Asian Americans in Houston
has large populations of immigrants from Asia. In addition, the city has the largest Vietnamese American population in Texas and second-largest in the United States as of 2019. Houston also has one of the largest Chinese American, Pakistani American, and Filipino American populations in the United States.
History
The 1877 Houston City Directory listed three ethnic Chinese who worked in laundries, and the 1880 United States census listed seven Chinese living in the city. In 1910 30 Asians lived in Houston. 20 were Japanese and 10 were Chinese.In the era of de jure racial segregation in the United States, authorities in Texas classified people of Asian origins as "White." This allowed people of Asian ancestry to get superior educational opportunities.
The Chinese were the only ethnic group with a significant settlement pattern in Houston until the 1970s. The lack of Asian immigration in Greater Houston was due to historical restrictions on Asian Americans. According to the 1980 U.S. census, 484 Chinese immigrants currently living in the area had lived there prior to 1950; of twelve Asian nationalities other than Chinese listed by the census for the Houston area, there were fewer than 100 immigrants who had settled before 1950. The 1965 Immigration Act, which had ended the restrictions, allowed an increase in Chinese Americans. The number increased to 121 by the start of World War II. During the war, many Chinese from southern states migrated to take advantage of the economy and the population increased by more than twice its size.
Albert Gee, the head of the Houston Restaurant Association and an Asian American, helped African-American community leaders negotiate a voluntary desegregation during the Civil Rights Movement.
In the 1970s, large-scale Asian immigration to Houston began. In 1980, 48,000 Asians lived in Greater Houston. The amount of Asian immigration increased in the 1980s. Edward C. M. Chen and Debbie Harwell, authors of "Asian Americans: Expanding Our Horizons," wrote that prior U.S. Censuses lacked the ability to accurately track Asian American populations and that only the 1980 and subsequent ones accurately did so.
In 1990, 90,000 Asian immigrants lived in Harris County, and 48,000 Asians lived in Greater Houston. As of 1990 the largest two Asian immigrant groups to Houston were the Chinese and the Vietnamese, making up 46% of all Asian immigrants, with 15,568 Vietnamese and 10,817 of Chinese from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. The others were 7,044 Indians, 4,807 Filipinos, 3,249 Koreans, 2,419 Iranians, 2,411 Pakistanis, 1,950 Japanese and 1,146 Cambodians. In the 1990s the Asian immigration rates exceeded those of Hispanics. A U.S. Census survey conducted in 1997 stated that in Harris County and Fort Bend County, there were 202,685 Asians combined. In 1998 Betty Ann Bowser, a reporter for PBS Newshour, said that many Southeast Asians came to Houston because "its hot humid climate reminded them of home." Houston does have a similar climate to that of Vietnam, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the Philippines.
According to a 2002 survey of 500 Asian Americans in Harris County overseen by Stephen Klineberg, a professor at Rice University, Asian immigrants have substantially lower household income than Anglo residents and other immigrant groups, while they have higher levels of education.
In 2007 Houston had 16,000 Asian American businesses. A 2006 U.S. Census Bureau report stated that the annual revenues of those businesses totaled to $5.5 billion.
By 2010 the number of Asian-Americans in Greater Houston was over 417,000. In 2010 John B. Strait and Gang Gong, authors of the article "Ethnic Diversity in Houston, Texas: The Evolution of Residential Segregation in the Bayou City, 1990–2000," stated that Asians were "only modestly segregated from" non-Hispanic whites.
Ethnic groups
Vietnamese
In 2010, Harris County had 80,000 Vietnamese and Vietnamese Americans, making it the second largest Vietnamese American community in the United States after that of San Jose, California.There were three main waves of Vietnamese immigration to Houston. The first came following the end of the Vietnam War in April 1975 with the fall of Saigon. Vietnamese immigrants arriving during this time were highly educated with direct ties to the United States military and were well educated on the city they were settling in. The next wave of immigrants were "boat people", a population of Chinese Vietnamese refugees who braved the open waters in small boats to flee Vietnam after the Vietnam War between 1978 and 1982. This wave of immigrants were not as highly educated and of high social standing as the first wave, but the number of immigrants arriving to Houston was significantly greater. The third wave of Vietnamese refugees arrived through the 1980s and 1990s. They were fewer than the previous waves and consisted of political prisoners and families of U.S. servicemen.
Chinese
According to the American Community Survey, as of 2013, Greater Houston has 72,320 residents of Chinese origin.Chinese immigrants were the first significant settlement of Asian immigrants in Houston. The first 250 male Chinese immigrants came to work on constructing the Houston and Texas Central Railroad in 1870. Even though the population was increasing steadily, following the start of World War II the population of Chinese immigrants doubled as people were seeking out new economic opportunities.
