Common Patterns Of Immigration

Common Patterns of Immigration
Today immigrants come from places far removed from those that sent the large majority of earlier immigrants. As Asian Americans increase in numbers and in visibility, th question of immigration is examined with common patterns of immigration as well as the basis fro the similarities.
In the late 1840's and early 1880's, 370,000 Chinese immigrated to Hawaii and California. They were the first to come. They left China because many were pushed out by powerful forces at home. Some heard of the discovery of Gold in California, the Pacific Northwest, and British Columbia. Others found that there were jobs that became available as the American West developed. The second to come were the Japanese, Koreans, and Filipinos. They immigrated because they were induced by Hawaiian sugar plantation owners who sent agents to recruit workers as the sugar cultivation expanded. Some 400,000 Japanese, 7,000 Koreans, and 180,000 Filipinos landed on the ports of th...