Migration from Asia to the US 1820-1957

Migration from Asia to the United States was very slow until the 1850s, however an influx of Chinese migrants brought the numbers up drastically during the California Gold Rush in the mid-nineteenth century. Migration from Asia reached its highest level in 1882, where there were almost 40,000 Asians documented as arriving in the United States in this year alone. As gold became scarcer across the continent, animosity towards the Chinese increased among white Americans, and the Chinese Expulsion Act was introduced in 1882. Following this legislation, there was a sharp decrease in the amount of Asian migrants arriving in the US, and it fell below 200 people in 1885. At the turn of the twentieth century, migration from Asia increased again, reaching a new high of 40,500 people in 1907, as higher numbers of Japanese and Turkish people emigrated to North America. There was another decrease during the First World War, and again during the Great Depression and Second World War (particularly from Japan). Following the Second World War, Asian migration rates increased again, from all areas of the continent.