Tonga Emigration and Immigration

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Emigration and Immigration

Many Tongans have emigrated to Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, Alaska, and the mainland of the United States.

Tongan Americans

• There are approximately 57,000 Tongans and Tongan Americans living in the United States, as of 2012. Tongans are considered to be Pacific Islanders in the United States Census, and are the country's fourth largest Pacific Islander American group in terms of population, after Native Hawaiians, Samoan Americans, and Guamanian/Chamorro Americans.
• If the Tongan American population includes people living in America Samoa, there would be up to an additional 16,000 (some America Samoan residents are U.S. residents), there would be about 85,000 Tongan Americans, as of 2019.
• The Tongans have emigrated to the United States or its territories since 1916, when some people of this island immigrated to Laie, a census-designated place in Hawaii, which was then an American territory but not yet a state.
• It was not until the end of World War II when many more Tongans immigrated to the United States. Most of them were missionaries, who emigrated to the United States to work in several religious and cultural centers.
• Many other Tongans emigrated to the United States in the 50s. Since then, the number of Tongans to emigrate to the USA increased each decade: In the 60s more than 110 Tongans emigrated to the USA and in the 1970s more than 940 Tongans emigrated.
• The number was especially notable in the 80's and 90's. In this last decade over 1,900 Tongans emigrated to the USA.
• By 1980, 6,200 people of this origin were living in the US, and by in 1990 that number had increased to 17,600. By 2000, there were 31,891 people of Tongan origin living in the United States.

Tongan Australians

According to the 2011 Australian census 10,560 Australians were born in Tonga, while 25,096 claimed Tongan ancestry. In 2006, 18,426 claimed Tongan ancestry, either alone or with another ancestry.

Tongan New Zealanders

They constitute one of New Zealand's most sizeable ethnic minorities. In the 2013 census, 60,336 New Zealanders identified themselves as being of Tongan ethnicity with 22,413 stating that they were born in Tonga.

Records of Tongan Emigrants in Their Destination Nations

One option is to look for records about the ancestor in the country of destination, the country they immigrated into. See links to Wiki articles about immigration records for major destination countries below. Additional Wiki articles for other destinations can be found at Category:Emigration and Immigration Records.

• United States Emigration and Immigration
• Australia Emigration and Immigration
• New Zealand Emigration and Immigration
• Hawaii Emigration and Immigration
• Alaska Emigration and Immigration