page_title: Asian Americans
section_title: Early immigration
hierarchical_section_title: Asian Americans / History / Early immigration
caption_attribution_description: 5 views of Saint Malo, Louisiana, 1883. The Lacustrine Village of Saint Malo, Louisiana. Settlement of Tagalas from Philippine Islands in swampland of S.E. Louisiana: 1. Bataille's house; 2. Farewell to St. Malo (fishing boat departing); 3. Bayou, St. Malo; 4. Oldest house in St. Malo; 5. El Maestro's house.
context_page_description: Asian Americans are Americans of Asian ancestry. The term refers to a panethnic group that includes diverse populations, which have origins in East Asia, South Asia, or Southeast Asia, as defined by the United States Census Bureau. This includes people who indicate their race on the census as "Asian" or reported entries such as "Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Other Asian". In modern times, this term excludes Americans with ancestry from other parts of Asia, such as West Asia, who are now considered Middle Eastern American. In 2018, Asian Americans comprised 5.4% of the U.S. population; including multiracial Asian Americans, that percentage increases to 6.5%.
  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–60s, abolishing national origins quotas, Asian immigration increased rapidly.
context_section_description: As Asian Americans originate from many different countries, each population has its own unique immigration history.
  Filipinos 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; 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, after fleeing mistreatment aboard Spanish ships. Since there were no Filipino women with them, these 'Manilamen', as they were known, married Cajun and Native American women. The first Japanese person to come to the United States, and stay any significant period of time was Nakahama Manjirō who reached the East Coast in 1841, and Joseph Heco became the first Japanese American naturalized US citizen in 1858.
  Chinese sailors first came to Hawaii in 1789, a few years after Captain James Cook came upon the island. Many settled and married Hawaiian women. Most Chinese, Korean and Japanese immigrants in Hawaii arrived in the 19th century as laborers to work on sugar plantations. 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. Okinawans would start migrating to Hawaii in 1900.
  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, these early Chinese immigrants participated intensively in the mining business and later in the construction of the transcontinental railroad. 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 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 following the latter's defeat in the Spanish–American War.
caption: Five images of the Filipino settlement at Saint Malo, Louisiana
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