About half of the approx. 600.000 legal immigrants who make their way to American shores annually are Asian. This is why Asian Americans are one of the fastest-growing minority groups in the US.
The term Asian American refers to any person of Asian descent, foreign born or native, living in the United States. In general, Asian Americans identify themselves strongly with their country of origin and will most often refer to themselves rather as Chinese American, Japanese American, Hmong American, etc.
Diversity is the keyword when talking about Asian Americans. Each group has its own history, language, and culture that they have added to the American mosaic.
Ever since their arrival in the United States, every group of Asian Americans has had to endure various instances of "common" and institutionalized racism. This is why, in the 1980s and as a consequence of the murder of Vincent Chin, the Asian American identity was created as an umbrella term under which all kinds of persons of Asian descent could fight together against racism. Vincent Chin was a Chinese American mistaken for a Japanese American. He was killed because an American autoworker blamed the Japanese for the decline of the American auto industry,
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