Southeast Asian Communities

People from the Southeast Asian countries of Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam constitute the largest group of refugees ever to build new lives in the United States. Nearly all Southeast Asian Americans — whose main ethnic groups are Cambodian, Hmong (from the northern mountains of Laos), Lao, and Vietnamese — entered the U.S. as refugees or as relatives of refugees at various times after the end of the Vietnam War. They began to relocate to this country in 1975, when the American-supported South Vietnamese government succumbed to the military pressures of their Communist neighbors to the north. In that same year, the Communist Pathet Lao defeated the US-supported government in Laos, and in 1976 the US-supported Cambodian government was toppled by the infamous Khmer Rouge. Southeast Asian arrivals to this country increased dramatically in the late 1970s and 1980s, with the influx of Vietnamese "boat people," the flight across the Mekong River of hundreds of thousands of Hmong and Lao refugees from Laos, and the escape of hundreds of thousands of Cambodians from the Khmer Rouge government in Cambodia. Current estimates are that 1,342,532 Southeast Asian refugees entered the United States between 1975 and 1998.

Credit: UNHCR

SEARAC has conducted a statistical analyisis of the 2000 Census in relation to Southeast Asian American Communities. The results of this analysis, Southeast Asian American Statistical Profile, published in May 2004, is available in PDF format. The analysis challenges many myths about Southeast Asian Americans, as detailed in the press release that accompanied publication of the analysis.

As the 2000 Census population table shows, current estimates place the total number of Southeast Asian Americans at over 1.8 million, including 1,223,736 Vietnamese, 186,310 Hmong, 206,052 Cambodians, and 198,203 Laotians (not including Hmong). California, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and the State of Washington have the highest Cambodian populations; California, Minnesota, and Wisconsin have the highest Hmong populations; Lao populations are highest in California, Wisconsin, and Texas; and Vietnamese populations are highest in California and Texas.

To give these figures context, immigration, refugee arrival, and naturalization of Southeast Asians to the U.S. are also available.

For U.S. Census statistics on education and other factors which influence Southeast Asian American economic success, go to the statistics table.

For U.S. Census statistics on the sorts of jobs Southeast Asian Americans tend to have, go to the jobs table.

Note: Some of the above data on population, immigration, refugee admissions, and naturalization is also available in PDF format.