Korean Americans

[16] In contrast to Northeast Asia, which is grappling with a significantly low birth rates, the number of Korean Americans with both parents from Korea is growing by 5.9%.

The Republic of Korea is acknowledged as a principal ally of the United States, fostering a relationship built on mutual values, intertwined economic interests, and strategic security cooperation.

Bergen County, host to the county's highly ranked Academies magnet public high school[34][35][36] as well as to the North American headquarters operations of South Korean chaebols including Samsung,[37] LG Corp,[38] and Hanjin Shipping,[39] was home to all of the nation's top 10 municipalities by percentage of Korean population.

Included among the members of this mission were Min Yong-ik [ko] and Yu Kil-chun, the latter of whom stayed in the US for several years to study, making him the first Korean exchange student in the US.

[52] Another prominent figure among the Korean immigrant community is Ahn Chang Ho, art name Dosan, a Protestant social activist.

[55] Many Koreans dispersed along the Pacific Coast as farm workers or as wage laborers in mining companies and as section hands on the railroads.

[58] With the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, Koreans became one of the fastest growing Asian groups in the United States, surpassed only by Filipinos.

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 abolished the quota system that had restricted the numbers of Asians allowed to enter the United States.

Their children, along with those of other Asian Americans, would also be noted in headlines and magazine covers in the 1980s for their numbers in prestigious universities and highly skilled white collar professions.

[69][70] Many entrepreneurs opened small businesses, and were hard hit by the 1992 Los Angeles riots[71] More recently, L.A.'s Koreatown has been perceived to have experienced declining political power secondary to re-districting,[72] and an increased crime rate,[73] prompting an exodus of Koreans from the area.

Furthermore, the aftermath of the 1992 riots witnessed a large number of Koreans from Southern California moving to the San Francisco Bay Area and opening businesses and buying property near downtown Oakland, furthering the growth of that city's Koreatown until the early 2000s.

[76] Also accelerated by the 1992 riots, Orange County's Korean population grew from its starting point in Koreatown, Garden Grove.

Since then, Koreans have spread throughout northern Orange County, mainly concentrating in Buena Park, Fullerton, Cerritos, La Palma, Cypress, and Irvine.

[78] Mostly older and more traditional Korean businesses and food are found in Garden Grove, while newer and trendier Seoul based chains often locate in Buena Park and Irvine.

[80] A substantial number of affluent Korean American professionals have settled in Bergen County, New Jersey since the early 2000s (decade) and have founded various academically and communally supportive organizations, including the Korean Parent Partnership Organization at the Bergen County Academies magnet high school[81] and The Korean-American Association of New Jersey.

In May 2012, officials in Bergen County's borough of Palisades Park, New Jersey rejected requests by two diplomatic delegations from Japan to remove a small monument from a public park, a brass plaque on a block of stone, dedicated in 2010 to the memory of comfort women, thousands of women, many Koreans, who were forced into sexual slavery by Japanese soldiers during World War II.

[109] However, in neighboring Fort Lee, various Korean American groups could not reach consensus on the design and wording for such a monument as of early April 2013.

[112][113] An apology and monetary compensation of roughly $8,000,000 by Japan to South Korea in December 2015 for these crimes largely fell flat in Bergen County, where the first U.S. monument to pay respects to comfort women was erected.

[115] In February 2014, Bergen County lawmakers announced legislative efforts to include the name East Sea in future New Jersey school textbooks.

[118] In May 2014, the Palisades Park Public Library in New Jersey created a memorial dedicated to the victims of the tragic sinking of the Sewol ferry off the South Korean coast on April 16, 2014.

[120] It is hard to determine the accuracy of this reporting due to the figures being sourced from the Korean Consulate in Korea, and the channels of various Korean-affiliated organizations.

For example, tens of thousands of immigrant women who have been married to USFK since the 1950s and who have been adopted since the liberation of the United States have not been identified in the Korean consulate statistics.

[124] However, according to a poll done by the AALDEF, the majority of Korean Americans that voted in the 2004 presidential election favored Democrat John Kerry by a 66% to 33% margin over Republican candidate George W.

[125] And another poll done by the AALDEF suggest the majority of Korean Americans that voted in the 2008 presidential election favored Democrat Barack Obama by a 64% to 35% margin over Republican John McCain[125] In the 2008 U.S. presidential election, Korean Americans favored Democrat Barack Obama over Republican John McCain, around 59% to 41%.

Korean Americans, due to their Republican and Christian leanings, overwhelmingly supported California's constitutional gay marriage ban, Proposition 8.

Won Moo Hurh attributes this to 4 factors, including the Christian backgrounds of both early and recent immigrants and the ethnic function of the Korean American Church.

[143] Reasons given for the conversion of immigrant Korean families to Christianity include the responsiveness of Christian churches to immigrant needs as well as their communal nature, whereas Buddhist temples foster individual spirituality and practice and provide fewer social networking and business opportunities, as well as social pressure from other Koreans to convert.

[143][145] According to a 2019 analysis of 2017–2019 American Community Survey by the Pew Research Center, the median annual household income of all Koreans in the U.S. was $72,200 (less than the $85,800 for all Asians in the U.S.).

[149] Often, chefs borrow from Korean flavors and preparation techniques that they will integrate into the style they are most comfortable with (whether it be Tex-Mex, Chinese or purely American).

Already popular in its subset populations peppered throughout the United States, Korean food debuted in the many Koreatowns found in metropolitan areas including in Los Angeles; Garden Grove and Buena Park in Orange County, California; Queens and Manhattan in New York City; Palisades Park[150][unreliable source?]