Immigration History
Immigration policies have shaped the growth of A&PI communities in the U.S. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the U.S. established and enforced laws that singled out A&PIs as "foreigners" and "a race of permanent aliens."In the 1800s, Congress enacted legislation that prohibited the naturalization and citizenship of Asian immigrants. These policies remained the law of the land until 1952. Exclusionary laws dictated and controlled the growth and development of A&PI communities in the U.S. Some of these laws included:
- The 1875 Page Law, which barred entry of Chinese women to the U.S.;
- The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, which suspended the entry of Chinese laborers until 1943;
- The California Alien Land Laws of 1913 and 1920, which prohibited "aliens ineligible for citizenship" from owning land and assets; and
- The infamous Executive Order 9066, which removed all West Coast persons of Japanese ancestry to internment camps during World War II.
Passage of the 1965 Immigration Act brought a new, modern-day wave of Asians to the U.S. These Asian immigrants were allowed to come to the U.S. to reunify with their families or to bring select skills to the U.S. workforce. Immigrants in this wave were primarily from China, Hong Kong, Korea, and the Philippines.
A second modern-day wave of immigration occurred after the Vietnam War, which caused an unprecedented exodus of refugees from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. The third, most recent wave of A&PIs immigrating to the U.S. was largely influenced by the high-tech boom. During the 1990s, many South Asians and Pakistanis immigrated with H-1 visas. During the same period, the flow of Pacific Islanders to the mainland grew as well. Pacific Islanders were drawn by educational and economic opportunities as well as by the fact that their status as U.S. nationals enabled them easy entry to the mainland U.S.