Jump to content

Asian Latin Americans

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Shantosh5000 (talk | contribs) at 15:49, 8 August 2010 (→See also). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Asian Latin American
Ana GabrielFranklin Chang-Diaz
Juliana ImaiWifredo Lam
Ana Gabriel • Franklin Chang-Diaz
Juliana Imai • Wifredo Lam
Regions with significant populations
 Brazil1,505,000[1][2]
 Peru1,470,000[3][4]
 Mexico253,472
 Panama200,000[5]
 Argentina131,600[6]
 Cuba114,444[7]
Languages
Portuguese, Spanish, Chinese, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Tagalog, others
Religion
Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Shintoism

Asian Latin Americans are Latin Americans of East Asian, Southeast Asian or South Asian descent.

Asian Latin Americans have a centuries-long history in the region, starting with Filipinos in the 16th century. The heyday of Asian immigration occurred in the 19th and 20th centuries, however.

There are currently more than four million Asian Latin Americans, nearly 1% of Latin America's population. Chinese and Japanese are the group's largest ancestries; other major ones include Filipinos and Koreans. Brazil is home to the largest population of Asian Latin Americans, at some 1.5 million.[8][9] The highest ratio of any country in the region is 5%,[3] in Peru.

There has been notable emigration from these communities in recent decades, so that there are now hundreds of thousands of people of Asian Latin American origin in both Japan and the United States.

History

The first Asian Latin Americans were Filipinos who made their way to Latin America (particularly Mexico) in the 16th century, as sailors, crews, slaves, prisoners, adventurers and soldiers during the Spanish colonial period of the Philippines. For two and a half centuries (between 1565 and 1815) many Filipinos sailed on the Manila-Acapulco Galleons, assisting in the Spanish Empire's monopoly in trade. Some of these sailors never returned to the Philippines, and many of their descendants can be found in small communities around Baja California, Sonora, Mexico City, and others.

Most Asians, however, arrived in the 19th and 20th century as contract workers or economic migrants. Today, the overwhelming majority of Asian Latin Americans are of Chinese, Japanese, or Korean descent. Japanese migration mostly came to a halt after World War II (with the exception of Japanese settlement in the Dominican Republic), while Korean migration mostly came to an end by the 1980s (though it still continues in Guatemala) and Chinese migration remains ongoing in a number of countries.

Settlement of war refugees has been extremely minor: a few dozen ex-North Korean soldiers went to Argentina and Chile after the Korean War,[10][11] and some Hmong went to French Guiana (which may or may not be considered part of Latin America depending on the definition) after the Vietnam War.[12]

Geographic distribution

Four and a half million Latin Americans (almost 1% of the total population of Latin America) are of Asian descent. The number may be millions higher, even more so if all who have partial ancestry are included. For example, Asian Peruvians are estimated at 5%[3] of the population there, but one source places the number of all Peruvians with at least some Chinese ancestry at 4.2 million, which equates to 15% of the country's total population.[13]

Most who are of Japanese descent reside in Brazil, Peru and Argentina, while significant populations of Chinese ancestry are found in Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Costa Rica (where they make up about 1% of the total population). Nicaragua is home to 12,000 ethnic Chinese; the majority reside in Managua and on the Caribbean coast. Smaller communities of Chinese, numbering just in the hundreds or thousands, are also found in Colombia, Ecuador and various other Latin American countries. The largest Korean communities are in Chile, Brazil, Paraguay, Mexico and Argentina. There are around 10,000 living in Guatemala. There is also a Hmong community in Argentina. Panama and Venezuela have small Asian Indian communities.

Japanese Peruvians have a considerable economic position in Peru.[14] Many past and present Peruvian Cabinet members are ethnic Asians and former president Alberto Fujimori is of Japanese ancestry.

Brazil is home to the largest Japanese community outside of Japan, numbering about 1.5 million.[15]

Emigrant communities

Canada

Canada has been a destination for Asian Latin American emigration. The immigrants usually settle in the largest cities, such as Vancouver and Toronto, and integrate into the overall Asian Canadian communities.

Japan

Japanese Brazilian immigrants to Japan numbered 250,000 in 2004, constituting Japan's second-largest immigrant population.[16] Their experiences bear similarities to those of Japanese Peruvian immigrants, who are often relegated to low income jobs typically occupied by foreigners and, as with other immigrants, are vulnerable to the Yakuza.[14]

Asian Hispanic and Latino Americans

Most Asian Latin Americans who have migrated to the United States live in the largest cities, often in Asian American or Hispanic and Latino communities in the Greater Los Angeles area, New York metropolitan area, Chicago metropolitan area, San Francisco Bay area, Greater Houston, the San Diego area, Imperial Valley, California, Dallas-Fort Worth, and South Florida (mainly Chinese Cubans). They and their descendants are sometimes known as Asian Hispanics and Asian Latinos.

In the 2000 US Census, 119,829 Hispanic or Latino Americans identified as being of Asian race alone.[17] In 2006 the Census Bureau's American Community Survey estimated them at 154,694,[18] while its Population Estimates, which are official, put them at 277,704.[19]

Some notable Americans of Asian Hispanic/Latino heritage include Franklin Chang-Diaz, Carlos Galvan, Kelis, and Chino Moreno.

