Chinese Immigrants In San Francisco

The Chinese in San Francisco Chinese Americans have made a tremendous impact on America and what America is today. The history of Chinese immigration is very complex and interesting. Every since the mid 1800’s Chinese immigration into the US has been occuring. The Chinese who came to San Francisco, came in large quantity and had the most impact on American society. Even today, you can see the things the Chinese immigrants have done for America and how the influenced how America is today. Therefore, they are a very important group of immigrants who were essential to American society. The Chinese migrants who came to the US came in large numbers and it started in the mid 1800’s. The most Chinese immigrants came into the US because of the gold

Some push factors for their exit from China was the opium wars and the poverty that was in China. The pull factors for Chinese immigrants were job opportunities in the US. In San Francisco, the Chinese found jobs building railroads and agriculture. Soon after these jobs fizzled down, Chinese immigrants needed a place to settle down and find other economic opportunities. During the 1870’s many Chinese started building San Francisco’s infrastructure and are a big part in how San Francisco is today. Other Chinese immigrants started farming to try and make a life for themselves and to obtain food. The Chinese established their places of sanctuary called Chinatowns in San Francisco. This led to them starting businesses. But, there was one huge challenge facing these Chinese immigrants, the US government. The Chinese in San Francisco faced tremendous amounts of discrimination and unfair treatment. At the beginning of their immigration, there was a foreign miners tax, which forced Chinese miners to pay a tax to mine materials in the height of the California gold rush when whites from foreign nations were not expected to pay this fee. This tax was also applied to Mexicans and any other non white person who wanted to mine. The whites once again were creating a social hierarchy and establishing legal but unfair barriers for minorities to not advance in their Anglo society. Another thing that shaped all of

WWII was the first time that the Chinese-Americans were publicly seen as an ally of the US and helpful to the US in the public eye. This repeal of the Chinese exclusion still did not stop discrimination of Chinese Americans even though they were now able to help fight in the war efforts of WWII. Even though the US discriminated the Chinese while they were in America, the Chinese were still willing to fight for the US. After WWII the Civil Rights Movement was trying to end all discrimination for all minority groups within America and the Chinese and their Chinatowns flourished. Today, in San Francisco Chinatown occupies 30 city blocks full of shops, restaurants, clubs, etc. Chinatown today is still faces high unemployment rate of 4.2% and the working conditions are horrendous. Also, “minimum wage violations alone are costing Chinatown restaurant workers an estimated $8 million every year in lost wages.”(The Workers Committee of the Chinese Progressive Association) So it is fair to assume that Chinatown today is still struggling with poverty and unsafe work conditions. This might be due to the fact that there were so many laws that prevented any minority a chance to move up in the economic ladder. And even to this day it is very hard for the Chinese in San Francisco to get out of their current economic condition due to the continuing discrimination because they are not white. There are still