as one of the largest independent ...
, later became its CEO and chairman. Two brothers, David Khym and Kenny Khym founded
hip hop fashion Hip-hop fashion (also known as rap fashion) refers to the various styles of dress that originated from Urban Black America and inner city youth in American cities like New York City, Los Angeles, and Atlanta. Being a major part of hip-hop culture ...
giant Southpole in 1991. Jen-Hsun "Jensen" Huang co-founded the
Nvidia Nvidia Corporation ( ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and incorporated in Delaware. Founded in 1993 by Jensen Huang (president and CEO), Chris Malachowsky, and Curti ...
corporation in 1993.
Jerry Yang Jerry Chih-Yuan Yang (; born Yang Chih-Yuan; November 6, 1968) is a Taiwanese-born American billionaire computer programmer, internet entrepreneur, and venture capitalist. He is the co-founder and former CEO of Yahoo! Inc. and founding partne ...
co-founded
Yahoo! Yahoo (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web portal that provides the search engine Yahoo Search and related services including My Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, y!entertainment, yahoo!life, and its a ...
Inc. in 1994 and became its CEO later.
Andrea Jung Andrea Jung (; born September 18, 1958) is a Canadian-American executive, non-profit leader, and prominent women's-issues supporter based in New York City. In April 2014, she became president and CEO of Grameen America, a nonprofit microfinance ...
serves as chairman and CEO of
Avon Products Avon Products, Inc. ( ) is an Anglo-American multinational company selling cosmetics, skin care, perfume, and personal care products. It is a multi-level marketing company based in London. In 2020, Avon had annual sales of $9.1 billion worldwid ...
.
Vinod Khosla Vinod Khosla (born 28 January 1955) is an Indian-American billionaire businessman and venture capitalist. He is a co-founder of Sun Microsystems and the founder of Khosla Ventures. Khosla made his wealth from early venture capital investments ...
was a founding CEO of
Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc., often known as Sun for short, was an American technology company that existed from 1982 to 2010 which developed and sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services. Sun contributed sig ...
and is a general partner of the prominent venture capital firm
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Kleiner Perkins, formerly Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), is an American venture capital firm which specializes in investing in incubation, early stage and growth companies. Since its founding in 1972, the firm has backed entrepreneur ...
.
Steve Chen Steve Chen (; born August 25, 1978) is a Taiwanese-American software engineer and Internet entrepreneur who is one of the co-founders and previous chief technology officer of the video-sharing website YouTube. After he co-founded the company A ...
and
Jawed Karim Jawed Karim (born October 28, 1979) is an American software engineer and Internet entrepreneur. He is one of the co-founders of YouTube and the first person to upload a video to the site. The site's inaugural video, "Me at the zoo", uploaded o ...
were co-creators of YouTube, and were beneficiaries of
Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
's $1.65 billion acquisition of that company in 2006.
Eric Yuan Eric S Yuan (; born 20 February 1970) is a Chinese Americans, Chinese-American billionaire businessman, engineer, and the chief executive officer and founder of Zoom Communications, of which he owns 22%. Early life and education Yuan is the so ...
, founder of
Zoom Video Communications Zoom Communications, Inc. (formerly Zoom Video Communications, Inc., commonly shortened to Zoom, and stylized as zoom) is an American communications technology company primarily known for the videoconferencing application Zoom. The company is ...
, and
Shahid Khan Shahid Rafiq "Shad" Khan (; born July 18, 1950)" ...
, owner of the
Jacksonville Jaguars The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida. The Jaguars compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division. The team ...
among others, are both in the US top 100 in terms of net worth, according to
Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...
. In addition to contributing greatly to other fields, Asian Americans have made considerable contributions in science and technology in the United States, in such prominent innovative R&D regions as
Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...
and The Triangle.


