Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Nepalese, and Sri Lankans. Among these, Asian Indians are currently the fastest-growing Asian American ethnic group and the third largest of all Asian American groups, after Chinese and Filipino Americans. More recent arrivals have included Vietnamese, Cambodian, Hmong, and Laotians, following the United States’ military withdrawal from Southeast Asia in the 1970s and 1980s. Because they largely came as refugees, their experiences are different from those of other Asian American immigrants. In the late 1980s, even more recent arrivals from Asia have included those from Burma. Because of anti-Asian legislation of the past, all Asian ethnic communities—with the exception of Japanese Americans— currently have a majority immigrant population. To truly understand the Asian American experience begins with acknowledging the diversity within and between the groups. Although Asian Americans make up 5 percent of the total U.S. population, their presence tends to be concentrated in particular geographic regions. Hawai‘i has been home to many generations of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Filipino Americans. In southern California, large numbers of Cambodian Americans, Korean Americans, Thai Americans, and Vietnamese Americans reside and have created ethnic enclaves and increased their visibility in terms of both local culture and politics. In the Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay areas, Chinese Americans and Filipino Americans are the largest Asian Americans subgroups who have influenced local culture and have also made inroads into political representation. Minnesota and California’s Central Valley contain areas with high concentrations of Hmong Americans. Growing Asian American communities also exist in southern states for example, Vietnamese American enclaves exist along the Gulf Coast of Texas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. In short, Asian American communities are diverse, growing, and ever-changing. INCREASING VOICE AND VISIBILITY Asian Americans are increasingly participating in politics, making their voices heard at the community, local, and national levels. The election of Barack Obama as the forty-fourth president proved to be a pivotal moment for Asian Americans nationally. Many Asian American participants in the November 2008 election were first-time voters, immigrants, and supporters of Obama. Region- ally across the United States, an increase in the number of Asian American elected officials, especially in areas where there are high concentrations of Asian Americans, signified an improvement in representative political voices. In 2008, San Franciscans elected three Chinese Americans to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors: Carmen Chiu, David Chiu, and Eric Mar. The citizens of Irvine, California, elected the nation’s first Korean American mayor. In New Orleans, Louisiana, the first Vietnamese American U.S. Congressperson was elected— Anh “Joseph” Quang Cao—after his active role as a lawyer addressing the response to Hurricane Katrina. Where there are large concentrations of Asian Introduction xix
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