Asian Immigration And The United States

Around the mid-19th to the 20th century, myriads of immigrants flocked to the U.S. seeking better job opportunities,or searching for religious freedom. U.S. citizens were fearful, envious, and willing to exclude immigrants who came to the US as they were viewed as an economic threat to the society. They believed that these immigrants were racially, morally and intellectually inferior to them and as such did not see or treat as their equals. These dysfunctions lead to severe and harsh treatment of immigrants. Historically, the three major immigrant groups that faced the most discrimination during this era were the Asians, German, and the Irish. American citizen’s fear of job secureness led to the resentment and discriminatory treatment towards Asian Immigrants. They believed that the majority of the Asian American immigrants were taking too many of their jobs. As such, the U.S. government decided that it would be necessary to restrict the amount of Asian Americans, in order to keep the U.S. citizens from being unemployed. The U.S. government passed numerous laws, banning Asian American immigrants from the United States. One distinct law that they passed was the 1922 Cable Act, this law “stripped a female citizen of citizenship, if she married an alien unable to become a citizen.”(Lutz 7).The law was basically passed to prevent Asian immigrants from obtaining citizenship by marrying a female U.S citizen.In fact, the government believed that female citizens that engaged in this

In 1998, Eric Liu wrote a book about his struggle with acculturation titled “The Accidental Asian”. A chapter within the book called “Notes of a Native Speaker” depicts an essay written by Liu which fully describes his struggles with race and how he overcame them. Eric Liu is an American born Taiwanese Asian. His parents immigrated to the United States before he was born and in so, gave him a mixed cultural background. He started becoming a writer after attending Yale University and graduating from Harvard Law School. In his “Notes of a Native Speaker” author Eric Liu argues that as he was “becoming white” he was achieving, learning the ways of the upper

While Asian immigrants were first generation migrants, female Mexican-American teens in the early 1920s differed in that they were first generation Americans. Still, these teens faced similar pressures of formative gender identity set by both American culture and by the ancestral customs of the Mexican familial oligarchy. The familial oligarchy of Mexican culture refers to the system by which familial elders “attempted to dictate the activities of youth for the sake of family honor,” as the family’s communal standing depended on the “purity,” or virginity of their daughter with little mention of the son. Due to the sudden rise of the flapper culture, American temptations were a constant threat to traditional Mexican values. These temptations were controlled through the use of a gender medium, usually a mother or grandmother, known as a dueña or a

The U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, also known as Hart-Cellar Act, represents the most significant period in the history of Asian Americans. Decades of continuous exclusion and racist immigration policies, came to an end with the adoption of the Act, which resulted in unprecedented flows of immigrants from Asia, Mexico, Latin America, and other countries immigrating to U.S. Most influential proved to be the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, which brought national and international attention to the pervasive problem of racism and economic inequality in American society, including discriminatory immigration laws. New arrivals, especially from Asia, have transformed the demographic and diversity characteristics of Asian American community, and American society in general. The immigration Act of 1965 was the most important immigration reform legislation for Asian Americans and other racial minorities because it finally challenged the American race relations and dramatically improved the lives of Asian Americans.

From 1849 through the start of the 20th century, the first Chinese who immigrated to the United States struggled with many challenges against their race and objectives. They traveled abroad with hopes of returning to their home country with wealth and power to support the family that remained in China. Introduced as aliens with a culture and lifestyle that was different from the American race, the Chinese were given the impressions as an inferior group of people and were seen as threats to the Americans’ job securities. In 1860, immigration numbers augmented rapidly when the Central Pacific Railroad Company requested workers to build the western segment of the Transcontinental Railroad (stretches from California to Utah). By 1870, the census counted 49, 310 Chinese in California, making up about 8.5 percent of the state’s population. Many Americans saw the increasing numbers of the Chinese living in California as a spreading disease. Bayard Talor, a 19th century American poet, described the Chinese as “morally, the most debased people on the face of the earth. Their touch is pollution, … and [they] should not be allowed to settle on our soil.” Determined to rid the country of this “pollution,” Americans sought methods to terminate their entry to the Western border states, specifically California. Throughout the later decades of the 19th century, the Californian government enforced laws that limited Chinese rights, and with each one, a tighter reign was drawn on the