Government and politics

Asian Americans have a high level of political incorporation in terms of their actual voting population. Since 1907, Asian Americans have been active at the national level and have had multiple officeholders at local, state, and national levels. As more Asian Americans have been elected to public office, they have had a growing impact on foreign relations of the United States, immigration, international trade, and other topics. The first Asian American to be elected to the
United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature, legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, including a Lower house, lower body, the United States House of Representatives, ...
was
Dalip Singh Saund Dalip Singh Saund (September 20, 1899 – April 22, 1973) was an Indian-born American farmer, lobbyist, judicial officer, academic, and Democratic Party politician who served in the United States House of Representatives from 1957 to 1963. He wa ...
in 1957. The highest ranked Asian American to serve in the United States Congress was Senator and President pro tempore
Daniel Inouye Daniel Ken Inouye ( , , September 7, 1924 – December 17, 2012) was an American attorney, soldier, and statesman who served as a United States Senate, United States senator from Hawaii from 1963 until his death in 2012. A Medal of Honor recipi ...
, who died in office in 2012. There are several active Asian Americans in the United States Congress. With higher proportions and densities of Asian American populations, Hawaii has most consistently sent Asian Americans to the Senate, and
Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...
and
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
have most consistently sent Asian Americans to the House of Representatives. The first Asian American member of the US cabinet was
Norman Mineta Norman Yoshio Mineta (, November 12, 1931 – May 3, 2022) was an American politician from California. A member of the Democratic Party, Mineta served in the cabinet of the United States for US Presidents Bill Clinton, a Democrat, and George W. ...
, who served as
Secretary of Commerce The United States secretary of commerce (SecCom) is the head of the United States Department of Commerce. The secretary serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States on all matters relating to commerce. The secretary rep ...
and then
Secretary of Transportation The United States secretary of transportation is the head of the United States Department of Transportation. The secretary serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States on all matters relating to transportation. The secre ...
in the George W. Bush administration. As of 2021, the highest ranked Asian American by
order of precedence An order of precedence is a sequential hierarchy of importance applied to individuals, groups, or organizations. For individuals, it is most often used for diplomats in attendance at very formal occasions. It can also be used in the context of ...
is
Vice President A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vi ...
Kamala Harris Kamala Devi Harris ( ; born October 20, 1964) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 49th vice president of the United States from 2021 to 2025 under President Joe Biden. She is the first female, first African American, and ...
. Previously, the highest ranked Asian American was Secretary of Transportation
Elaine Chao Elaine Lan Chao (born March 26, 1953) is an American businesswoman and former government official who served as United States secretary of labor in the administration of George W. Bush from 2001 to 2009 and as United States secretary of transpor ...
(2017–2021), who had also been in the order of precedence as US Secretary of Labor (2001–2009). There have been roughly "about a half-dozen viable Asian-American candidates" to ever run for
president of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...
. Senator
Hiram Fong Hiram Leong Fong (born Yau Leong Fong; October 15, 1906 – August 18, 2004) was an American businessman, lawyer, and politician from Hawaii. Born to a Cantonese immigrant sugar plantation worker, Fong was one of the first two senators for Hawai ...
of Hawaii, the child of Chinese immigrants, was a "
favorite son Favorite son (or favorite daughter) is a political term referring to a presidential candidate, either one that is nominated by a state but considered a nonviable candidate or a politician whose electoral appeal derives from their native state, r ...
" candidate at the Republican National Conventions of 1964 and
1968 Events January–February * January 1968, January – The I'm Backing Britain, I'm Backing Britain campaign starts spontaneously. * January 5 – Prague Spring: Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Cze ...
. In 1972, Representative
Patsy T. Mink Patsy Matsu Mink ( Takemoto; , December 6, 1927 – September 28, 2002) was an American attorney and politician from the U.S. state of Hawaii who served in the United States House of Representatives for 24 years as a member of the Democratic ...
of Hawaii, a
Japanese American are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian Americans, Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 United States census, 2000 census, they have declined in ...
, unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for president. Louisiana Governor
Bobby Jindal Piyush "Bobby" Jindal (born June 10, 1971) is an American politician who served as the 55th governor of Louisiana from 2008 to 2016. A member of the Republican Party, Jindal previously served as a U.S. representative from Louisiana from 2005 t ...
, the son of Indian immigrants, unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for president in 2016. Entrepreneur and nonprofit founder
Andrew Yang Andrew Yang (born January 13, 1975) is an American businessman, attorney, lobbyist, political commentator, and author. He founded the political party and action committee Forward Party (United States), Forward Party in 2021, for which he serves ...
, the son of Taiwanese immigrants, unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for president in 2020. In January 2021,
Kamala Harris Kamala Devi Harris ( ; born October 20, 1964) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 49th vice president of the United States from 2021 to 2025 under President Joe Biden. She is the first female, first African American, and ...
, the daughter of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father became the first Asian American
Vice President of the United States The vice president of the United States (VPOTUS) is the second-highest ranking office in the Executive branch of the United States government, executive branch of the U.S. federal government, after the president of the United States, and ranks f ...
. King
Bhumibol Adulyadej Bhumibol Adulyadej (5 December 192713 October 2016), titled Rama IX, was King of Thailand from 1946 until Death and funeral of Bhumibol Adulyadej, his death in 2016. His reign of 70 years and 126 days is the longest of any List of Thai mo ...
(1927–2016) was the first monarch to be born in the United States. He reigned the throne of Thailand from 1946 to 2016.


Voting behavior

Asian Americans were once a strong constituency for
Republicans Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
. In
1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...
,
George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushBefore the outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election, he was usually referred to simply as "George Bush" but became more commonly known as "George H. W. Bush", "Bush Senior," "Bush 41," and even "Bush th ...
won 55% of Asian voters. However, by
2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...
, Asian Americans shifted to supporting Democrats, giving
Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...
70% support to
Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...
's 29%. Ethnic background and country of origin have determined Asian American voting behavior in recent elections, with
Indian Americans Indian Americans are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly from India. The terms Asian Indian and East Indian are used to avoid confusion with Native Americans in the United States, who are also referred to as "Indians" or "Am ...
and to a lesser extent
Chinese Americans Chinese Americans are Americans of Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans have ancestors from mainland China, Hong Kong ...
being strong constituencies for Democrats, and
Vietnamese Americans Vietnamese Americans () are Americans of Vietnamese people, Vietnamese ancestry. They constitute a major part of all overseas Vietnamese. As of 2023, over 2.3 million people of Vietnamese descent live in the United States, making them the fourth ...
being a strong constituency for Republicans. Sixty eight percent of Filipinos surveyed for a 2023 survey said they identified politically with the Democratic Party and voted for Democrats.


