Asian immigration to the United States
Asian immigration to the United States refers to immigration to the United States from part of the continent of Asia, which includes East Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. Asian-origin populations have historically been in the territory that would eventually become the United States since the 16th century. The first major wave of Asian immigration occurred in the late 19th century, primarily in Hawaii and the West Coast. Asian Americans experienced exclusion, and limitations to immigration, by the United States law between 1875 and 1965, and were largely prohibited from naturalization until the 1940s. Since the elimination of Asian exclusion laws and the reform of the immigration system in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, there has been a large increase in the number of immigrants to the United States from Asia.
Images from a Harper's Magazine article on "the Lacustrine village" of Saint Malo, Louisiana, where Filipino migrants settled in the 18th century.
Early Japanese immigrants to Hawaii.
Makeshift shelter for Indian farm laborers (referred to as a "Hindu bed") in California.
An 1894 painting entitled "Not a Chinaman's Chance" by white American artist Charles Marion Russell, which depicted violence in the American West against Chinese immigrants.
Immigration to the United States
Immigration to the United States has been a major source of population growth and cultural change throughout much of its history. In absolute numbers, the United States has by far the highest number of immigrants in the world, with 50,661,149 people as of 2019. This represents 19.1% of the 244 million international migrants worldwide, and 14.4% of the United States' population. In 2018, there were almost 90 million immigrants and U.S.-born children of immigrants in the United States, accounting for 28% of the overall U.S. population.
A welcome notice to new immigrants
Naturalization ceremony at Oakton High School in Fairfax County, Virginia, December 2015
Immigrants to the United States take the Oath of Allegiance at a naturalization ceremony at the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, September 2010.
Immigrants arriving at Ellis Island in 1902