“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door. "
The Quote on the Statue of Liberty, engraved 1903
The United States of America was founded on the idea that anyone could leave their destitution and ‘make it’ in America. This idea came to be called the American Dream; a phrase that was written into being around 1850. Not thirty years later, however, an entire immigrant group would be barred from entering the country, and that bar would last for sixty-one years. The Chinese Exclusion Act was put into law by President Chester Arthur in 1882 and repealed in 1943. During that period, all Chinese laborers were barred from immigrating to the United States. The Chinese Exclusion Act stagnated the growth of Chinese Culture in the United States and led to the racial stigma that fueled racism against Japan in the Second World War.
The Chinese Exclusion Act was enacted to curb the influx of Chinese immigrants seeking work in the failing post-Civil War economies. The Chinese settlers created enclaves in many West-Coast cities; the most famous of these being the “China-Town” in San Francisco. Anti-Chinese sentiment grew from the Nativist policies of Denis Kearney, his Workingman’s Party, and California statesman John Bigler. White power organizations fought against Chinese immigrants as well, specifically the Supreme Order of Caucasians in April 1876 and the Asiatic Exclusion League in May 1905. They stated that Chinese laborers had driven wages down to an unacceptable level,[1] Resultantly, they fought against the rights of Chinese Immigrants, many of whom had been natur...
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... Chinese Exclusion Act, 1882. Accessed August/September, 2013. https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/chinex.htm.
Dundes Renteln, Alison. "A Psychohistorical Analysis of the Japanese American Internment." Human Rights Quarterly 17, no. 4 (1995): 618-48. doi:10.1353/hrq.1995.0039.
Gyory, Andrew. Closing the Gate: Race, Politics, and the Chinese Exclusion Act. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998.
Railton, Ben. The Chinese Exclusion Act: What It Can Teach Us about America. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
US, Congress. "Chinese Exclusion Act, 1882." Chinese Exclusion Act, 1882. 1882. Accessed August 22, 2013. https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/chinex.htm.
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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
The Naturalization Act of 1790, which restricted naturalized citizenship to only "free white persons," marks the beginning of racial eligibility for citizenship in the United States (Koshy, 1998, p. 290). Subsequent exclusionary policies, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the Immigration Act of 1917, the National Origins Quota Law of 1924, further emphasized whiteness as one of the most defining prerequisite for naturalization. In the early 20th century, the meaning of the racial category "white" became the subject of multiple legal disputes involving Asian Indians. Disagreement over the inclusion of Asian Indians in the "white" category originated due to the fact that "their complexion was dark, but they were ethnologically Caucasian" (Shah, 1999, p. 249). One of the most infamous cases, United States vs. Bhagat Singh Thind, was presented in an article from the March 10, 1923 issue of The Literary Digest, describing the outcome of the case and its implications on the Indian community, primarily in California. Through a textual analysis of the article, this paper discusses the formation of the legal definition of whiteness, the ways of justification of social inequality, and the construction of Asian Indians as a racially unassimilable group in U.S. immigration history.
Marsh, James H. "Japanese Internment: Banished and Beyond Tears." The Canadian Encyclopedia. N.p., 23 Feb. 2012. Web. 7 Jan. 2014. .
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 ...
"Transcript of Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)." Our Documents. The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2014. .
Kwong, Peter. 1999 “Forbidden Workers: Illegal Chinese Immigrants and American Labor” Publisher: The New Press.
This movement proposed that individuals of East Asian descent are a danger to the Western world socially, economically, and culturally. Violence against Asians escalated to the extent that race riots often broke out, leading to the deaths of many Chinese as well as Japanese (Lee 135). The introduction of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 cemented the pre-existing xenophobic mindset when it became the first legal U.S. document to prevent immigration of a certain ethnicity. As a result, Chinese were banned from immigration and legal residents were denied their citizenship. Though surrounded by anti-Asians, Asian Americans found allies who initiated a countermovement. Lawyers and Christian organizations stood in solidarity with the marginalized group by serving as attorneys as well as advocating for Asian American equality. Such allies included lawyers Thomas Riordan, George McGowan, and Alfred Worley who aided Chinese immigrants in court (Lee 161). These allies proved the most helpful since Asian Americans were vulnerable; some could not understand English enough to defend themselves in court while others did not understand the complicated legislative language. White Christian leaders were also important allies because their prestige brought “moral loftiness to their work” (Lee 163). These leaders were often influential in their church and by aiding Asians, they also encouraged their
The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882. It was one of the most effective immigration law passed by congress. The Chinese Exclusion Act also required Chinese “non-laborers” in China who desired to enter the U.S. to have permission from the Chinese government that
White people believed that the labor force should be composed primarily of Whites. As the fight for labor intensified in the West, the government decided that it was time to take action not only as a result of what was going on in the West but also because the Chinese were fraudulently entering the United States. Unfortunately for the Chinese, the action that was taken by the government favored the White population. The government passed two acts that would limit the actions taken by the Chinese. President Arthur passed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. This act was the first of its kind in American history where congress decided to fully section off a certain race on the grounds of the Chinese endangering the well being and order of other localities. When passed, the act was dated to stand for ten years. When the ten years were up, Congress passed another act to follow up on the Chinese Exclusion Act, known as the Geary Act. Not only was the Geary Act a follow up but it also added other restrictions upon the Chinese minority. For the Chinese people already residing within the borders of the United States, this was terrible news. Not only were they being shunned from the rest of society, but this also became a deciding and influential factor for Chinese immigrants to be committed of crimes much similar to the unjust accusations Song Lee
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
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).
Millions of immigrants over the previous centuries have shaped the United States of America into what it is today. America is known as a “melting pot”, a multicultural country that welcomes and is home to an array of every ethnic and cultural background imaginable. We are a place of opportunity, offering homes and jobs and new economic gains to anyone who should want it. However, America was not always such a “come one, come all” kind of country. The large numbers of immigrants that came during the nineteenth century angered many of the American natives and lead to them to blame the lack of jobs and low wages on the immigrants, especially the Asian communities. This resentment lead to the discrimination and legal exclusion of immigrants, with the first and most important law passed being the Chinese Exclusion Act. However, the discrimination the Chinese immigrants so harshly received was not rightly justified or deserved. With all of their contributions and accomplishments in opening up the West, they were not so much harming our country but rather helping it.
The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed on May 6, 1882, and excluded the immigration of all Chinese laborers for 10 years and denied United States citizenship to all Chinese non-citizens residing in the prior to the passage of the act (Powell).