Japanese immigrant family in Brazil.
Today’s API population consists of immigrants and their descendants. An initial small stream of immigrants in 1750 was later followed by two large waves of immigrants of laborers then refugees.
The first wave of immigration lasted from the 1840s—1930 and brought in nearly one million Chinese, Japanese, Pilipinos, Koreans, and Asian Indians. Most of these immigrants were laborers and small business owners. This first generation experienced racial and ethnic discrimination, economic exploitation, civil rights inequality, and familial separation.
The second wave began when the 1965 Immigration Act granted entry to large numbers of Chinese, Pilipinos, Koreans, and Asian Indians. The 1975 Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act, the 1980 Refugee Act, and the 1987 Amerasian Homecoming Act granted entry to nearly one million Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian refugees. War in Southeast Asia left many of these immigrants impoverished. They had to rebuild their war-torn lives upon arriving in the United States.
During the 1970s, “Asian and Pacific Islander” became an official label used for government purposes of gathering statistics. API groups protested this lumping of ethnic minorities and continue to work toward including the specific differences that encompass the interests that differentiate the groups.
Word Count: 195
References:
Museus, S. D. (2011). An introductory mixed-methods intersectionality analysis of college access and equity: An examination of first-generation Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. New Directions For Institutional Research,2011(151), 63-75. doi:10.1002/ir.399
PAIR, S. J., KULA, S. M., SAITO, L. E., RAHMAN, Z., & WITENSTEIN, M. A. (2014). Historical Perspectives on Diverse Asian American Communities: Immigration, Incorporation, and Education. Teachers College Record, 116(8), 1-45.
Understanding Pan-Asian Students 