South Asians
As of the 2010 U.S. census, if the Indian American and Pakistani American populations are combined, there are 50,045 of them in Harris County, together making up 17.9% of the Asians in Harris County and being the second largest Asian ethnic group in Harris County. The combined group was the largest Asian ethnic group in Fort Bend County, making up 31% of the Asians there, and the largest Asian ethnic group in Montgomery County.South Asian populations became larger around the 1980s. In 1983 Allison Cook of the Texas Monthly stated that "Some estimates put the number of Indians and Pakistanis in Houston as high as 25,000." In 1990 there were a combined 21,191 Indian and Pakistani descent people in Harris County, making up 19.3% of the county's Asians and at the time being the third largest Asian ethnic group. In 2000 there were 35,971 members of the combined group in Harris County, making up 18.6% of the county's Asians and now being the second largest Asian ethnic group in the county. From 2000 to 2010 the combined group in Harris County increased by 39%. In Fort Bend County in 2000 there were 13,000 people of Indian and Pakistani ancestry.
Half a dozen Indian American and Pakistani American newspapers are offered in stores and restaurants. The publications include India Herald and the Voice of Asia. The city has Masala Radio, a South Asian radio station. Indian singers often make tour stops in Houston. The Bollywood 6 movie theater on Texas State Highway 6 plays Indian films. The Houston area has Indian dance schools, including the Abhinaya School of Performing Arts and the Shri Natraj School of Dance.
As of 2000, of the Zoroastrian groups in Houston, Parsi were one of the two main Zoroastrian groups. As of that year the total number of Iranians of all religions in Houston is, on a 10 to 1 basis, larger than the total Parsi population. As of 2000 the Zoroastrian Association of Houston is majority Parsi. Rustomji wrote that because of that and the historic tensions between the Parsi and Iranian groups, the Iranians in Houston did not become full members of the ZAH. Rustomji stated that Iranian Zoroastrians "attend religious functions sporadically and remain tentative about their ability to fully integrate, culturally and religiously, with Parsis."
Indians
As of the 2010 census there were about 82,575 people in the Houston area of Indian origins.Following the 1965 Immigration Act there was a significant influx of Indian immigrants to the United States of America and consequently to Houston. The passing of this act brought educated immigrants seeking higher education and opportunities in the U.S.
The 1980 United States census stated that 6,610 persons originating from India were in the Houston area. Harris County had almost 36,000 Indian Americans as of the 2000 Census. The population had a $53,000 median yearly household income, $11,000 more than the county average. Almost 65% of the Indian Americans in Harris County had university and college degrees, compared to 18% of all of the Harris County population. Indian Americans in Fort Bend County, as of the same census, numbered at almost 13,000 and had a median annual income of $84,000. 62% of Indian Americans in Fort Bend County had university and college degrees, compared to 25% of all residents of Fort Bend County. An estimate from the 2009 American Community Survey stated that Harris County had 46,125 Indian Americans and that Fort Bend County had 25,104 Indian Americans. Katharine Shilcutt of the Houston Press said that the high education and income levels of Indian Americans caused businesses in the Mahatma Gandhi District, an Indian American ethnic enclave in Houston, to thrive.
In 1999 the Houston area had about 500 Indian Catholics. There were no particular Indian Catholic churches.
As of 2007, the median income of Indians in Houston was $50,250.
As of 2012 the majority of the city's Sikhs originate from the portion of Punjab in India.
As of 2007, there were over 24 Indian-American-oriented publications. As of that year, most Indian-American newspapers in Houston are in English. Some smaller newspapers are in Indian languages such as Hindi and Gujarati. The Indo-American News, a newspaper owned by K.L. Sindwani, is distributed to fifty locations in Southwest Houston and has a 5,000 copy-per-week print rate. As of 2007, each issue has 44 pages. Sindwani established it in 1982; at the time he was the only employee and each issue had eight pages.
The Indian Culture Center, catering to South Asian groups, opened in 1973, and the Gujarati Samaj, catering to Gujarati people in particular, opened in 1979; the latter group has Holi and Navatri events. An Indian Student Association is at the University of Houston.
The self-published novel An Indian in Cowboy Country was written by Indian immigrant Pradeep Anand, who works as an engineer and lives in Sugar Land.
In 2019 Indian Americans make up almost 50% of the Asian Americans in Fort Bend County. In 2021 the county had about 24 Indian Christian churches.