The term “Asian American” is used as a way to distinguish people of Asian descent. Asian Americans consist of at least a dozen distinct groups who have extremely diverse cultural and physical features. The largest groups of Asian Americans are the Chinese, Filipino, and Asian Indian. The Japanese, Koreans, Vietnamese, as well as others are not in the largest population, but they do make up the smaller Asian societies. Asian Americans faced oppression and social injustices even before they landed in the United States, there were laws that played a significant role in the lives of the Asian population, although they were able to excel in education and economic opportunities, nothing was done to correct these injustices until 1974.
Asian Americans have been in the United States since the early nineteenth century. As mentioned, they arrived in two separate waves. The first wave consists of the old Asian immigration, this occurred from the middle of the nineteenth century to the early years of the twentieth centuries. Many Chinese people were the first to arrive, followed by the Japanese and a small group of Koreans and Filipinos. In this first wave came many unskilled laborers for the purpose of construction and …show more content…
Therefore the Chinese were forced out of their jobs and moved from one town to another. Due to the resentment from the white workers, the Chinese were restricted by the legal measures and used to limit their work-related and residential movement. In conclusion to the hostility, in 1882, the U.S. Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was designed to impede Chinese immigration for a ten year period. In 1892 the Exclusion Act was extended for another ten years, but in 1907 this Act was made permanent. This Exclusion Act marked the first time a specific group was formally banned from