Chinese migration to the United States is a history of two parts: a first wave from the 1850s

to 1880s, halted by federal laws restricting Chinese immigration; and a second wave from
the late 1970s to the present, following normalization of U.S.-Chinese relations and changes
to U.S. and Chinese migration policies. Chinese immigrants are now the third-largest
foreign-born group in the United States after Mexicans and Indians, numbering more than 2
million and comprising 5 percent of the overall immigrant population in 2013.

From the 1850s, political unrest and economic pressures at home prompted thousands of
Chinese immigrants to move to the western regions of the United States in search of
temporary work. Many took low-skilled jobs as manual laborers in mining, construction,
agriculture, manufacturing, or service industries. The 1890 decennial census reports a
Chinese-born resident population exceeding 100,000; records show that nearly 300,000
Chinese immigrants entered the United States between 1850 and 1889, though historians
estimate that as many as half ultimately returned to China. This wave of Chinese migration
was accompanied by growing anti-Chinese sentiment and ethnic discrimination, culminating
in the U.S. Congress passing the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. The law prohibited Chinese
labor migration to the United States and barred Chinese residents from obtaining U.S.
citizenship. Though the law was repealed in 1943, little Chinese immigration was permitted
until the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 overhauled the U.S. immigration system
and significantly expanded migration opportunities for non-European immigrants.

Though Hong Kong nationals started moving to the United States in the late 1960sby
1980, there were 85,000 Hong Kong-born immigrants in the United States, and today,
immigrants from Hong Kong account for about one in 10 Chinese immigrantslarge-scale
immigration from mainland China only resumed after the Peoples Republic of China opened
its economy to global markets and lifted migration restrictions in 1978. The number of
immigrants from mainland China in the United States nearly doubled from 299,000 in 1980
to 536,000 in 1990. Unlike the 19th century immigrants, post-1965 Chinese immigrants are
predominantly skilled: China is now the principal source of foreign students in U.S. higher
education, and the second-largest recipient of employer-sponsored temporary work visas,
after India.
Approximately one-quarter of all Chinese emigrants settle in the United States, with other
popular destinations including Canada (896,000), South Korea (657,000), Japan (655,000),
Australia (547,000), and Singapore (457,000), according to mid-2013 estimates by the
United Nations Population Division. Compared to the overall foreign- and native-born
populations, Chinese immigrants are more highly educated, more likely to be employed, and
have a higher household income.
Definitions

The U.S. Census Bureau defines the foreign born as individuals who had no U.S.
citizenship at birth. The foreign-born population includes naturalized citizens, lawful
permanent residents, refugees and asylees, legal nonimmigrants (including those on
student, work, or other temporary visas), and persons residing in the country without
authorization.
The terms foreign born and immigrant are used interchangeably and refer to those who
were born in another country and later emigrated to the United States. Data collection
constraints do not permit inclusion of those who gained Chinese citizenship via
naturalization and later moved to the United States.
Unless otherwise stated, estimates for China include Hong Kong and exclude Taiwan.

Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau (the most recent 2013 American Community
Survey [ACS] as well as pooled 2009-13 ACS data), the Department of Homeland
Securitys Yearbook of Immigration Statistics, and the World Bank's annual remittance data,
this Spotlight provides information on the Chinese immigrant population in the United States,
focusing on its size, geographic distribution, and socioeconomic characteristics.
Remittances

Distribution by State and Key Cities

Most immigrants from China have settled in California (31 percent), and New York (21
percent). The top four counties with Chinese immigrants in 2013 were Los Angeles County
in California, Queens County in New York, Kings County in New York, and San Francisco
County in California. Together, these four counties accounted for about 29 percent of the
total mainland Chinese immigrant population in the United States

In the 2009-13 period, the U.S. cities with the largest number of Chinese immigrants were
the greater New York City, San Francisco, and Los Angeles metropolitan areas. These three
metropolitan areas accounted for about 46 percent of Chinese immigrants in the United
States.

The Chinese Exclusion Act was approved on May 6, 1882. It was the first significant law
restricting immigration into the United States.
print-friendly version

In the spring of 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by Congress and signed by
President Chester A. Arthur. This act provided an absolute 10-year moratorium on Chinese
labor immigration. For the first time, Federal law proscribed entry of an ethnic working group
on the premise that it endangered the good order of certain localities.

The Chinese Exclusion Act required the few nonlaborers who sought entry to obtain
certification from the Chinese government that they were qualified to immigrate. But this
group found it increasingly difficult to prove that they were not laborers because the 1882
act defined excludables as skilled and unskilled laborers and Chinese employed in mining.
Thus very few Chinese could enter the country under the 1882 law.

The 1882 exclusion act also placed new requirements on Chinese who had already entered
the country. If they left the United States, they had to obtain certifications to re-enter.
Congress, moreover, refused State and Federal courts the right to grant citizenship to
Chinese resident aliens, although these courts could still deport them.

When the exclusion act expired in 1892, Congress extended it for 10 years in the form of
the Geary Act. This extension, made permanent in 1902, added restrictions by requiring
each Chinese resident to register and obtain a certificate of residence. Without a certificate,
she or he faced deportation.

The Geary Act regulated Chinese immigration until the 1920s. With increased postwar
immigration, Congress adopted new means for regulation: quotas and requirements
pertaining to national origin. By this time, anti-Chinese agitation had quieted. In 1943
Congress repealed all the exclusion acts, leaving a yearly limit of 105 Chinese and gave
foreign-born Chinese the right to seek naturalization. The so-called national origin system,
with various modifications, lasted until Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1965.
Effective July 1, 1968, a limit of 170,000 immigrants from outside the Western Hemisphere
could enter the United States, with a maximum of 20,000 from any one country. Skill and
the need for political asylum determined admission. The Immigration Act of 1990 provided
the most comprehensive change in legal immigration since 1965. The act established a
flexible worldwide cap on family-based, employment-based, and diversity immigrant visas.
The act further provides that visas for any single foreign state in these categories may not
exceed 7 percent of the total available.