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Essay on america's immigration history
Essay on america's immigration history
Paper on the Chinese exclusion act
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Chinese Exclusion Act The Chinese immigrated to the United States and the government had to maintain the order of immigration processes. To maintain order and address the issues of the Americans who were angered by the influx of the Chinese, the US government passed the Chinese Exclusion Act. The Chinese Exclusion Act was signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882. It restricted immigration by only allowing Chinese merchants, teachers, students, tourists, and government officials to enter the United States. In addition, the law prevented the chinese from becoming a us citizen and placed rules on who they can marry. The law did not send immigrants back to China, but simply regulated who can enter the US. The Chinese Exclusion Act of …show more content…
1882 was a discriminatory law since it was established to prevent the Chinese from working, decrease the number of Chinese immigrants in the US, and prevent assimilation into American society. The Chinese Exclusion Act to prevented competition between the Chinese and Americans in the workplace.
The Chinese first migrated to America because of the California Gold Rush. As more Chinese migrated in search of gold and gold was scarce, the Chinese weren't allowed in gold mines. As a result, the Chinese needed to get low-wage jobs. When the Chinese were able to get more jobs than the Americans, the Americans were jealous of the Chinese and wanted them to leave. To limit competition for jobs, the Chinese were restricted from entering the US. As shown in document A, Anti-Chinese Play, “The Chinese Must Go,” by Henry Grimm in 1879, it states that “By and by white man catchee no money; Chinaman catchee heap money; Chinaman workee cheap, plenty work; white man workee dear no work - sabee?” This shows that the Chinese were conscientious people who did an excessive amount of work for a cheap amount of money. They were not “stealing” the jobs of the other people, but rather finding work in order to gain money. Since the Chinese were able to obtain jobs and favored for their cheap work, the Americans could not find jobs. The Chinese laborers just wanted to find jobs in order to support themselves; instead, the Chinese Exclusion Act prevented them from getting the …show more content…
jobs. The Chinese Exclusion Act controlled the Chinese’s numbers and prevented them from having new opportunities in a new country.
The Americans chose to prevent the Chinese laborers from entering the workforce America and in turn took away the Chinese’s chances for a new life which was desperately needed for the people of China considering their bad conditions in their country during that time. However, the unjust way that the Americans viewed the Chinese led to unfair laws that prevented the Chinese from coming into America. In the Chinese Exclusion act video, points were made from the powerful figure Henry George who described the chinese as people with very low moral standards, and people that were filthy which caused the numbers of the chinese to drop drastically. This kind of treatment was very unfair due to the many laws that prevented them from having a good life such as the law that said they could not bring their wives from China. The Americans who saw the Chinese as having low moral standards was practically set up because of the countries own rules. Because the people of America wanted to benefit themselves, this resulted in the loss of opportunity for the Chinese to be unable to sustain a population in America to give better opportunities for those to
come. The Chinese Exclusion Act not only decreased the number of Chinese immigrants, but it also prevented the acceptance of Chinese into the society. Even before the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Chinese were not accepted into society. Document B is a cartoon by Thomas Nast depicting what happened in the United States during 1878 before passing the law. Columbia, the feminine version of America, is showing motherly affection towards the Chinese man, who is cowering in fear. Columbia is protecting the Chinese from the Irish, German and Italian immigrants. Examples of the discrimination the Chinese faced are on the wall behind Columbia. The cartoon shows that other immigrants and Americans alienated the Chinese from society even before the act. After passing the law, acceptance into the society was more difficult for the Chinese. In Lee Chew’s The Biography of a Chinaman, Chew describes the situation in America as he explains, “More than half the Chinese in this country would become citizens if allowed to do so, and would be patriotic Americans." This is an experience written after the passing the Chinese Exclusion Act and it describes that the society resented the Chinese. Chew explains that the Chinese Exclusion Act made it harder for the Chinese to become citizens. Citizenship is one way to be accepted into a country, and since the Chinese couldn't become citizens they weren't accepted into the American society. The Chinese Exclusion Act prevented the Chinese from acquiring jobs, lowered the population of Chinese in the United States, and prevented the Chinese from being accepted into the society; thus, making it an unfair law. The Americans did not want to compete with the Chinese for jobs and were angered by the job offers the Chinese received. As a result, they wanted the Chinese Exclusion Act. To add, the tight regulation of immigration required by the act caused the population of the Chinese in the United States to decrease. Furthermore, the Chinese Exclusion Act hampered the Chinese from being accepted into the society by stopping them from becoming a citizen and a part of the country. Therefore, the Chinese Exclusion Act was a discriminatory law.
