 Peruvian Ancestry by state | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 720,626 (2021)[1][2]
0.21% of the U.S. population (2018)[1] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Languages | |
| Religion | |
| |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Peruvians, Ecuadorian Americans, Colombian Americans, Bolivian Americans, other Hispanic and Latino Americans |
| Part of a series on |
| Hispanic and Latino Americans |
|---|
Peruvian Americans are Americans of Peruvian descent.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau 2021 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, as of 2021[update], 720,626 U.S. residents identify themselves as being of Peruvian origin.[1] Approximately 62% of Peruvian Americans were born in Peru, with a growing population of Peruvian Americans being born in the United States.
Peruvian Americans immigrated to the United States in four major waves. Small but significant waves of immigration occurred in San Francisco during the gold rush (along with Chilean miners beginning in 1848) and the Metro Detroit area in the 1950s. Another wave of immigration occurred again early in the twentieth century, due largely to the burgeoning textile industry in New York and New Jersey. In the 1950s, there were a reported approximate 100 Peruvian families that resided in Paterson, New Jersey.[3]
Factors that influenced Peruvian emigration was the decrease in employment, political persecution, public insecurity and violence, economic uncertainty, theft, and impunity.[4] Beginning in the 1970s another wave of Peruvians arrived in the United States, most of whom were fleeing Peru's militaristic government under the dictatorships of Juan Velasco Alvarado and Francisco Morales Bermúdez, both of which were marked by coups and socio-economic instability. The 1980s and 1990s saw the most significant influx of Peruvians to U.S. shores, this time in response to the hyperinflation crisis that plagued the Peruvian economy, internal unrest in Peru by terrorist groups, and an authoritarian government headed by Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori.[5]
Immigrants often come from urban areas of Peru, especially Lima, and the majority settle in the New York City metropolitan area—particularly in Paterson and Passaic in New Jersey and the New York City borough of Queens. Peruvian Americans are also clustered in the metropolitan areas of Miami; Los Angeles; Houston, Texas; Washington, D.C.; and Virginia.[5]
Recently, Peru has enjoyed economic growth and political stability since the start of the millennia. As a result, there has been a decline in the amount of Peruvian immigration to the United States unto 2019 under economic pretenses and instead for education.
- ^ a b c "B03001 HISPANIC OR LATINO ORIGIN BY SPECIFIC ORIGIN - United States - 2018 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates". U.S. Census Bureau. July 1, 2018. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ "b-3001 HISPANIC OR LATINO ORIGIN BY SPECIFIC ORIGIN - UNITED STATES - 2021 AMERICAN COMMUNITY SURVEY 1 YEAR ESTIMATES TABLED RESPONSE". U.S. Census Bureau. July 1, 2021. Retrieved February 1, 2023.
- ^ Baía, Larissa Ruiz (1999). "Rethinking Transnationalism: Reconstructing National Identities among Peruvian Catholics in New Jersey". Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs. 41 (4): 93–109. doi:10.2307/166193. ISSN 0022-1937. JSTOR 166193.
- ^ Durand, Jorge, and Mariana Ortega Breña. "The Peruvian Diaspora: Portrait of a Migratory Process." Latin American Perspectives, vol. 37, no. 5, 2010, pp. 12-28. JSTOR, www.jstor.org.lpclibrary.idm.oclc.org/stable/25750407.
- ^ a b "Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America, 3rd Edition – Gale – 978-1414438061". cengage.com. Retrieved April 26, 2019.