The majority of Asian immigrans settled in California.
Migration from Asia to the United States escalated with passage of the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, which removed national-origin quotas established in 1921 blocking immigration from Asian and Arab countries and sharply limiting arrivals from Africa and eastern and southern Europe. The number of Asian immigrants rose from 491,000 in 1960 to roughly 12.8 million in 2014, accounting for a 2,597 percent increase. In 1960, Asians stood for 5 percent of the U.S. foreign-born population; by 2014, their share increased to 30 percent of the nation’s 42.4 million immigrants.
