Asian Americans in Houston
In addition, the city has the largest Vietnamese American population in Texas and third-largest in the United States as of 2004.
[9] In the era of de jure racial segregation in the United States, authorities in Texas classified people of Asian origins as "White."
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.
[11] 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.
[13] 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.
[16] 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.
A 2006 U.S. Census Bureau report stated that the annual revenues of those businesses totaled to $5.5 billion ($8312644437.11 in today's money).
[23] According to the American Community Survey, as of 2013, Greater Houston (Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown metropolitan area) has 72,320 residents of Chinese origin.
The first 250 male Chinese immigrants came to work on constructing the Houston and Texas Central Railroad in 1870.
[26] 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.
The Bollywood 6 movie theater on Texas State Highway 6 plays Indian films.
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 ($148619.13 in today's money).
Sindwani, is distributed to fifty locations in Southwest Houston and has a 5,000 copy-per-week print rate.
The initial immigration of Bangladeshis to the United States was kickstarted after the independence of Bangladesh in 1971, though it is important to note that there is not a large populationf of Bangladeshi-Americans in Houston.
The Bangladesh Association bought 4 acres (1.6 ha) of land in southwestern unincorporated Harris County in 2001.
By 2011 the association announced plans to develop the $2.5 million ($3386094.67 in today's money) facility Bangladeshi American Center, which will include auditoriums, classrooms, a playground, and an outdoor sports complex.
[25] In 2015 Haejin E. Koh, author of "Korean Americans in Houston: Building Bridges across Cultures and Generations," wrote in regards to the census figure that "community leaders believe the number is twice as large.
Bruce Glasrud, a historian, stated that the real figure may be higher as some previous Korean immigrants were counted as Japanese, as Korea was then under the Empire of Japan.
[25] Houston's Korean American population is mostly concentrated in Spring Branch with a sizable portion in Greater Katy.
Their idea and venture ultimately led to the first rice plantation in Texas that attracted Japanese men and their wives.
A 23-house complex called "Khmer Village" was established off of Interstate 10 (Eastex Freeway) in the east side of the city.
[53] A woman named Yani Rose Keo became a community leader and was involved in the affairs of Cambodians who settled in Houston.
[55] In 1985 Keo established a farm in an area called "Little Cambodia,"[56] in Brazoria County, near Rosharon.
Terrence McCoy of the Houston Press stated that there were "perhaps" 90 families of Cambodian origin living there.
[56] As of 2015[update], 77583, the ZIP code of Rosharon, Texas, has the highest concentration of Cambodian Americans in the Greater Houston area.
[61] As of 2004 Houston had the fifth largest Indonesian population in the United States; this helps sustain the consulate.
[66] In 2002, Asian Americans received about one quarter of loans given in the Houston area by the Small Business Administration.
[67] By 2020 ethnic Asian bakeries opened in Houston, including those of Taiwanese and Vietnamese backgrounds.
[68] Chen and Harwell wrote circa 2015 that the amount of Asian Americans could "swing an election" even though they were not "a large voting bloc", arguing that Lee P. Brown's efforts to make campaign material via telephone and in writing in Asian languages helped secure his victory in the 2001 city elections.
[26] The first person of an at-large position on the council of Asian origins was Gordon Quan, elected in 1999.