Journalism

Connie Chung Constance Yu-Hwa Chung Povich (née Chung; born August 20, 1946) is an American journalist who has been a news anchor and reporter for the U.S. television news networks American Broadcasting Company, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and MSNBC. Some of her m ...
was one of the first Asian American national correspondents for a major TV
news network News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either produced locally in a radio studio or tele ...
, reporting for CBS in 1971. She later co-anchored the ''CBS Evening News'' from 1993 to 1995, becoming the first Asian American national news anchor. At ABC, Ken Kashiwahara began reporting nationally in 1974. In 1989,
Emil Guillermo Emil Guillermo is an American print and broadcast journalist, commentator and humorist. His column, "Emil Amok", appeared for more than 14 years in '' AsianWeek''—at one time, the most widely read and largest circulating Asian American newsweekl ...
, a Filipino American born reporter from San Francisco, became the first Asian American male to co-host a national news show when he was senior host at National Public Radio's ''
All Things Considered ''All Things Considered'' (''ATC'') is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio (NPR). It was the first news program on NPR, premiering on May 3, 1971. It is broadcast live on NPR affiliated stations in the United ...
''. In 1990,
Sheryl WuDunn Sheryl WuDunn (born November 16, 1959) is an American business executive, writer, lecturer, and Pulitzer Prize winner. A senior banker focusing on growth companies in technology, new media and the emerging markets, WuDunn also works with double ...
, a foreign correspondent in the Beijing Bureau of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', became the first Asian American to win a Pulitzer Prize.
Ann Curry Ann Curry (born November 19, 1956) is an American journalist, who has been a reporter for more than 45 years, focused on human suffering in war zones and natural disasters. Curry has reported from the wars in Kosovo, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palest ...
joined NBC News as a reporter in 1990, later becoming prominently associated with ''The Today Show'' in 1997. Carol Lin is perhaps best known for being the first to break the news of
9-11 The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
on CNN.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta Sanjay Gupta (born October 23, 1969) is an American neurosurgeon, medical reporter, and writer. He serves as associate chief of the neurosurgery service at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, associate professor of neurosurgery at t ...
is currently CNN's chief health correspondent.
Lisa Ling Lisa J. Ling (born August 30, 1973) is an American journalist and television personality. She is a news contributor for CBS News. Previously, she was the host for ''This Is Life with Lisa Ling '' on CNN, a reporter on Channel One News, a co-host ...
, a former co-host on ''The View'', now provides special reports for CNN and ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', as well as hosting National Geographic Channel's ''Explorer.''
Fareed Zakaria Fareed Rafiq Zakaria (; born January 20, 1964) is an Indian-born American journalist, political commentator, and author. He is the host of CNN's '' Fareed Zakaria GPS'' and writes a weekly paid column for ''The Washington Post.'' He has been a c ...
, a naturalized Indian-born immigrant, is a prominent journalist and author specializing in international affairs. He is the editor-at-large of
Time magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps as ''TIME'') is an American news magazine based in New York City. It was published weekly for nearly a century. Starting in March 2020, it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York Cit ...
, and the host of
Fareed Zakaria GPS ''Fareed Zakaria GPS'' is a weekly public affairs show hosted by journalist and author Fareed Zakaria on CNN and broadcast around the world by CNN International. The "GPS" in the show's title stands for "Global Public Square," a reference to t ...
on
CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...
.
Juju Chang Hyunju "Juju" Chang (born September 17, 1965) is an American television journalist for ABC News, and an anchor of ''Nightline''. She has previously worked as a special correspondent and fill-in anchor for ''Nightline,'' and was also the news anc ...
, James Hatori, John Yang, Veronica De La Cruz,
Michelle Malkin Michelle Malkin (; Maglalang; born October 20, 1970) is an American conservative political commentator. She was a Fox News contributor and in May 2020 joined Newsmax TV. Malkin has written seven books and founded the conservative commentary ...
,
Betty Nguyen Betty Nguyen (born September 1, 1974) is an American news anchor, currently WFOR-TV, CBS Miami morning news co-anchor. Nguyen has previously worked for NBC News, MSNBC, CBS News, CNN, and WPIX. Career Nguyen began her career as a morning anchor ...
, and
Julie Chen Julie may refer to: * Julie (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the name Film and television * Julie (1956 film), ''Julie'' (1956 film), an American film noir starring Doris Day * Julie (1975 film), ''Julie'' (1975 film) ...
have become familiar faces on television news. John Yang won a Peabody Award.
Alex Tizon Tomas Alexander Asuncion Tizon (October 30, 1959 – March 23, 2017) was a Filipino-American author and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. His book ''Big Little Man'', a memoir and cultural history, explores themes related to race, masculinity ...
, a
Seattle Times ''The Seattle Times'' is an American daily newspaper based in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1891, ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region. The Seattle Time ...
staff writer, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1997.


Military

Since the
War of 1812 The War of 1812 was fought by the United States and its allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and its allies in North America. It began when the United States United States declaration of war on the Uni ...
, Asian Americans have served and fought on behalf of the United States. Serving in both segregated and non-segregated units until the desegregation of the US Military in 1948, 31 have been awarded the nation's highest award for combat valor, the
Medal of Honor The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest Awards and decorations of the United States Armed Forces, military decoration and is awarded to recognize American United States Army, soldiers, United States Navy, sailors, Un ...
. Twenty-one of these were conferred upon members of the mostly Japanese American 100th Infantry Battalion of the
442nd Regimental Combat Team The 442nd Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment of the United States Army. The regiment including the 100th Infantry Battalion is best known as the most decorated unit in U.S. military history, and as a fighting unit composed almost ent ...
of World War II, the most highly decorated unit of its size in the history of the United States Armed Forces. The highest ranked Asian American military official was Secretary of Veteran Affairs, four-star general and Army Chief of Staff
Eric Shinseki Eric Ken Shinseki (; , born 28 November 1942) is a retired United States Army general who served as the seventh United States secretary of veterans affairs from 2009 to 2014 and as the 34th chief of staff of the Army from 1999 to 2003. Shinseki ...
.


Science and technology

Asian Americans have made many notable contributions to science and technology. In the technological sector, Asian Americans are the most influential. According to an article by website ideas.ted.com, over 40% of the high-tech companies are established by highly skilled Asian American people. It also states that AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islanders) has been contributing to remarkable technological innovations and scientific discoveries. For example, the co-founders of Yahoo, Zoom, YouTube, and LinkedIn are Asian American contributors. In the 21st century, Asian Americans are building connections with other Asian countries, such as China, Korea, Bangladesh, and India. Another example could be the CEO of
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...
, originally from India, Satya Nadella is an example of the contribution of Asian Americans in the technological fields. Asian Americans have a vital contribution not only in technology, and education but also in political aspects. An article by the US Department of Agriculture posted on their website is an example, stating that the birthright citizenship law passed in the US Supreme Court due to a year-long battle between Wong Kim Ark (a Chinese immigrant born in San Francisco) and the US Department of Justice. Kamala Harris, daughter of an Indian immigrant became the first Asian American vice president of the United States in 2021.


Sports

Asian Americans have contributed to sports in the United States through much of the 20th century. Some of the most notable contributions include Olympic sports, but also in professional sports, particularly in the post-World War II years. As the Asian American population grew in the late 20th century, Asian American contributions expanded to more sports. Examples of female Asian American athletes include
Michelle Kwan Michelle Wingshan Kwan (born July 7, 1980) is a retired American competitive figure skating, figure skater and diplomat who served as List of ambassadors of the United States to Belize, United States Ambassador to Belize from 2022 to 2025. In ...
,
Chloe Kim Chloe Kim (born April 23, 2000) is an American professional snowboarder and two-time Olympic gold medalist. At the 2018 Winter Olympics, she became the youngest woman to win an Olympic snowboarding gold medal when she won gold in the women's sn ...
,
Miki Gorman Michiko "Miki" Suwa Gorman (August 9, 1935 – September 19, 2015) was an American marathon runner of Japanese ancestry. Gorman did not begin running competitively until she was in her mid-30s, but rapidly emerged as one of the elite marathoning ...
,
Mirai Nagasu is an American former competitive Figure skating, figure skater. She is a Figure skating at the 2018 Winter Olympics – Team event, 2018 Olympic Games team event bronze medalist, three-time Four Continents Figure Skating Championships, Four Co ...
, and
Maia Shibutani Maia Harumi Shibutani (born July 20, 1994) is an American ice dancer. Partnered with her brother Alex Shibutani, she is a two-time Olympic bronze medalist (2018), a three-time World medalist (silver in 2016, bronze in 2011 and 2017), the 2016 F ...
. Examples of male Asian American athletes include
Jeremy Lin Jeremy Shu-How Lin (born August 23, 1988) is a Taiwanese-American professional basketball player for the New Taipei Kings of the Taiwan Professional Basketball League (TPBL). He unexpectedly led a winning turnaround with the New York Knick ...
,
Tiger Woods Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer. He is tied for first in List of golfers with most PGA Tour wins, PGA Tour wins, ranks second in List of men's major championships winning golfers, men's m ...
,
Hines Ward Hines Edward Ward Jr. (born March 8, 1976) is an American American football, football coach and former player who is the wide receivers coach for Arizona State Sun Devils football, Arizona State. He played as a wide receiver in the National Foo ...
, Richard Park, and
Nathan Adrian Nathan Ghar-jun Adrian (born December 7, 1988) is an American competitive swimmer and five-time Olympic gold medalist who formerly held the American record in the long course 50-meter freestyle event. In his Olympic debut at the 2008 Summer ...
.


