Chinese Immigrants in the United States
JANUARY 12, 2023
SPOTLIGHT
By Raquel Rosenbloom and Jeanne Batalova
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.
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. 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. 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.
Chinese immigration to the United States has a long and at times fraught history. 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. Emigration controls imposed by the Chinese government after World War II and the Chinese Communist Revolution limited mobility as well.
https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/chinese-immigrants-united-states-2021
