Pacific Islander Americans


Pacific Islander Americans are Americans who are of Pacific Islander ancestry. For its purposes, the U.S. Census also counts Indigenous Australians as part of this group.
Pacific Islander Americans make up 0.5% of the U.S. population including those with partial Pacific Islander ancestry, enumerating about 1.4 million people. The largest ethnic subgroups of Pacific Islander Americans are Native Hawaiians, Samoans, Chamorros, Fijians, Palauans and Tongans.
American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands are insular areas, while Hawaii is a state.

History

First stage: Hawaiian migration (18th-19th centuries)

Migration from Oceania to the United States began in the last decade of the eighteenth century, but the first migrants to arrive in this country were natives of Hawaii. People from other Oceanian backgrounds did not migrate to the United States until late nineteenth century. The first native Hawaiians to live in the United States were fur traders. They were hired by British fur traders in Hawaii and taken to the northwestern United States, from where developed trade networks with Honolulu. However, they charged less than Americans for doing the same jobs and returned to Hawaii when their contracts ended. The first Native Hawaiians to live permanently in the United States settled in the Astoria Colony in 1811, having been brought there by its founder, fur merchant John Jacob Astor. Astor created the Pacific Fur Company in the colony and used the native Hawaiians to build the city's infrastructure and houses and to work in the primary sector to make them serve the company.
After 1813, Native Hawaiians continued to migrate to the Pacific Northwest to work for other companies, such as the Hudson Bay Company and the Columbia Fishing and Trading Company, as well as in Christian missions. Since 1819 some groups of Polynesian Protestant students immigrated to the United States to study theology. Since the 1830s, another groups of Native Hawaiians arrived on California's shores, where they were traders and formed great communities. During the California Gold Rush, many other native Hawaiians migrated to California to work as miners.
In 1889, the first Polynesian Mormon colony was founded in Utah and consisted of Hawaiian natives, Tahitians, Samoans and Maori people. Also in the late nineteenth century small groups of Pacific Islanders, usually sailors, moved to the western shores, mainly on San Francisco. Later, the U.S. occupied Hawaii in 1896, Guam in 1898 and American Samoa in 1900. This fact diversified Oceanian emigration in the United States.

Second stage (20th-21st centuries)

However, the first record of non-Hawaiian Pacific Islanders in the United States is from 1910, with the first Guamanians living in the United States. In the following decades small groups of people from islands such as Hawaii, Guam, Tonga or American Samoa emigrated to the United States, but many of them were Mormons, who emigrated to help build Mormon churches, or look for an education, either in Laie or Salt Lake City. However, the emigration of Pacific Islanders to the U.S. was small until the end of World War II, when many American Samoans, Guamanians and Tongans emigrated to the USA. Most of them were in the military or married with military people. Since then the emigration increased and diversified every decade, with a majority emigrating to the Western urban areas and Hawaii.
This increase and diversification in the Oceanian emigration was especially true in the 1950s. In 1950, the population of Guam gained full American citizenship, and in 1952 the natives of American Samoa become U.S. nationals, although not American citizens, through the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. Shortly thereafter, the first major migration waves from American Samoa and Guam emerged, while other groups of places such as French Polynesia, Palau or Fiji began to emigrate. Over 5,100 Pacific Islander emigrated to the United States in the 1950s, mostly from American Samoa, Guam, and Tonga. Most of them were Mormons and many Pacific Islanders emigrated to the United States seeking economic opportunities.
In 1959, Hawaii became a U.S. state, which dramatically strengthened the indigenous population of Oceania in the US. In the 1960s many more Pacific Islanders emigrated to the US, especially due to increased migration from Guam, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa archipelago. This migration increased especially since 1965, when the U.S. government facilitated the non-European migration to the USA. Many of them were recruited to pick fruit in California.
During the 1970s, over nine thousand Pacific Islanders migrated to the US, mostly from Samoa, Guam, Tonga and Fiji, but also from other islands such as Federated States of Micronesia or Palau. Many of these people emigrated to the U.S. to study at its universities. In addition, in the 1980s, migration from the Pacific Islands to the United States become more diversified when this country acquired the Northern Marianas Islands and created an agreement with the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands called the Compact of Free Association, which allows its inhabitants to travel and work in the United States without visas. The Tyson Foods company relocated many of its Marshellese employees in Springdale, Arkansas, where the company is based. However, most of Pacific Islanders continued to migrate to western urban areas and Hawaii. More of five thousand Pacific Islanders migrated to the United States in the 90's, settling mostly in western cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, or Salt Lake City. In the 2000 census almost all the origins of Oceania were mentioned, although only the ethnic groups mentioned in the article consisted of thousands of people. In the 2000s and 2010s several thousands more Pacific Islanders emigrated to the USA.

Population

Demography

In the 2000 and 2010 U.S. Census, the term "Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander" refers to people having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, New Zealand and the Marshalls or other Pacific Islands. Most of the Pacific Islander Americans are of Native Hawaiian, Samoan and Chamorro origin.
The fact that Hawaii is a U.S. state, as well as the migration, high birth rate and miscegenation of the Pacific Islanders have favoured the permanence and increase of this population in the U.S.. In the 2000 census, over 800,000 people claimed be of Pacific Islander descent and already in the 2010 census 1,225,195 Americans claimed "'Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander'" as their race alone or in combination. Most of them live in urban areas of Hawaii and California, but they also have sizeable populations in Washington, Utah, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, Florida, Arizona and New York. On the other hand, Pacific Islander Americans are majority in American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, from where many of them are natives.