Cultural influence

In recognition of the unique culture, traditions, and history of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, the
United States government The Federal Government of the United States of America (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the Federation#Federal governments, national government of the United States. The U.S. federal government is composed of three distinct ...
has permanently designated the month of May to be Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month; before 2021 it was known as
Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (, officially changed from Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander Month) is an annually observed commemorative month in the United States. It is celebrated during the month of May, a ...
. Asian American parenting as seen through relationships between Chinese parents and adolescence, which is described as being more authoritarian and less warm than relations between European parents and adolescence, has become a topic of study and discussion. These influences affect how parents regulate and monitor their children, and has been described as
Tiger parenting Tiger parenting is a form of strict parenting, whereby parents are highly invested in ensuring their children's success. Specifically, tiger parents push their children to attain high levels of academic achievement or success in high-status extr ...
, and has received interest and curiosity from non-Chinese parents.


Health and medicine

Asian immigrants are also changing the American medical landscape through increasing number of Asian
medical practitioners A health professional, healthcare professional (HCP), or healthcare worker (sometimes abbreviated as HCW) is a provider of health care treatment and advice based on formal training and experience. The field includes those who work as a nurse, physi ...
in the United States. Beginning in the 1960s and 1970s, the US government invited a number of foreign physicians particularly from India and the Philippines to address the shortage of physicians in rural and medically underserved urban areas. The trend in importing foreign medical practitioners, however, became a long-term solution as US schools failed to produce enough health care providers to match the increasing population. Amid decreasing interest in medicine among American college students due to high educational costs and high rates of job dissatisfaction, loss of morale, stress, and lawsuits, Asian American immigrants maintained a supply of healthcare practitioners for millions of Americans. It is documented that Asian American international medical graduates including highly skilled guest workers using the J1 Visa program for medical workers, tend to serve in health professions shortage areas (HPSA) and specialties that are not filled by US medical graduates especially primary care and rural medicine. In 2020, of all the medical personnel in the United States, 17% of doctors were Asian Americans, 9% of physician assistants were Asian American, and more than 9% of nurses were Asian Americans. Nearly one in four Asian Americans are likely to use common
alternative medicine Alternative medicine refers to practices that aim to achieve the healing effects of conventional medicine, but that typically lack biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or supporting evidence of effectiveness. Such practices are ...
. This includes
traditional Chinese medicine Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medicine, alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. A large share of its claims are pseudoscientific, with the majority of treatments having no robust evidence ...
and
Ayurveda Ayurveda (; ) is an alternative medicine system with historical roots in the Indian subcontinent. It is heavily practised throughout India and Nepal, where as much as 80% of the population report using ayurveda. The theory and practice of ayur ...
. Due to the prevalence of usage, engaging with Asian American populations, through the practitioners of these common alternative medicines, can lead to an increase of usage of underused medical procedures.


Education

Among America's major racial categories, Asian Americans have the highest educational qualifications. This varies, however, for individual ethnic groups. For example, a 2010 study of all Asian American adults found 42% have at least a college degree, but only 16% of Vietnamese Americans and only 5% for Laotians and Cambodians. It has been noted, however, that 2008 US Census statistics put the bachelor's degree attainment rate of Vietnamese Americans at 26%, which is not very different from the rate of 27% for all Americans. Census data from 2010 show 50% of Asian adults have earned at least a bachelor's degree, compared to 28% for all Americans, and 34% for non-Hispanic whites. Taiwanese Americans have some of the highest education rates, with nearly 74% having attained at least a bachelor's degree in 2010. Asian Americans made up twelve to eighteen percent of the student population at
Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...
schools, larger than their share of the population. For example, the
Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...
Class of 2023 admitted students were 25% Asian American. In the years immediately preceding 2012, 61% of Asian American adult immigrants have a bachelor or higher level college education. In August 2020, the
US Justice Department The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of federal laws and the administration of justice. It is equi ...
argued that
Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
discriminated against Asian candidates on the basis of their race, a charge the university denied.


Popular media

Asian American culture is referenced in a number of mainstream forms such as literature, TV shows, and movies. ''
Crazy Rich Asians ''Crazy Rich Asians'' is a 2018 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Jon M. Chu from a screenplay by Peter Chiarelli and Adele Lim, based on the 2013 novel by Kevin Kwan. The film stars Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Gemma Chan, Lis ...
,'' directed by John M. Chu, follows Rachel Chu, a Chinese American economics professor. Min Jin Lee's novel, ''
Pachinko is a mechanical game originating in Japan that is used as an arcade game, and much more frequently for gambling. Pachinko fills a niche in Gambling in Japan, Japanese gambling comparable to that of the slot machine in the West as a form of l ...
'', is an intergenerational story that tells the story of Koreans who immigrate to Japan. Some of the popular Asian American plays are "Chickencoop Chinaman", "And the Soul Shall Dance", "Paper Angels", "Yellow Fever", and many more.


Identity

As of year 2023, a recent survey showed one out of five respondents said they do not identify as Asian to non-Asians. Most immigrants identify as Asian compared to American-born Asian Americans. People under the age 18 are more likely not to identify as Asian. People over the age of 65 are more likely to identify as Asian.


Social and political issues


Media portrayal

Because
Asian American Asian Americans are Americans with ancestry from the continent of Asia (including naturalized Americans who are immigrants from specific regions in Asia and descendants of those immigrants). Although this term had historically been used fo ...
s total about 7.2% of the entire US population, diversity within the group is often overlooked in media treatment.Lee, Robert G. Orientals: Asian Americans in PopularCulture. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 1999. Google Books. Web. 28 July 2013.


