Tibetan American

Tibetan American

The history of Tibetan-Americans in the United States is relatively short, as the United States had limited contact or involvement with Tibet before World War II expanded to the Pacific.

Ethnic Tibetans began to immigrate to the United States in the late 1950s. Section 134 of the Immigration Act of 1990 gave a boost to the Tibetan immigration to the USA, by providing 1000 immigrant visas to Tibetans living in India and Nepal. Chain migration followed, and by 1998 the Tibetan-American population had grown to around 5,500, according to a census conducted by Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). The 2000 United States Census counted 5,147 US residents who reported Tibetan ancestry.

An estimate of ca. 7,000 was made in 2001, and in 2008 the CTA's Office of Tibet in New York informally estimated the Tibetan population in the USA at around 9,000. The migration of the Tibetans to the United States took on the pattern of 22 "cluster groups", located primarily in the Northeast, the Great Lakes region, and the Intermountain West. Other communities include Austin, Texas and Charlottesville, Virginia. Tibetan Americans who are born in Tibet or elsewhere in China are officially recognized as Chinese nationals.