Why is there a huge Asian-American population in the Seattle area? (Vancouver: tech jobs, living in)

[Jericho-79]

Hey there, Seattle residents. I visited the Seattle area for the first time last weekend.

While walking through the city, I noticed that Seattle has lots and lots of Asian inhabitants. I also saw a ton of Asian stores and restaurants. (Vietnamese soup on a rainy day really hit the spot.)

And while riding the light rail from Sea-Tac airport to Downtown, I observed the same thing.

So why is there a huge Asian-American population in the Seattle area?

I'm just curious. I live in Dallas, where there's an enormous Latino population. So I was wondering about the Asian population in the Pacific Northwest.

[caravan]

Have you been to San Francisco? Or Vancouver, BC?

[Ira500]

Seattle is closer than most US cities to Asia. Dallas is closer than most US cities to Mexico.
Just as Phoenix, Dallas, San Antonio, Albequerque, Los Angeles, etc have large Latino populations, Seattle and other west coast cities have large Asian populations.

[Anders15]

Originally Posted by Ira500

Seattle is closer than most US cities to Asia. Dallas is closer than most US cities to Mexico.
Just as Phoenix, Dallas, San Antonio, Albequerque, Los Angeles, etc have large Latino populations, Seattle and other west coast cities have large Asian populations.

By that theory the Native Americans should be the dominant race in Seattle.

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by Anders15

By that theory the Native Americans should be the dominant race in Seattle.

By that theory, native Americans should be the dominant race anywhere in America. However knowing what we know about how the NA population has been decimated...

[sofia76]

I can think of a number of reasons:

Proximity to Pacific Rim nations
Proximity to Canada (many people from Hong Kong moved to Canada, as it's a commonwealth)
Tech jobs (many people from Indian subcontinent brought it on visas, too)
Very good computer science programs at Univ of Washington
Proximity to California

[mrsincredible]

It's ironic that America seems to be a country with a long history of racism. Japanese were brought into America as farm and manual labor to replace the Chinese after a law was passes to restrict Chinese immigrant workers. This was back in the mid to late 1800s. By the time WW2 rolled around, there were over 14 thousand Japanese people living in Washington State. Currently, Washington state has the third highest population concentration of Japanese in the US. Ira and Sophia are right in that Seattle, and many US west coast cities, are closer in proximity to Asia and have a larger concentration of Asian immigrants compared to the rest of the US.

There would be a much smaller selection of good sushi restaurants in Seattle without the strong Japanese community there.

Here's some info from Wikipedia:
"In the 2000 census, the largest Japanese American communities were in California with 394,896, Hawaii with 296,674, Washington with 56,210, New York with 45,237, and Illinois with 27,702. Each year, about 7,000 new Japanese immigrants enter United States ports, making up about 4% of immigration from Asia."

[burlshoe114]

There is also a huge population of Russians / Che. , as well.

[Anders15]

Do the Japanese people blend in well with other races like the whites and blacks? I know where I live the Asian population keeps to themselves. There is little interaction even when doing things like opening the doors for an Asian person or passing by them.

Obviously not all Asian people are like this, I blame the lifestyle of my area actually where EVERYONE is like this. I also hear how in Japan it is their culture to be more quiet compared to Americans but I'm not sure how long people have been in the states. So I was just wondering if the Japanese there are more social, friendly and accepting or do they shun most others away and ignore them.

[Inkpoe]

Most Asians also move to Seattle because there are others like them, therefore not "feel" too far from home. My mother chose Seattle because of the high concentration of Japanese people.

In response to Anders, the Japanese are very well blended here. In fact most Asians are, especially more so with the younger ones. In my experience, the more reticent Asians were the Laotiens. Once I told them that I had attended a Laotien festival, they instantly warmed up to me. I guess that was a good ice breaker. Here in Seattle, there are lots of different Asian festivals, and they're fun to attend.