A Community of Contrasts

By the Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Orange County and OCAPICA

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[Excerpt]

Introduction – Asian American and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) communities in Orange County are among the largest in the United States. Established in the late 1800s by immigrants from China who came to work on railroads and in the grape and celery fields, the county’s Asian American and NHPI population grew dramatically in the late 1970s and early 1980s with the arrival of refugees displaced by the Vietnam War. While Orange County’s Vietnamese American population has since grown to become the nation’s largest, the county is also home to sizeable Korean American, Filipino American, Chinese American, and NHPI communities. According to the 2010 Census, roughly one in five residents are Asian American or NHPI; Orange County is proportionally more Asian American than any other county in Southern California. [More..]