Bamboo ceiling

This concept appears to elevate Asian Americans by portraying them as an elite group of successful, highly educated, intelligent, and wealthy individuals, but it can also be considered an overly narrow and overly one-dimensional portrayal of Asian Americans, leaving out other human qualities such as vocal leadership, negative emotions, risk taking, ability to learn from mistakes, and desire for creative expression. Furthermore, Asian Americans who do not fit into the model minority mold can face challenges when people's expectations based on the model minority myth do not match with reality. Traits outside of the model minority mold can be seen as negative character flaws for Asian Americans despite those very same traits being positive for the general American majority (e.g., risk taking, confidence, empowered). For this reason, Asian Americans encounter a "bamboo ceiling", the Asian American equivalent of the
glass ceiling A glass ceiling is a metaphor usually applied to women, used to represent an invisible barrier that prevents a given demographic from rising beyond a certain level in a hierarchy.Federal Glass Ceiling Commission''Solid Investments: Making Ful ...
in the workplace, with only 1.5% of
Fortune 500 The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune (magazine), Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States Joint-stock company#Closely held corporations and publicly traded corporations, corporations by ...
CEOs Kea (), also known as Tzia () and in antiquity Keos (, ), is a Greek island in the Cyclades archipelago in the Aegean Sea. Kea is part of the Kea-Kythnos regional unit. Geography It is the island of the Cyclades complex that is closest to Att ...
being Asians, a percentage smaller than their percentage of the total United States population. The bamboo ceiling is defined as a combination of individual, cultural, and organisational factors that impede Asian Americans' career progress inside organizations. Since then, a variety of sectors (including nonprofits, universities, the government) have discussed the impact of the ceiling as it relates to Asians and the challenges they face. As described by Anne Fisher, the "bamboo ceiling" refers to the processes and barriers that serve to exclude Asians and American people of Asian descent from executive positions on the basis of subjective factors such as "lack of leadership potential" and "lack of communication skills" that cannot actually be explained by job performance or qualifications. Articles regarding the subject have been published in '' Crains'', ''
Fortune Fortune may refer to: General * Fortuna or Fortune, the Roman goddess of luck * Luck * Wealth * Fate * Fortune, a prediction made in fortune-telling * Fortune, in a fortune cookie Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''The Fortune'' (19 ...
'' magazine, and ''
The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 185 ...
''.


Illegal immigration

In 2012, there were 1.3 million Asian Americans; and for those awaiting visas, there were lengthy backlogs with over 450,000 Filipinos, over 325,000 Indians, over 250,000 Vietnamese, and over 225,000 Chinese awaiting visas. As of 2009, Filipinos and Indians accounted for the highest number of alien immigrants for "Asian Americans" with an estimated illegal population of 270,000 and 200,000 respectively.
Indian American Indian Americans are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly from India. The terms Asian Indian and East Indian are used to avoid confusion with Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans in the United States, who ar ...
s are also the fastest-growing alien immigrant group in the United States, with an increase in illegal immigration of 125% since 2000. This is followed by
Koreans Koreans are an East Asian ethnic group native to the Korean Peninsula. The majority of Koreans live in the two Korean sovereign states of North and South Korea, which are collectively referred to as Korea. As of 2021, an estimated 7.3 m ...
(200,000) and
Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...
(120,000). Nonetheless, Asian Americans have the highest naturalization rates in the United States. In 2015, out of a total of 730,259 applicants, 261,374 became new Americans. According to the
US 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, home, or public security ministries in other countries. Its missions involv ...
, legal permanent residents or green card holders from India, Philippines, and China were among the top nationals applying for US naturalization in 2015. Due to the stereotype of Asian Americans being successful as a group and having the lowest crime rates in the United States, public attention to illegal immigration is mostly focused on those from Mexico and Latin America while leaving out Asians. Asians are the second largest racial/ethnic alien immigrant group in the US behind Hispanics and Latinos.
While the majority of Asian immigrants immigrate legally to the United States, up to 15% of Asian immigrants immigrate without legal documents.


