The Asian Americans
The term "Asian Americans" encompasses a range of people whose ancestries derive from countries in West, South, Southeast, and East Asia with widely different cultures and histories. The Chinese are the largest group, followed by the Filipinos, Japanese, Asian Indians, Koreans, Vietnamese, Laotians, Cambodians, Thais, and Hmongs.
The Asian American started to come to the US since 18th century. One can distinguish several waves of immigration:
The Early Wave of the Asian Immigration (1750-1848); “Contract Immigration”(1865-1882); “Paper Sons” & “Photo Brides” (1910-1940); “Family Reunification” (1940-1970); The Modern Wave of Asian Immigration (1970-…..).
The first to come were the Chinese Filipinos, who settled mainly in Mexico and Louisiana. In 1840 to make up for the shortage of slaves from Africa, the British and Spanish brought over slaves or “coolies” from China, India, and the Philippines to islands in the Caribbean, Peru, Ecuador, and other countries. But the largest influx of Asian immigration was brought with the discovery of Gold. Many Chinese came in attempt to become rich. When the Americans started building of the transcontinental railroad a lot of Asian laborers came to work on contract basis. The XX th century brought about the new wave of immigrants who were either seeking family reunion or looking forward to a marriage.
Since the early days on the new territories they have to live in the communities of their own or enclaves, which survived even today. One can find Chinatowns, “Little Tokyos”, “Little Saigons”, etc. all around the USA – in LA, San Francisco, New York, San Jose, Houston, etc.
They are considered to be the fastest growing ethnic groups in the country with higher income. They are mainly engaged in high-tech industry, restaurant business. They have a higher percent of undergraduate and graduate students.
Present Day Situation of the Main Ethnic Groups (census 2010)
| Ethnic Group | Percentage | Number |
| Whites/Caucasians | 72,4% | 223,553,265 |
| Afro-Americans | 12,6% | 38,929,319 |
| Hispanics | 16,4% | 50,477,594 |
| Asian Americans | 4,8% | 14,674,319 |
| Native Americans | 0,9% | 2,932,248 |
Illegal Immigration
It’s a major problem for the country today. The main contributors to it are the illegal immigrants coming from the countries of Latin America, esp. Mexico. The attitude towards illegal immigration is somehow ambiguous. On the one hand, it’s seen as having a negative effect on the level of wages for the unskilled Americans. The “illegals” are usually paid lower, and at the same time are the competitive factors for the unskilled ones. On the other hand, they do not increase the level of unemployment. On the contrary they usually in for low-end or “black” jobs, which aren’t attractive for the legal citizens (like cleaning the hotel rooms or working as servants in rich households). Of course, the federal government tries to undertake some measures to decrease the level of illegal immigration. One of these measures is quite debatable. It is the construction of 1,125 km fence along the Mexican border. The project is quite expensive for the federal budget, and besides, some people doubt that it would be effective.
The US Immigration and Naturalization Service estimates that some 5 mln people are currently living in the States illegally. This number is growing by 275,000 annually.
Ancestry
The census used to collect information about ancestry, but this question was removed from the 2010 census. The latest data, from 2000, shows that these were the largest ancestral groups in the US:
@ German - 15.2%
@ Irish - 10.8%
@ African American - 8.8%
@ English - 8.7%
@ American - 7.2%
@ Mexican - 6.5%