Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month

This May, celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month with Lakeland Regional Health by learning something new while recognizing the contributions made by the Asian and Pacific Islander communities.

We celebrate the historical and cultural contributions of individuals and groups of Asian and Pacific Islander descent — especially the team members, patients, and community members who continue to make transformational contributions to the Lakeland Regional Health community.

Asian Pacific Islanders make up 6.8% of the population and are the fastest-growing ethnic minority group in the United States.

The History of Asian and Pacific American Heritage Month

The month of May was chosen because it commemorates the migration of the first immigrants from Japan to the United States on May 7, 1843 and to celebrate the completion of the transcontinental railroad by over 20,0000 Asian immigrants on May 10, 1869. However, the first Asian immigrants arrived in the U.S. in 1587 when Filipinos first began migrating to California. Immigrants continued to come from the Asian continent and the Pacific Islands through 1920 when the first Samoans were documented in Hawaii.

What are the countries and cultures included in the definition of Asian American and Pacific Islander?

The U.S. Census Bureau classifies people of Asian descent as “having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent,” including, but not limited to China, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Korea, India, Cambodia, Vietnam or the Philippines.

In the 1980s, the US Census created the category “Asian Pacific Islander” and in 2000, “Asian” and “Pacific Islander” became two separate racial categories. Pacific Islander refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands.

This May, celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month with Lakeland Regional Health by learning something new while recognizing the contributions made by the Asian and Pacific Islander communities.

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