Race-based violence

Asian Americans have been the targets of violence based on their race and or ethnicity. This violence includes, but is not limited to, such events as the Rock Springs massacre, Watsonville Riots,
Bellingham Riots The Bellingham riots occurred on September 4, 1907, in Bellingham, Washington, United States. A mob of 400–500 white men, predominantly members of the Asiatic Exclusion League, with intentions to exclude Indian immigrants from the work for ...
in 1916 against South Asians, attacks upon Japanese Americans following the
attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Empire of Japan on the United States Pacific Fleet at Naval Station Pearl Harbor, its naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu, Territory of ...
, and Korean American businesses targeted during the
1992 Los Angeles riots The 1992 Los Angeles riots were a series of riots and civil disturbances that occurred in Los Angeles County, California, United States, during April and May 1992. Unrest began in South Los Angeles, South Central Los Angeles on April 29, after ...
. Attacks on Chinese in the
American frontier The American frontier, also known as the Old West, and popularly known as the Wild West, encompasses the Geography of the United States, geography, History of the United States, history, Folklore of the United States, folklore, and Cultur ...
were common. This included the slaughter of forty to sixty Chinese miners by
Paiute Indians Paiute (; also Piute) refers to three non-contiguous groups of Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin. Although their languages are related within the Numic group of Uto-Aztecan languages, these three languages do not form a single subgroup and t ...
in 1866, during the
Snake War The Snake War (1864–1868) was an Irregular warfare, irregular war fought by the United States of America against the "Snake Indians," the Exonym, settlers' term for Northern Paiute, Bannock (tribe), Bannock and Western Shoshone bands who liv ...
, the Los Angeles Chinese massacre of 1871, and an attack on Chinese miners at the
Chinese Massacre Cove Chinese Massacre Cove is an area along the Snake River in Wallowa County, Oregon, United States. It is located in the Wallowa–Whitman National Forest and the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area, upriver from the Snake's confluence with the I ...
by
cowboys A cowboy is a professional pastoralist or mounted livestock herder, usually from the Americas or Australia. Cowboy(s) or The Cowboy(s) may also refer to: Film and television * ''Cowboy'' (1958 film), starring Glenn Ford * ''Cowboy'' (1966 film), ...
in 1887 which resulted in 31 deaths. In the late 1980s,
assault In the terminology of law, an assault is the act of causing physical harm or consent, unwanted physical contact to another person, or, in some legal definitions, the threat or attempt to do so. It is both a crime and a tort and, therefore, may ...
s and other hate crimes were committed against South Asians in New Jersey by a group of
Latinos Hispanic and Latino Americans are Americans who have a Spanish or Latin American background, culture, or family origin. This demographic group includes all Americans who identify as Hispanic or Latino, regardless of race. According to th ...
known as the Dotbusters. In the late 1990s, the lone death that occurred during the
Los Angeles Jewish Community Center shooting On August 10, 1999, at around 10:50 a.m. PT, American white supremacist Buford O. Furrow Jr. walked into the lobby of the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills and opened fire with an Uzi sub machine gun, firing 70 bull ...
by a
white supremacist White supremacy is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White supremacy has roots in the now-discredited doctrine ...
was a Filipino postal worker. On July 17, 1989,
Patrick Edward Purdy The Stockton schoolyard shooting (also known as the Cleveland Elementary School shooting and the Cleveland School massacre) was an act of mass murder which occurred at Cleveland Elementary School in Stockton, California, on January 17, 1989. T ...
, a drifter and former resident of Stockton, California, wen and opened fire on Cleveland Elementary School students in the playground who were mainly of southeast Asian descent. Within minutes, he fired dozens of rounds, although reports ranged. He was armed with two pistols and an AK-47 with a bayonet killing five students and shooting at least 37 others. After the shooting spree Purdy killed himself. Even when it did not manifest as violence, contempt against Asian Americans was reflected in aspects of popular culture such as the playground chant " Chinese, Japanese, dirty knees". After the
September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
, Sikh Americans were targeted, becoming the victims of numerous
hate crimes Hate crime (also known as bias crime) in criminal law involves a standard offence (such as an assault, murder) with an added element of bias against a victim (individual or group of individuals) because of their Physical appearance#Physiological ...
, including
murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...
. Other Asian Americans have also been the victims of race-based violence in Brooklyn, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and
Bloomington, Indiana Bloomington is a city in Monroe County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. The population was 79,168 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is the List of municipalities in Indiana, seventh-most populous city in Indiana and ...
. Furthermore, it has been reported that young Asian Americans are more likely to be the targets of violence than their peers. In 2017, racist graffiti and other property damage was done to a community center in Stockton's Little Manila.
Racism and discrimination Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race or ethnicity over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination ...
still persist against Asian Americans, occurring not only against recent immigrants but also against well-educated and highly trained professionals. Recent waves of immigration of Asian Americans to largely African American neighborhoods have led to cases of severe racial tension. Acts of large-scale violence against Asian American students by their black classmates have been reported in multiple cities. In October 2008, 30 black students chased and attacked 5 Asian students at
South Philadelphia High School South Philadelphia High School is a public secondary high school located in the Lower Moyamensing neighborhood of South Philadelphia, at the intersection of Broad Street and Snyder Avenue. The school serves grades 9 through 12 and is part of ...
,Teague, Matthew. "Heroes: South Philly High's Protesters." ''
Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
'' (magazine). August 2010
4
. Retrieved on May 4, 2016,
and a similar attack on Asian students occurred at the same school one year later, prompting a protest by Asian students in response.Teague, Matthew. "Heroes: South Philly High's Protesters." ''
Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
'' (magazine). August 2010
8
. Retrieved on January 31, 2013.
Asian-owned businesses have been a frequent target of tensions between black and Asian Americans. During the 1992 Los Angeles riots, more than 2000 Korean-owned businesses were looted or burned by groups of African Americans. From 1990 to 1991, a high-profile, racially motivated
boycott A boycott is an act of nonviolent resistance, nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organisation, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for Morality, moral, society, social, politics, political, or Environmenta ...
of an Asian-owned shop in Brooklyn was organized by a local
black nationalist Black nationalism is a nationalist movement which seeks representation for Black people as a distinct national identity, especially in racialized, colonial and postcolonial societies. Its earliest proponents saw it as a way to advocate for ...
activist, eventually resulting in the owner being forced to sell his business.Goodman, Walter
"Review/Television; The Boycotting of a Korean Grocery in Brooklyn"
. ''The New York Times''. July 12, 1990
Another racially motivated boycott against an Asian-owned business occurred in Dallas in 2012, after an Asian American clerk fatally shot an African American who had robbed his store. During the
Ferguson unrest The Ferguson unrest (sometimes called the Ferguson uprising, Ferguson protests, or the Ferguson riots) was a series of protests and riots which began in Ferguson, Missouri on August 10, 2014, the day after the fatal Killing of Michael Brown, ...
in 2014, Asian-owned businesses were looted, and Asian-owned stores were looted during the
2015 Baltimore protests On April 12, 2015, Baltimore Police Department officers arrested Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old African American resident of Baltimore, Maryland. Gray's neck and spine were injured while he was in a police vehicle and he went into a coma. On Ap ...
while African American-owned stores were bypassed. Violence against Asian Americans continue to occur based on their race, with one source asserting that Asian Americans are the fastest-growing targets of
hate crime Hate crime (also known as bias crime) in criminal law involves a standard offence (such as an assault, murder) with an added element of bias against a victim (individual or group of individuals) because of their physical appearance or perceived ...
s and
violence Violence is characterized as the use of physical force by humans to cause harm to other living beings, or property, such as pain, injury, disablement, death, damage and destruction. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines violence a ...
. During the
COVID-19 pandemic in the United States On December 31, 2019, China announced the discovery of a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan. The first American case was reported on January 20, and United States Department of Health and Human Services, Health and Human Services Secreta ...
, concern has grown due to an increase in anti-Asian sentiment in the United States. In March 2020, President Donald Trump called the disease "China Virus" and "Kung-Flu", based on its origin; in response organizations such as Asian Americans Advancing Justice and Western States Center, stated that doing so will increase anti-Asian sentiment and violence. ''Vox'' wrote that the Trump Administration's use of the terms "China Virus", "Kung-Flu", and "Wuhan virus" would lead to an increase in
xenophobia Xenophobia (from (), 'strange, foreign, or alien', and (), 'fear') is the fear or dislike of anything that is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression that is based on the perception that a conflict exists between an in-gr ...
. The disease naming controversy occurred at a time when the Chinese Foreign Ministry was claiming that the disease originated in the United States. Violent acts, relating to the disease, against Asian Americans have been documented mostly in New York, California, and elsewhere. As of December 31, 2020, there were 259 reports of anti-Asian incidents in New York reported to
Stop AAPI Hate Stop AAPI Hate is an American nonprofit organization that runs the Stop AAPI Hate Reporting Center, which tracks self-reported incidents of hate and discrimination against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) living in the United State ...
. As of March 2021, there have been more than 3800 anti-Asian racist incidents. A notable incident was the
2021 Atlanta spa shootings On March 16, 2021, a shooting spree occurred at two spas and a massage parlor in the metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Eight people were killed and a ninth was wounded. The suspect, 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long, was taken ...
, a fatal attack in which six of the eight casualties were of Asian descent. The shooter reportedly said "I'm going to kill all Asians".


