Asian Pacific Islander Desi Americans (APIDA) are among the fastest growing population groups in the United States. In addition to APIDA, there are many other “umbrella” terms used to refer to this population. For example, AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) is commonly used. However, some organizers in the Pacific Islander community prefer to use AA & PI instead. They use the “and” sign in order to be seen as a distinct group. Similarly, South Asians also fight for visibility. As such, APIDA is a more inclusive term; it is an acronym for Asian Pacific Islander Desi American. A pan-ethnic identifier, APIDA explicitly names Desi Americans. “Desi” is an umbrella term for South Asians that emerged from grassroots South Asian American spaces in the 1990s. Desi is a Sanskrit word meaning “land” or “country.” Other terms include Asian Pacific American (APA) and Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander (AANHPI).

These multiple identifiers demonstrate the incredible diversity under the APIDA umbrella. This includes but is not limited to people with heritages from East Asia, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, Hawaiʻi, and the Pacific Islands. Within these regional identifiers, there is even more diversity. As there are over 40 countries in Asia, each country may include multiple ethnic identities. Consider the following:

• East Asian Americans make up the largest group of Asian Americans. The Chinese began immigrating in large numbers to the United States as laborers in the 1800s. As such, Chinese American history tends to be the most prominent. Immigration amongst other East Asians increased greatly after the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965.
• A large portion of Southeast Asians Americans arrived as refugees following the Vietnam War and other conflicts in Southeast Asia after 1975.
• Central Asia is a subregion of Asia spanning east of the Caspian Sea to Mongolia. Many Central Asians immigrated to the United States after 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Some also arrived as refugees beginning in the 1970s.
• South Asian Americans refer to people whose heritage hail from the Indian subcontinent and its surrounding areas. Similar to East Asians, many South Asians came to the United States as laborers in the 1880s. Their numbers increased dramatically after the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965.
• Pacific Islands include thousands of islands located in the Pacific Ocean that are organized in three ethnogeographic groupings: Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Melanesian islands are located north and east of Australia and south of the Equator. Micronesian islands are north of Melanesia and the Equator and east of the Philippines. Polynesian islands are located in the central and southern Pacific Ocean.

It is important to note the final “A” in APIDA stands for American. When referring to the APIDA community, this generally includes the unique experiences of those with Asian or Pacific Islander heritage residing in the United States. This includes recent immigrants and those with multi-generational lineage. It includes both citizens and non-citizens. It can also include individuals who are in the United States temporarily, such as international students or those with a work visa. Being “American” is distinct from being “Asian.” For example, a Chinese American may have more in common with a White American than a person living in China.

According to the 2020 United States Census, 20.6 million people, or 6.2% of the nation’s population, self-identify as Asian, Native Hawaiian, or Other Pacific Islander. The Census Bureau is required to use the standards on race and ethnicity set by the 1997 Office of Management of Budget (OMB), which defines these terms as:

• Asian – A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam.
• Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander – A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands.

These Census-defined categories can be limiting. It is important to acknowledge that race, ethnicity, and identity can be fraught, and who falls under which terms is not uniformly agreed upon. No community is homogenous, and there can be a vast range of experiences from one individual to the next. How one identifies is ultimately an individual choice, and many individuals do not self-identify with Census-defined categories. While people may view Census definitions as “official,” they are constantly debated and can change over time. (One significant factor is that many people today identify as multi-racial so these categories are often incomplete.)

Descriptors like APIDA can be politically contentious, and individuals may feel differently about which terms they would like to identify with, which can also vary in different contexts. The term “Asian American” emerged in the 1960s to unify Asian Americans and build political power. It was coined by Yuri Ichioka (1936-2002) and Emma Gee (died 2023) at the University of California, Berkeley, who formed the Asian American Political Alliance (AAPA). Inspired by the Black Power movement, Ichioka and Gee sought to unify students of Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, and Korean descent, who previously identified primarily by their country of origin. The term “Asian American” was also meant to push back on racial slurs like “Oriental” that were common at the time. By unifying as a pan-Asian block, Asian Americans could also build coalitions with Black communities and other communities of color.

Terminology is constantly evolving and debated. For example, there is debate around whether the term Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) or Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA) is preferred to describe the region from Morocco to Afghanistan, and exactly which countries fall into either of these terms. Furthermore, there is discourse among people with heritage from these countries currently residing in the United States around whether or not they identify as Asian Americans. (In general, it is important to respect how people choose to self-identify.)

As the Asian American population in the United States has grown and changed, the Asian American community has had to reconcile with how to adapt and create an inclusive and unifying movement that addresses the needs of all of its members. While umbrella terms like Asian American and APIDA can be powerful as a political strategy that unites many groups to fight for a common cause, understanding the APIDA community often requires looking under the umbrella and disaggregating data to best illuminate how different issues impact different communities. Disaggregating data also allows policy makers and others in positions of power to better understand the needs and concerns of various communities. They can make informed decisions to address these needs and distribute resources accordingly.

* Pacific Islander inclusion in identifiers for the APIDA community is examined in The Asian American Education Project lesson entitled, “Pacific Islanders and U.S. Colonization.”