This historiographical essay discusses Asian migrations to Latin America from a Pacific World perspective and employs a longue‐durée periodization. The Pacific World paradigm offers a path for studying the movement of people and ideas as multi‐directional flows that impacted communities around the Pacific basin. The pre‐1900 century timeframe similarly urges scholars to move beyond nation‐bound narratives and to consider instead the long‐standing cultural and ethnic ties that connected Asia and the Americas before the reification on national borders.