The first overseas immigrants to reach Washington were Chinese laborers, imported during the 1860s; Chinese continued to arrive into the 1880s, when mob attacks on Chinese homes forced the territorial government to put Seattle under martial law and call in federal troops to restore order. The 1870s and 1880s brought an influx of immigrants from western Europe—especially Germany, Scandinavia, and the Netherlands—and from Russia and Japan.
In recent decades, Washington has benefited from a second migratory wave even more massive than the first. From 1970 to 1980, the state ranked seventh among the states in net migration with a gain of 719,000. From 1985 to 1990, the net migration gain was 317,832 (sixth among the states). Many of those new residents were drawn from other states by Washington's defenseand trade-related industries. In addition, many immigrants from Southeast Asia arrived during the late 1970s. Between 1990 and 1998, Washington had net gains of 374,000 in domestic migration and 121,000 in international migration. In 1996, the foreign-born population totaled 386,000, or 7% of the state's total population. In 1998, 16,920 immigrants from foreign countries entered Washington, the seventh-highest total of any state for that year. Of that total, 4,129 came from Mexico, 1,159 from the Philippines, and 940 from Vietnam. In the period 1995–2000, 618,395 people moved into the state and 543,065 moved out, for a net gain of 75,330. Most new residents were from California.