According to the 2020 US Census, 1.9 million Korean Americans reside in the United States. Among Asian Americans, they are the fifth-largest ethnic group and primarily reside in California, New York, Hawaii, and Texas. [1] This essay provides an overview of Korean immigration to the United States and the key moments and stories that define the Korean American experience. First Wave The first wave (1903–1905) of Korean migrants were mostly men who worked as contract laborers in the sugar cane fields in Hawaii and migrant farm workers in California. As “a people without a country...