OVERVIEW: ASIAN AMERICANS/PACIFIC ISLANDERS

 

Overview: Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders

The California Department of Education Ethnic Studies Framework (https://www.cdw.ca.gov/ci/cr/cf/documents/esmc) in Chapter 4 lists 20 East, Southeast, and Central Asian/Pacific Islander groups, and explains specific situations experienced by immigrants from each, with sample lessons and resources. The Asian/Pacific Islander immigration experience and eventual ability to become full citizens is a complex and very diverse story, as values and beliefs differ significantly across the region. This overview is followed by a list of Asian/Pacific Islander communities, tracing the story of that group’s immigration to the US, experiences as they became American, along with resources and lessons

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The first Asians to come to what would become the United States were Filipinos who arrived in Morro Bay in 1587, as part of the Spanish trade route from the Philippines to New Spain. In the 1760’s Filipino fishermen established a village in the Louisiana delta. A few East Indians were in the British colonies by 1775 and a few Chinese merchants were in the US East Coast by 1815.

 

Large scale immigration to the Americas began from China in the 1850’s. Civil unrest especially in South China (the Tai Bing Rebellion, which saw at least 20 million Chinese killed…see Chinese American section below) and the California Gold Rush both ‘pushed’ and ‘pulled’ 25,000 Chinese to California by 1852. More came later as railroad builders and farm workers. The 1880 US Census reported 105,465 Chinese in the United States. Anger and resistance to Chinese immigrants produced the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. No Chinese could enter the US except close relatives of Chinese already in the United States. Japanese immigrants began to replace Chinese farm workers after 1882. The 145 Japanese in the US according to the 1880 Census grew to 24,326 in 1900, while the Chinese population declined to 89,863. Resistance to Japanese immigration followed the pattern of resistance earlier to Chinese immigrants, especially in California. Japan and the United States settled the ‘Gentleman’s Agreement’ of 1907, in which Japan would not allow anyone to leave Japan to go to the United States, again allowing for immediate relatives. (Japanese immigrants had come in large numbers to Hawaii, which was not taken over by the US until 1898, and were not included in the Census as Japanese Americans until Hawaii became a state in 1959).

 

No Asian immigrants (or African Americans or Native Americans) were able to become full US citizens because the Naturalization Act of 1790 said only “free white persons of good moral character” could ever be citizens of the United States. The 14th Amendment to the US Constitution of 1866 declared that:

 

            All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the                United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge              the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life,                      liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal   

           protection of the laws.

 

While this meant the newly freed African Americans were citizens, only the children of Asian American immigrants were citizens. So Asian immigrants themselves could never become citizens as they were not white, but their children born in the United States were automatically citizens. As both Chinese and Japanese immigrants began having children, East Asian cultural differences with the those typical in the United States began to surface.East Asia (China, Japan, the Koreas, Vietnam in particular) share beliefs about the right way to live in an orderly and stable (‘harmonious ’) society created 2500 years ago by the Chinese philosopher Confucius (Kung Fu Tse, 551-479 BCE). He created the rules for a social system of peace and harmony that became the dominant philosophy of all East Asia. Social harmony and order would come from ‘right living’ and following the five essential relationships: Ruler to ruled, father to son, husband to wife, elder brother to younger brother, and friend to friend. The duty of the first in each of these is to protect and preserve the second. The duty of the second is to obey the first. If the first does not adequately protect the second, the bond is undermined and broken. If the second does not obey the first, the bond is broken.

 

Buddhism, originating in India also about 2500 years ago and gradually spreading into East Asia, brought teachings of ethical and moral behavior that reinforced the Confucionist ideal of harmonic society. The Buddhist belief in reincarnation stressed the need for people to live properly so as to improve their reincarnated status. East Asian societies stressed stability and order rather than individualism.

 

Children born in the United States of immigrants from East Asia would often obey their fathers and follow his direction for schooling and career regardless of their own desires. Second and third generation East Asian Americans were and are often conflicted by the dominant culture’s emphasis on learning independence from one’s parents and creating one’s own life independent of parents. East Asian Americans grow up knowing that preserving the honor of their family is paramount and goals of independence should not undermine the family.

 

As both Chinese and Japanese American populations grew because of having children, resistance to Asians in general resulted in the most important (outside of restrictions on Chinese immigration in 1882 and on Japanese immigration in 1907, both explained in the specific sections below) restrictive immigration law in 1924, the Immigration Act of that year. No ‘aliens; ineligible for citizenship’ would be allowed to immigrate, period. Thus no one from anywhere in Asia could immigrate to the United States. To further clarify, the US Supreme Court ruled soon after the Act was signed that Asians were not Caucasian and thus could not immigrate.

 

Entry to World War II in 1941 put the United States in an awkward position: The Republic of China was an ally against the Empire of Japan. Hitler’s Germany was blatantly anti Semitic and anti Slavic (Polish and Russian) as well as anti everyone not Germanic Caucasian (Aryan, in Hitlerian terminology). The situation for Japanese Americans became a disaster fueled by racism (see section below) that sent over 120,000 to one of ten ‘relocation centers’. Favoring a wartime ally, in 1943 legislation said Chinese immigration would be allowed and that all non citizen Chinese persons already in the United States could become citizens.

 

The US in taking the lead in founding the United Nations as the war ended took many public positions opposing racism. In 1952 legislation removed for first time the 1790 ‘free white person’ requirement for citizenship that had blocked any immigration from Asia. While the 1924 quota system was retained, a few Asian immigrants were now allowed each year.

 

The most drastic overhaul of the immigration system was The Immigration Act of 1965.This was a huge reversal in US policy about immigration. The 1924 quotas were dropped. The US would accept up to 170,000 Asian immigrants a year, with exceptions allowing for refugees from wars against Communism. Asian immigration immediately jumped, in some cases going from 100 a year to 12,000 a year from individual Asian countries. The 1970 Census showed 600,000 Japanese Americans (now including those in Hawaii) living in the US along with 435,000 Chinese Americans. Immigration from South East (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, and South Asia (India, Pakistan Sri Lanka) and Pacific Islands increased dramatically as a result of the 1965 Act and because of accepting refugees from wars in the region.

 

The 2020 Census showed about 5.4 million Chinese Americans, 4.6 million Indian Americans, 4.2 million Filipino Americans, 2.2 million Vietnamese Americans, 1.9 million Korean Americans, 1.5 million Japanese Americans, and 2.7 million from other Asian countries and Pacific Islands, for a total of 22.5 million Asian/Pacific Islander Americans, the fastest growing immigrant group.

 

Specific Communities: The URL below each listing that follows traces the specific experiences of each Asian/Pacific Islander community as ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors led people to come to the United States. For some, immigration itself was a challenge over many decades. For all the challenges of living in a new homeland was experienced differently.

Japanese Americans: 

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1n9g4VKPACouCfuuypPYZlzfbtkLBk5AdlKFAvdkpzS0/edit