And so thousands of Chinese flocked from China to America, in search for work in the gold mines. After the profits from gold mining decreased because most of the easily obtainable gold had been found, an estimated 10,000 Chinese left the mines and were in search of jobs. From independent miners who had worked for themselves, many Chinese immigrants now became wage earners who worked for bosses. A growing number of Chinese were working in businesses owned by whites. But earning wages instead of prospecting did not discourage Chinese from moving to America. A paycheck of up to $30 could be made working for the railroad, which was 10 times as much than could be earned in China.
Many came for gold and job opportunities, believing that their stay would be temporary but it became permanent. The Chinese were originally welcomed to California being thought of as exclaimed by Leland Stanford, president of Central Pacific Railroad, “quiet, peaceable, industrious, economical-ready and apt to learn all the different kinds of work” (Takaki 181). It did not take long for nativism and white resentment to settle in though. The Chinese, who started as miners, were taxed heavily; and as profits declined, went to work the railroad under dangerous conditions; and then when that was done, work as farm laborers at low wages, open as laundry as it took little capital and little English, to self-employment. Something to note is that the “Chinese laundryman” was an American phenomenon as laundry work was a women’s occupation in China and one of few occupations open to the Chinese (Takaki 185). Chinese immigrants were barred from naturalized citizenship, put under a status of racial inferiority like blacks and Indians as with “Like blacks, Chinese men were viewed as threats to white racial purity” (188). Then in 1882, due to economic contraction and racism Chinese were banned from entering the U.S. through the Chinese Exclusion Act. The Chinese were targets of racial attacks, even with the enactment of the 1870 Civil Rights Act meaning equal protection under federal law thanks to Chinese merchants lobbying Congress. Chinese tradition and culture as well as U.S. condition and laws limited the migration of women. Due to all of this, Chinese found strength in ethnic solidarity as through the Chinese Six Companies, which is considered a racial project. Thanks to the earthquake of 1906 in San Francisco, the Chinese fought the discriminatory laws by claiming citizenship by birth since the fires
One particular ethnic group that suffered severe discrimination was the Chinese people. They first came to America for several reasons. One of them was the gold rush in California in 1849, in which they were included in a group of immigrants called the “Forty-Niners” (179). From gold mining, they switched to other jobs with resulted in the rise of anti-Chinese sentiments. People felt that Chinese people were taking the jobs away from them, because Chinese people worked for much smaller salaries that businesses preferred. This mindset gave way to the creation of The Chinese Exclusion Act passed in 1882, which prohibits more Chinese immigrants from coming to America. In addition, the act states “no State or court of the United States shall admit Chinese to citizenship”. Like the Naturalization Act, the Chinese Exclusion Act was created to hinder Chinese people from becoming citizens so that America could remain homogenously white (186). It also aimed to stop Chinese people from establishing a bigger community in the country in hopes of eliminating the threat of competition to their white counterparts (186). Like African-Americans, Chinese people were considered racially inferior and have struggled to prove that they were worthy to be called true Americans, rather than
Farmers lost basically everything and looked elsewhere for employment. In 1860 the earned pay for a Chinese laborer in China was around $3-$5 a month. However, if a Chinese worked on the railroad system in the U.S. the potential earning could range anywhere from $25-$30 a month. With the conditions imposed in their homeland $25 to $30 a month was like gold. Therefore, Chinese immigrants (mostly men) took refuge in the United States in hopes of working in the west temporarily. Some worked in mining and other areas while the majority were attracted to the railroad system.
The United States’ government instilled a closed door policy with the creation of many immigration laws in an effort to make America a melting pot of similar ethnicities. However, the prejudice of American society that was enforced by immigration policy forced immigrants to form their own communities for the purpose of survival and protection, turning America into a mosaic of different cultures. The Burlingame Treaty of 1868 and Naturalization Act of 1870 both created a false image of acceptance for immigrants while simultaneously restricting immigration. The United States’ government only began clearly restricting immigration with the Page Act of 1875 and Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
American objections to Chinese immigration took many forms, and generally stemmed from economic and cultural tensions, as well as ethnic discrimination. Most Chinese laborers who came to the United States did so in order to send money back to China to support their families there. At the same time, they also had to repay loans to the Chinese merchants who paid their passage to America. These financial pressures left them little choice but to work for whatever wages they could.
As America continued to recruit workers from other countries, they continually worried about an immigration problem. In 1924, the Federal government passed the Immigration Act which officially barred further immigration from Asia and Europe to the U.S.