Racial stereotypes

Until the late 20th century, the term "Asian American" was mostly adopted by activists, while the average person who was of Asian ancestry identified with his or her specific ethnicity. The
murder of Vincent Chin Vincent Jen Chin ( zh, first=t, t=陳果仁; May 18, 1955 – June 23, 1982) was an American draftsman of Chinese descent who was killed in a racially motivated assault by two white men, Chrysler plant supervisor Ronald Ebens and his stepson, ...
in 1982 was a pivotal civil rights case, and it marked the emergence of Asian Americans as a distinct group in United States. Stereotypes of Asians have largely been collectively internalized by society and most of the repercussions of these stereotypes are negative for Asian Americans and Asian immigrants in daily interactions,
current events News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different media: word of mouth, printing, postal systems, broadcasting, electronic communication, or through the testimony of observers and witnesses to events. N ...
, and governmental
legislation Legislation is the process or result of enrolling, enacting, or promulgating laws by a legislature, parliament, or analogous governing body. Before an item of legislation becomes law it may be known as a bill, and may be broadly referred ...
. In many instances, media portrayals of East Asians often reflect a dominant Americentric perception rather than realistic and authentic depictions of true cultures, customs and behaviors. Asians have experienced
discrimination Discrimination is the process of making unfair or prejudicial distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong, such as race, gender, age, class, religion, or sex ...
and have been victims of
hate crime Hate crime (also known as bias crime) in criminal law involves a standard offence (such as an assault, murder) with an added element of bias against a victim (individual or group of individuals) because of their physical appearance or perceived ...
s related to their ethnic stereotypes. A study has indicated that most non-Asian Americans generally do not differentiate between Asian Americans who are of different ethnicities.
Stereotype In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalization, generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can ...
s of Chinese Americans and Asian Americans are nearly identical. A 2002 survey of Americans' attitudes toward Asian Americans and Chinese Americans indicated that 24% of the respondents disapprove of intermarriage with an Asian American, second only to African Americans; 23% would be uncomfortable supporting an Asian American presidential candidate, compared to 15% for an African American, 14% for a woman and 11% for a Jew; 17% would be upset if a substantial number of Asian Americans moved into their neighborhood; 25% had somewhat or very negative attitude toward Chinese Americans in general. The study did find several positive perceptions of Chinese Americans: strong family values (91%); honesty as business people (77%); high value on education (67%). There is a widespread perception that Asian Americans are not "American" but are instead "
perpetual foreigner The perpetual foreigner, forever foreigner, or perpetual other stereotype is a racist or xenophobic form of nativism in which naturalized and even native-born citizens (including families that have lived in a country for generations) are percei ...
s". Asian Americans often report being asked the question, "Where are you really from?" by other Americans, regardless of how long they or their ancestors have lived in United States and been a part of its society. Many Asian Americans are themselves not immigrants but rather born in the United States. Many East Asian Americans are asked if they are Chinese or Japanese, an assumption based on major groups of past immigrants. Discrimination against Asians and Asian Americans increased with the
COVID-19 pandemic in the United States On December 31, 2019, China announced the discovery of a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan. The first American case was reported on January 20, and United States Department of Health and Human Services, Health and Human Services Secreta ...
, according to a study done at
Washington State University Washington State University (WSU, or colloquially Wazzu) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Pullman, Washington, United States. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest Land-grant uni ...
(WSU) and published in ''Stigma and Health''. The
NYPD The City of New York Police Department, also referred to as New York City Police Department (NYPD), is the primary law enforcement agency within New York City. Established on May 23, 1845, the NYPD is the largest, and one of the oldest, munic ...
reported a 1,900% increase in hate crimes motivated by anti-Asian sentiment in 2020, largely due to the virus origins in Wuhan, China. According to a poll done in 2022, 33 percent of Americans believe Asian Americans are "more loyal to their country of origin" than the US while 21 percent falsely believe Asian Americans are at least "partially responsible" for the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, only 29 percent of Asian Americans believe they "completely agree" with the statement that they feel they belong and are accepted in the US, while 71 percent say they are discriminated in the US.


