I'm an American Born Chinese with parents from Hong Kong, and that just got me wondering about Chinese immigration. We speak Cantonese and it feels that the Canto speakers were the ones to move abroad first? Even in Southeast Asia, it seems the Chinese are Canto speakers. Is there any truth to this? Just trying to learn more about my history, please and thank you in advance.
More can of course be said, but I discuss a lot of the factors in early Sino-American migration in this answer. It's broadly true that the Chinese diaspora was, until comparatively recently, originally dominated by people from southern regions, and for some pretty obvious reasons – it's where all the ports are!