According to Lee, Erika, and Reason (2016), “The Chinese Exclusion Act ...barred Chinese laborers for a period of 10 years and allowed entry only to certain exempt classes (students, teachers, travelers, merchants, and diplomats” (p. 4). The Chinese immigrants were excluded from certain rules and laws like Blacks and other minority groups. Also, they were not permitted to request citizenship or settle in the United States. For decades, the Chinese laborers did not have legal rights to enter into the United States until the decision was overturned. Lee, Erika, and Reason noted, “Chinese activist turned their attention to opening up additional immigration categories within the confines of the restrictions…some 300,000 Chinese were admitted into the United States as returning residents and citizens” (p. 4). The activists fought for the rights of the Chinese people to overturn the decision for leaving and entering as pleased to the United
As gold discoveries slowed down and the Civil War gradually came to an end, the First Transcontinental Railroad was finally completed between Omaha and Sacramento. Over time, unemployment began rising across the country, especially in California, where a vast majority of Chinese immigrants resided in. The welcoming of Chinese immigrants slowly began to wear off as the white working class perceived a threat to their livelihood that these immigrants could potentially cause, leading to an increase in racial tensions. These growing tensions culminated in the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 and eventually closed U.S. borders to all Chinese laborers, with the exception of ethnic Chinese individuals. This paper highlights the significant impact of large-scale Chinese immigration to California during the Gold Rush, the lasting contributions made by the Chinese towards Western ...
They could be beaten up, robbed, forced out of town, or put out of business. In fact, even anti-Chinese legislation is common. Laws targeting Chinese immigration and culture are simply too many to count. The violent and discriminatory treatment of Chinese immigrants in 19th century America makes manifest a lack of social progress in an era often celebrated for expansion and physical growth. The first Chinese immigrants to arrive in America came in the early 1800s.
When the Chinese Exclusion Act was signed into law in May 1882, it was followed by a rapidly decreasing amount of new immigrants to the United States. Regardless of problems that the United States attempted to solve with the Act, violent massacre and persecution of Chinese people in the United States continued. Because of this, many Chinese immigrants that did stay in America continued on for years to receive prejudice and racism in the labor market and cultural society. This then continued to force many Chinese immigrants further and further down the path of segregation and into the protection of Chinatowns and poverty, counteracting the great American idea of the “melting pot.”
The Chinese immigrant experience has traveled through times of hardships, under the English man. They have struggled to keep themselves alive through racism, work, and acceptance. Although many have come to Canada for their lives’ and their children’s to be successful, and safe. It could not be just given until adversity gave them the life they hoped to one day life for. In the starting time of 1858, the Chinese community had started coming to different parts of Canada considering the push and pull factors that had led them here. Because of the lack of workers in the British Columbia region, the Chinese were able to receive jobs in gold mining. Most Chinese were told to build roads, clear areas, and construct highways, but were paid little because of racism. The Chinese today are considered one of the most successful races in Canada because of the push and pull factors that they had come across, the racism that declined them and the community of the Chinese at the present time.
In chapter thirty five, author Shelley Sang-Hee Lee explains that “Immigration is an important part of our understanding of U.S. social experience” (Hee 128). Asian immigrants bring their diverse culture, language and custom from various Asian countries. They help improve American economic development. Also, they play an important role in American society. The first Asian immigration flow is the Chinese Immigration in the mid-19th century to work in the gold mines and railroads. The Asian immigrant population grew rapidly between 1890 and 1910 (Hee 130). The increasing of population of Asian immigrants have brought a lot of problems. Many of them were facing the issue of ethnicity, discrimination, and the process of assimilation. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 which banned the immigration of Chinese laborers and proscribed foreign-born Chinese from naturalized citizenship and the Asian Exclusion Act League in 1907 which limited the entry of Asian immigrants have reshaped the demographic of Asian immigrants in the U.S (Hing 45). With the rise of anti-Asian movements, many Asian immigrants were rejected from entering America or deported to their homeland. In the early history of immigration in America, the issue of deportation is an important part of the Asian American experience in the
The earliest form of racial discrimination against Asian Americans was encountered during the California Gold Rush. The Gold Rush attracted Chinese immigrants who came to California to fill the high demand for laborers. However, as more and more Chinese immigrated to California and the lower-paying labor jobs were filled, the Chinese began filling higher-paying positions typically held by Whites. As a result, an anti-Chinese Movement was formed followed by the enactment of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 which prevented any additional Chinese immigration into the United States. Essentially, Chinese were discriminated against by the Whites due to fear of the Chinese taking over their jobs. After World War II, the federal government ended the 1882 ban on Chinese immigration and gave citizenship to Chinese Americans born abroad (Charles and Guryan 507).
...xperienced harsh discrimination and even legal exclusion from our country. They were blamed for the lack of job opportunities and low pay of jobs and received extremely unfair treatment that labeled them as an inferior race. However, the inter-ethnic tension blinded us from seeing how the immigrants were contributing to our country in positive ways. They not only created economic and social gains for us, but also opened our minds to a whole new way of life and prepared us for the multicultural years to come. With all of the help and modernization that they contributed to our country, the racism and discrimination that the Chinese immigrants received day-in and day-out was not rightly justified or deserved.