I've been reading about Hawaiian Revolution and was wondering how immigration patterns changed the population make up from the time of Kamehameha I to Queen Liliʻuokalani.
The beginning of the shift in population demographics began in the early 1800's when a missionary group called American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions arrived on the islands in 1820. This group of white American protestants started to Christianize the indigenous population. These missionaries had children who became businessmen and community leaders in Hawaii. In 1852, the government opened up rights for non-Hawaiians to purchase land. This brought an influx of more American and German business people who were looking to make money in the sugar cane market.
The big shift came when these western businessmen brought in more foreign workers to work on the sugar cane plantations. While the Hawaiian government put in restrictions on how many foreign workers could be brought in to work, many of the planters abused those restrictions. This lead to a big influx of indentured laborers, mostly from East Asia.
So in conclusion, the Hawaiian Government, in an attempt to bring economic prosperity to their country, opened up their doors to western businessmen who then brought in many foreign laborers.
Sources: A History of the Pacific Islands by Steven Roger Fischer.*
One of the largest factors in the demographics of Hawaii was a crash in the population of native Hawaiians.
The estimated population (I don't know how accurate) in 1778 was 300,000. Native Hawaiians, however, were susceptible to European diseases. By 1910, the population was down to 38,500, while the non-native Hawaiian population in 1910 was 153,000.
By 2009, the Native Hawaiian population had rebounded to 260,000, but the crash in the native Hawaiian population, due to diseases to which they had little resistance, had as great an impact as immigration in the changing demographics of the Hawaiian Islands.