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Asian Americans refers to individuals living in the United States who immigrated from (e.g. first-generation immigrants) or whose ancestors (e.g. second-generation immigrants and beyond) immigrated from Asian countries and Asian diasporas (i.e. settlements in other countries). Asian Americans consist of Bangladeshi, Burmese, Chinese, Cambodian, Filipinx, Hmong, Indian, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Nepalese, Pakistani, Sri Lankan, Taiwanese, Thai, and Vietnamese Americans, among others originating from Asia. As discussed in chapter 3, “Arrival and History,” Asians have lived in the United States in large numbers since the 1800s. Historically, scholarship on Asian Americans focused on the largest groups to first immigrate, namely Chinese and Japanese Americans. The descendants of these early immigrants drove the Asian-American movement of the 1960s, which gave rise to Asian American Studies and increased research and writing about the Asian-American experience. The Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965 altered the demographics of the United States and precipitated a much larger immigration of Asians after decades of anti-Asian immigration policies limited their entry into the country. Asian-American demographics have continued to change since then with continued voluntary immigration and also due to war and imperialism. Southeast Asians have arrived mostly since the 1970s as refugees and as family members sponsored by those refugees.

The number of Asian Americans has been increasing at a quick pace due to both continued immigration and to children born in the United States. According to the 2010 US Census, “The Asian alone population and the Asian alone-or-in-combination population both grew substantially from 2000 to 2010, increasing in size by 43 percent and 46 percent, respectively. These populations grew more than any other race group in 2010.”⁴ There were over 20 million Asian Americans, not even including multiracial Asian Americans, as of 2017, comprising 6.3% of the US population. As Table 1.1 indicates, Asian-American groups range widely in their numbers, with most listed groups (Chinese, Indian, Filipinx, Vietnamese, and Korean) numbering well over a million or even near or over three million individuals each as of 2010.

Table 1.1 Asian-American population

Source: US Census Bureau, 2015–2019 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates and 1-Year Estimates, Table ID B02018; generated by Pawan Dhingra, using American FactFinder

Group	Population, 2019
Asian (alone or with other races)	22,191,093
Chinese	4,993,935
Asian Indian	4,318,046
Filipinx	4,014,408
Vietnamese	2,086,017
Korean	1,859,653
Japanese	1,477,579
Other Asian	692,723