Chinese nationals also received 54 percent of the 2,900 immigrant investor visas issued in 2021.

higher education, and its nationals received the second largest number of employer-sponsored H-1B temporary visas in fiscal year 2021, after Indians. Today, Hong-Kong born immigrants make up about 10 percent of the 2.4 million Chinese immigrants in the United States.Ĭhina is the main source of foreign students enrolled in U.S. There were 80,000 Hong Kong-born immigrants in the United States in 1980, a number that more than doubled to about 204,000 in 2000 and then increased further to 248,000 by 2021. The Hong Kong-born population in the United States is far smaller than that from mainland China. Census Bureau 20 American Community Surveys (ACS), and 1980, 1990, and 2000 Decennial Census. Note: Estimates refer to immigrants from mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau. Chinese Immigrant Population in the United States, 1980-2021 immigrants (after those from Mexico and India), accounting for 5 percent of the 45.3 million immigrants in the United States as of 2021.Ĭlick here to read a history of migration from and to China since the 19th century.įigure 1. Since then, the population has continued growing but at a slower pace.ĭespite the recent declines, Chinese immigrants still represent the third largest origin group among U.S. The number of Chinese immigrants residing in the United States nearly doubled from 1980 to 1990, and again by 2000 (see Figure 1). In contrast, the 1965 removal of barriers for non-European immigrants to the United States was a game changer for increasing immigration, as were relaxed emigration controls by China in 1978 and improved U.S.-China relations. Emigration controls imposed by the Chinese government after World War II and the Chinese Communist Revolution limited mobility as well. The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by Congress in response to anti-Chinese sentiment and organized labor lobbying and brought the arrival of Chinese workers to a near-total halt. Data show that the numbers of Chinese arrivals have risen in recent months, but it may take some time for pandemic-related population losses to reverse.Ĭhinese immigration to the United States has a long and at times fraught history. This decline was due in part to restrictions placed by the Trump administration on migration from China in the early months of the pandemic, with tighter visa rules for international students and foreign workers throughout 2020, and the Chinese government’s “zero-COVID” policies that were in place until late 2022, chilling travel from China. While the number of Chinese immigrants in the United States peaked at almost 2.5 million in 2019, it fell to under 2.4 million in 2021, breaking a long period of growth. People from China make up one of the largest immigrant groups in the United States, but the size and makeup of this population was dramatically affected by the COVID-19 pandemic’s upending of global migration.

Chinese queue 19th century