Pacific Islander Americans in the 2000">United States Census, 2000">2000https://www.census.gov/prod/2001pubs/c2kbr01-14.pdf The Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander Population, Census 2000–2010 U.S. Census">United States Census, 2010">2010 U.S. Censushttps://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-12.pdf The Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander Population: 2010 Census, 2010 Census Briefs, [United States Bureau of the Census, May 2012] (From over 1,000 people)

Location

State/territoryPacific Islander
Americans alone
Pacific Islander Americans
alone or in combination
Percentage
Alabama5,2087,9840.1%
Alaska7,66211,3601.0%
American Samoa51,40352,79092.6%
Arizona16,11228,4310.2%
Arkansas6,6858,5970.2%
California181,431320,0360.8%
Colorado8,42016,8230.1%
Connecticut3,4916,8640.0%
Delaware6901,4230.0%
District of Columbia7701,514-
Florida18,79043,416-
Georgia10,45418,5870.1%
Guam78,58290,23849.3%
Hawaii138,292358,95110.0%
Idaho2,7865,5080.1%
Illinois7,43615,873-
Indiana3,5327,3920.1%
Iowa2,4194,1730.1%
Kansas2,8645,4450.1%
Kentucky3,1995,6980.1%
Louisiana2,5885,333-
Maine3771,008-
Maryland5,39111,553-
Massachusetts5,97112,369-
Michigan3,44210,010<0.1%
Minnesota2,9586,8190.0%
Mississippi1,7003,228-
Missouri7,17812,1360.1%
Montana7341,7940.1%
Nebraska2,0613,5510.1%
Nevada19,30735,4350.6%
New Hampshire5321,236-
New Jersey7,73115,777-
New Mexico3,1325,7500.1%
New York24,00045,8010.1%
North Carolina10,30917,8910.1%
North Dakota3348010.1%
Northern Mariana Islands18,80024,89134.9%
Ohio5,33611,3800.03%
Oklahoma5,3549,0520.1%
Oregon14,64926,9360.4%
Pennsylvania7,11514,662-
Puerto Rico3705550.0%
Rhode Island1,6022,8030.1%
South Carolina3,9576,9880.1%
South Dakota5171,0400.1%
Tennessee5,4269,3590.1%
Texas31,24254,8010.1%
Utah26,04937,9941.3%
Vermont175476-
Virgin Islands 162120.0%
Virginia8,20117,2330.1%
Washington43,50573,2130.6%
West Virginia4851,295-
Wisconsin2,5055,558-
Wyoming5211,1370.1%
United States674,6251,332,4940.2%

Micronesian Americans

are Americans of Micronesian descent.
According to the 2010 census, the largest Chamorro populations were located in California, Washington and Texas, but their combined number from these three states totaled less than half the number living throughout the U.S. It also revealed that the Chamorro people are the most geographically dispersed Oceanic ethnicity in the country.
Marshallese Americans or Marshallese come from the Marshall Islands. In the 2010 census, 22,434 Americans identified as being of Marshallese descent.
Because of the Marshall Islands entering the Compact of Free Association in 1986, Marshallese have been allowed to migrate and work in the United States. There are many reasons why Marshallese came to the United States. Some Marshallese came for educational opportunities, particularly for their children. Others sought work or better health care than what is available in the islands. Massive layoffs by the Marshallese government in 2000 led to a second big wave of immigration.
Arkansas has the largest Marshallese population with over 6,000 residents. Many live in Springdale, and the Marshallese comprise over 5% of the city's population. Other significant Marshallese populations include Spokane and Costa Mesa.

Polynesian Americans

Polynesian Americans are Americans of Polynesian descent.
Large subcategories of Polynesian Americans include Native Hawaiians and Samoan Americans. In addition there are smaller communities of Tongan Americans, French Polynesian Americans, and Māori Americans.
A Samoan American is an American who is of ethnic Samoan descent from either the independent nation Samoa or the American territory of American Samoa. Samoan American is a subcategory of Polynesian American. About 55,000 people live on American Samoa, while the U.S. census in 2000 and 2008 has found 4 times the number of Samoan Americans live in the mainland USA.
California has the most Samoans; concentrations live in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles County, and San Diego County. San Francisco has approximately 2,000 people of Samoan ancestry, and other Bay Area cities such as East Palo Alto and Daly City have Samoan communities. In Los Angeles County, Long Beach and Carson have abundant Samoan communities, as well as in Oceanside in San Diego County. Other West Coast metropolitan areas such as Seattle have strong Samoan communities, mainly in King County and in Tacoma. Anchorage, Alaska, and Honolulu, Hawaii, both have thousands of Samoan Americans residing in each city.
Persons born in American Samoa are United States nationals, but not United States citizens. For this reason, Samoans can move to Hawaii or the mainland United States and obtain citizenship comparatively easily. Like Hawaiian Americans, the Samoans arrived in the mainland in the 20th century as agricultural laborers and factory workers.
Elsewhere in the United States, Samoan Americans are plentiful throughout the state of Utah, as well as in Killeen, Texas; Norfolk, Virginia; and Independence, Missouri.
A Tongan American is an American who is of ethnic Tongan descent. Utah has the largest Tongan American population, followed by Hawaii. Many of the first Tongan Americans came to the United States in connection to the LDS Church.

Military

Based on 2003 recruiting data, Pacific Islander Americans were 249% over-represented in the military.
American Samoans are distinguished among the wider Pacific Islander group for enthusiasm for enlistment. In 2007, a Chicago Tribune reporter covering the island's military service noted, "American Samoa is one of the few places in the nation where military recruiters not only meet their enlistment quotas but soundly exceed them.", there have been 10 American Samoans who have died in Iraq, and 2 who have died in Afghanistan.
Pacific Islander Americans are also represented in the Navy SEALS, making up.6% of the enlisted and.1% of the officers.