Korean Americans: First Wave Immigration

• Korean Americans have significantly impacted the US across various sectors.
• The Korean community overcame war, exclusion, and famine to establish itself in America.

First Wave of Korean Immigration

• Hawaii was the destination for some of the earliest Korean immigrants to the US.
• Push factors from Korea included famine and political turmoil at the turn of the 20th century.
• Pull factors from the US included the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which created a labor shortage.
• The Chinese Exclusion Act legally excluded a group of immigrants based solely on nationality.
• Korean immigrants filled the labor void, working on pineapple and sugar cane plantations in Hawaii after the US annexed it.
• By 1905, over 7,000 Koreans worked in Hawaii.
• Korean laborers experienced anti-Asian sentiment similar to that which led to the Chinese Exclusion Act.
• The Immigration Act of 1924 set immigration quotas, favoring Western Europe and excluding most of Asia and Africa, causing Korean and Asian immigration to decline.

Second Wave of Korean Immigration

• The Korean War, starting in 1950, significantly influenced the second wave of Korean immigration.
• The war was fought between US-backed forces in the South and communist China-backed forces in the North, dividing the peninsula into North and South Korea.
• Korean war brides immigrated to America through the War Brides Act.
• The War Brides Act allowed American servicemen to bring their foreign wives, children, and adopted children to the US, bypassing the 1924 quota system.
• Chol Soo Lee, a Korean American civil rights icon, was born out of wedlock during the Korean War; his mother married an American soldier and moved to America.
• Nearly 100,000 Korean war brides and over 300,000 Korean adoptees came to the US over several decades.

Third Wave of Korean Immigration

• The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 replaced national origin quotas.
• Immigration preferences expanded to those with families in the US or highly skilled/educated workers.
• From 1960 to 1980, the number of Korean immigrants increased from 11,000 to 290,000, a growth of over 2,000%.

Contemporary Issues

• Asian Americans, including Korean Americans, face a rise in Asian-targeted violent hate crimes.
• A 2022 report indicated that anti-Asian hate crimes increased by over 300% in a single year during the pandemic.
• The Korean and Asian American community are uniting to demand justice.