East Asians of the United States - Settlements

East Asian-Americans are mainly an urban-suburban group, with the place of residence now largely determined by Socioeconomic status. The two major nonurban groups are Japanese-Americans in the farming and nursery and related businesses in central California and Filipino-American farm workers in California. Today, Koreatown in Los Angeles is the center of Korean life for the 150,000 Korean-Americans in southern California and the home for many elderly Korean-Americans and recent immigrants. The large Chinatowns that developed early in the century in cities such as San Francisco, Portland, Boston, Los Angeles, and New York City have been transformed into major economic zones providing products and services both to the regional Chinese-American population and to the general economy. The tourist trade has also become a major source of income in Chinatowns. Their economic growth has been accompanied by or perhaps was stimulated by their decline as residential districts. As with Koreatown in Los Angeles, most residents are either elderly or are recent immigrants and many are poor. "Little Tokyo" in Los Angeles, which serves Japanese-American communities in southern California, has also undergone the same transformation. Filipino-Americans, Except for the mostly male communities in Hawaii and California early in the century, have not formed distinct Ethnic enclaves comparable to Chinatowns.