Composition

Asian Latin American population (incomplete data)
Country Chinese Indian[20] Japanese[21] Korean[22] Filipino Others References
Argentina 60,000 1,600 35,000 22,024
Bolivia 12,000 640
Brazil 151,649 1,900 1,405,685 48,419 1,000 [3][23]
Chile 650 10,000 2,249
Colombia 20 1,119 710
Costa Rica 7,873 16 730 [24]
Cuba 113,828 1,300 [25] [26]
Dominican Republic 50,000 3,000 518
Ecuador 5 1418
El Salvador 272
Guatemala 2,000 288 9,921 [27]
Honduras 406
Mexico 31,000 400 35,000 12,072 200,000 [28][29]
Nicaragua 531
Panama 200,000 2,164 456 306
Paraguay 10,321 5,229
Peru 1,300,000 145 90,000 812 [3][4]
Puerto Rico 2200>
Uruguay ~100 456 152
Venezuela 680 828 325

Notable persons

See also

Asian Latin American enclaves

References

  1. ^ http://www.pucsp.br/rever/rv3_2004/p_shoji.pdf
  2. ^ http://www.mofa.go.jp/region/latin/index.html MOFA: Japan-Brazil Relations
  3. ^ a b c d e http://www.ocac.gov.tw/english/public/public.asp?selno=1163&no=1163&level=B
  4. ^ a b http://www.universia.edu.pe/noticias/principales/destacada.php?id=65889
  5. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_Chinese_in_Panama
  6. ^ http://migration.ucdavis.edu/mn/more.php?id=847_0_2_0
  7. ^ https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/cu.html>
  8. ^ National Research for Sample of Domiciles (PDF). Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. 2006. pp. Table 1.2. Retrieved 2008-06-10.
  9. ^ Japan, Brazil mark a century of settlement, family ties | The Japan Times Online
  10. ^ Bialogorski, Mirta (2005). "La comunidad coreana - Argentina - Logros de una inmigración reciente". Cuando Oriente llegó a América: Contribuciones de inmigrantes chinos, japoneses, y coreanos. Banco Interamericano De Desarrollo. pp. 275–296. ISBN 978-1-931003-73-5.
  11. ^ Park, Chae-soon (2007). "La emigración coreana en América Latina y sus perspectivas". Segundo Congreso del Consejo de Estudios Latinoamericanos de Asia y de Oceania (PDF). Seoul: Latin American Studies Association of Korea. Retrieved 2008-09-27.
  12. ^ "Hmong's new lives in Caribbean". BBC News. 2004-03-10. Retrieved 2010-04-25.
  13. ^ "II Encuentro Tusán: Los Nuevos Herederos del Dragón: Introducción". Asociación Peruano China (in Spanish). Retrieved 2007-08-26. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  14. ^ a b Lama, Abraham. Asian Times. Home is where the heartbreak is. 1999. September 6, 2006.<http://www.atimes.com/japan-econ/AJ16Dh01.html>.
  15. ^ "Japan-Brazil Relations". Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. Retrieved 2007-08-26. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  16. ^ Richard Gunde (2004-01-27). "Japanese Brazilian Return Migration and the Making of Japan's Newest Immigrant Minority". UCLA International Institute. Retrieved 2008-03-21.
  17. ^ "Overview of Race and Hispanic Origin: 2000" (PDF). U.S. Census Bureau.
  18. ^ "B03002. HISPANIC OR LATINO ORIGIN BY RACE - Universe: TOTAL POPULATION". 2006 American Community Survey. U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved 2008-03-21.
  19. ^ "T4-2006. Hispanic or Latino By Race [15]". Data Set: 2006 Population Estimates. U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved 2008-03-21.
  20. ^ Singhvi, L. M. (2000). "Other Countries of Central and South America". Report of the High Level Committee on the Indian Diaspora (PDF). New Delhi: Ministry of External Affairs.; note all figures in this table given are the sum of those for Non-Resident Indians and for Persons of Indian Origin, which are tabulated separately in the original report
  21. ^ MOFA: Japan-Brazil Relations
  22. ^ 재외동포현황/Current Status of Overseas Compatriots. South Korea: Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-21.
  23. ^ Publicação do IBGE traz artigos, mapas e distribuição geográfica dos nikkeis no Brasil
  24. ^ "Censo de Población: Características Sociales - C01" (Excel) (in Spanish). Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos de Costa Rica (INEC). Retrieved 2008-03-21. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  25. ^ CIA World Factbook. Cuba. 2006. September 6, 2006. <https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/cu.html>.
  26. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_in_Cuba
  27. ^ Pérez, Sonia (2005-05-15). ""Sólo queremos igualdad": Comisionado presidencial contra la Discriminación y el Racismo". Prensa Libre. Retrieved 2009-05-20.
  28. ^ Ethnologue. Languages of Mexico. 2005. September 6, 2006. <http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=MX>.
  29. ^ Floro L. Mercene. Filipinos in Mexican history. Ezilon Infobase. January 28, 2005.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Asian_Latin_Americans&oldid=377833464"