Model minority

Asian Americans are sometimes characterized as a
model minority The term model minority refers to a minority group, defined by factors such as ethnicity, race, or religion, whose members are perceived to be achieving a higher socioeconomic status in comparison to the overall population average. Consequently, ...
in the United States because many of their cultures encourage a strong work ethic, a respect for elders, a high degree of professional and academic success, a high valuation of family, education and religion. Statistics such as high household income and low incarceration rate, low rates of many diseases, and higher than average life expectancy are also discussed as positive aspects of Asian Americans. The implicit advice is that the other minorities should stop protesting and emulate the Asian American work ethic and devotion to higher education. Some critics say the depiction replaces biological racism with cultural racism, and should be dropped. According to ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'', "the idea that Asian Americans are distinct among minority groups and immune to the challenges faced by other people of color is a particularly sensitive issue for the community, which has recently fought to reclaim its place in social justice conversations with movements like #ModelMinorityMutiny." The model minority concept can also affect Asians' public education. By comparison with other minorities, Asians often achieve higher test scores and grades compared to other Americans. Stereotyping Asian American as over-achievers can lead to harm if school officials or peers expect all to perform higher than average. The very high educational attainments of Asian Americans has often been noted; in 1980, for example, 74% of Chinese Americans, 62% of Japanese Americans, and 55% of Korean Americans aged 20–21 were in college, compared to only a third of the whites. The disparity at postgraduate levels is even greater, and the differential is especially notable in fields making heavy use of mathematics. By 2000, a plurality of undergraduates at such elite public California schools as
UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...
and
UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...
, which are obligated by law to not consider race as a factor in admission, were Asian American. The pattern is rooted in the pre-World War II era. Native-born Chinese and Japanese Americans reached educational parity with majority whites in the early decades of the 20th century. One group of writers who discuss the "model minority" stereotype, have taken to attaching the term "myth" after "model minority", thus encouraging discourse regarding how the concept and stereotype is harmful to Asian American communities and ethnic groups. The model minority concept can be emotionally damaging to some Asian Americans, particularly since they are expected to live up to those peers who fit the stereotype. Studies have shown that some Asian Americans suffer from higher rates of stress, depression, mental illnesses, and suicides in comparison to other groups, indicating that the pressures to achieve and live up to the model minority image may take a mental and psychological toll on some Asian Americans. The
American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychologists in the United States, and the largest psychological association in the world. It has over 170,000 members, including scientists, educators, clin ...
has published a paper relying on 2007 data that takes issue with what is said are myths about the suicide rates of Asian Americans. Alongside mental and psychological tolls that the model minority concept has on Asian Americans, they are also faced with the repercussions that it has on
physical health Health has a variety of definitions, which have been used for different purposes over time. In general, it refers to physical and emotional well-being, especially that associated with normal functioning of the human body, absent of disease, pain ...
and the desire for individuals to seek medical care more specifically cancer screening or treatment. Asian Americans, between the other racial/ethnic groups in the United States, are the only group with the leading cause of death being cancer while having significantly low rates of cancer screenings. Different pressures like alienation if diagnosed or the desire to conform to stereotypes of the image of a healthy lifestyle can deter individuals from seeking cancer screenings or treatment before the onset of symptoms. The "model minority" stereotype fails to distinguish between different ethnic groups with different histories. When divided up by ethnicity, it can be seen that the economic and academic successes supposedly enjoyed by Asian Americans are concentrated into a few ethnic groups. Cambodians, Hmong, and Laotians (and to a lesser extent, Vietnamese) all have relatively low achievement rates, possibly due to their
refugee A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as ...
status, and the fact that they are non-voluntary immigrants.


Social and economic disparities

In 2015, Asian American earnings were found to exceed all other racial groups when all Asian ethnic groups are grouped as a whole. Yet, a 2014 report from the Census Bureau reported that 12% of Asian Americans were living below the poverty line, while 10.1% of non-Hispanic White Americans live below the poverty line.
https://www.census.gov/newsroom/facts-for-features/2017/cb17-ff07.html
A 2017 study of
wealth inequality The distribution of wealth is a comparison of the wealth of various members or groups in a society. It shows one aspect of economic inequality or economic heterogeneity. The distribution of wealth differs from the income distribution in that ...
within Asian Americans found a greater gap between wealthy and non-wealthy Asian Americans compared to non-Hispanic white Americans. Once country of birth and other demographic factors are taken into account, a portion of the sub-groups that make up Asian Americans are much more likely than non-Hispanic White Americans to live in poverty.
Healthcare access Health equity arises from access to the social determinants of health, specifically from wealth, power and prestige. Individuals who have consistently been deprived of these three determinants are significantly disadvantaged from health inequiti ...
varies greatly by race and ethnicity in the United States; some lifelong diseases and impairments affect Asian Americans more negatively compared to other US census-recognized racial groups. Research shows many
health disparities Health equity arises from access to the social determinants of health, specifically from wealth, power and prestige. Individuals who have consistently been deprived of these three determinants are significantly disadvantaged from health inequit ...
among different racial and ethnic groups in the United States. There are major disparities that exist among Asian Americans when specific ethnic groups are examined. For example, in 2012, Asian Americans had the highest educational attainment level of any racial demographic in the country. Yet, there are many sub groups of Asian Americans who suffer in terms of education with some sub groups showing a high rate of dropping out of school or lacking a college education. This occurs in terms of household income as well; in 2008 Asian Americans had the highest median household income overall of any racial demographic, while there were Asian sub-groups who had average median incomes lower than both the US average and non-Hispanic Whites. In 2014, data released by the US Census Bureau revealed that five Asian American ethnic groups are in the top ten lowest earning ethnicities in terms of per capita income in all of the United States.


Politics


See also


Notes


References


Bibliography

* Chang, Kornel S. "Asian Americans, Impact of the Great Depression on." in ''Encyclopedia of the Great Depression'', edited by Robert S. McElvaine, (vol. 1, Macmillan Reference USA, 2004), pp. 75–80
online
. * Chau Trinh-Shevrin, Nadia Shilpi Islam, Mariano Jose Rey. ''Asian American Communities and Health: Context, Research, Policy, and Action'' (Public Health/Vulnerable Populations), 2009. * Cheng, Cindy I-Fen. ''Citizens of Asian America: Democracy and Race during the Cold War'' (2013) * Chin, Gabriel J., Ed.
''U.S. Commission on Civil Rights: Reports on Asian Pacific Americans''
(2005) * * Lee, Jonathan H. X. and Fumitaka Matsuoka, eds. ''Asian American Religious Cultures'' (2 vol. 2015) * Lee, Jonathan H. X. and Kathleen M. Nadeau, eds. ''Encyclopedia of Asian American Folklore and Folklife'' (3 vol. 2010) * Ling, Huping, and Allan W. Austin, eds. ''Asian American History and Culture: An Encyclopedia'' (Routledge, 2015) * Lowe, Lisa ''Immigrant Acts: On Asian American Cultural Politics'' Durham: Duke University Press, 1996. * Matsumoto, Jon.
Asian Americans Anchor Their Influence
." ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
''. September 4, 1998. * Okamoto, Dina G. ''Redefining Race: Asian American Panethnicity and Shifting Ethnic Boundaries'' (Russell Sage Foundation, 2014) * Pyong Gap Min ''Asian Americans: Contemporary Trends and Issues'' Thousand Oaks, Ca.: Pine Science Press, 2005. * Wu, Frank H. ''Yellow: Race in American Beyond Black and White'' New York: Basic Books, 2002. * Zia, Helen ''Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People'' New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000. . *
Asian Americans: A Mosaic of Faiths
". (full report)
Pew Research Center The Pew Research Center (also simply known as Pew) is a nonpartisan American think tank based in Washington, D.C. It provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and the world. It ...
. July 19, 2012. *


External links


Asian American Data Links
— demographic information and reports from the United States Census Bureau
UCLA Asian American Studies Center
{{Overseas Asians Ethnic groups in the United States