On May 6th, 1882, the United States Congress passed the first racially restrictive immigration bill in American history. Known as the Chinese Exclusion Act, it supposedly only prohibited Chinese laborers from entering the U.S., allegedly for a ten year span; but ten years passed and the Act was renewed, and another ten years later, it was permanently instated in 1902. The Exclusion Act executed its intended purpose; due to a clause within the Act that specified both “skilled and unskilled” laborers were to be kept out and the refusal of the government to re-admit already settled immigrants who left the country for even the shortest amount of time, the Chinese population within the U.S. dipped rapidly as nearly every Chinese would-be immigrant was denied entry.1

Americans producers relied on consumers in other parts of the world, as capitalism developed as an enterprise. More developed countries drained resources and labor and power of less developed countries. Asian Americans were influenced to migrate to the U.S because their home countries were experiencing an economic decline. Asian Americans had very high hopes for life in America. When Asian’s first migrated to the U.S they were in poverty because they were not making the dollar they thought they would base on capitalism. Capitalism was encouraging immigration of cheap labor force from people from China, and other parts of Asia. China, Japan and Asia countries came to the

           Wei Bin Lin grew up in Shanghai, China. At the of age 20, Lin came to Brooklyn, New York where everything was completely different. It varied from all types of thing from the food, the way they dress, the types of music they listen to, culture, transportation, and how the way the school system worked. Lin felt totally out of place in New York, it didn’t feel like home to him, Lin was starting to feel homesick, he wasn’t entirely sure if he had made the right choice, but Lin told himself, “I’m sure as time goes by I’ll get use to this American lifestyle.” And yes, as time went by Lin was having the time of his life in New York.

The United States’ relationship with immigration fluctuated a lot over the years. Nonetheless, one can observe how towards the 19th century, the government began to restrict the influx of immigrants it was received each year. The first official measure that triggered drastic change in American perception of immigration and of immigrants themselves was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed on May 6th, 1882, and it was the first significant law restricting immigration into the United States, especially to a specific race/ethnicity. One of the narratives to justify this measure was that Chinese workers cause economic ills and declining wages, even if they only represented less than a percent of the population. However, the Congress still passed that act to satisfy popular worker demand. This essay will discuss the ideological and institutional consequences of the Chinese Exclusion Act, such as gatekeeping, creating a framework to racialize other races, a nativist ideology and how it shaped immigration laws.

As states by Asians-Americans, “besides the Slave trade happening centuries ago, America is witnessing the first major immigration by non-whites.”3 Asian Americans are at the top of

The largest Chinese community outside Asia, the novel's Chinatown - as in reality - blends together elements of the immigrants' ancestral homeland with the American way of life. It illustrates the life of "dualities" many Chinese Americans encounter - "two identities, two voices, two cultures, and even two names" (Huntley 73).

A. Overview: Asian immigrants attained in the United States with numerous religions, which includes Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity. The categories of informative structures offered by religion, as a vital foundation of ethnic factors, developed especially significant when societies are surviving with the fluctuating surroundings. It is by the structured religion and household demonstrating that standards and philosophies are instructed in the newer generation. Though there are diverse dissimilarities amongst the Asian ethnic groups, certain of the harmonies in worldview contain: group positioning; domestic consistency and obligation; self-control and individual control; prominence on learning accomplishment; regard for power; admiration for the senior; the usage of disgrace for social control; and interdependence of families and personas.

In the wake of the Civil War and the major improvements in the lives of African Americans during Reconstruction that followed, America saw its inequitable treatment of minorities shift from African Americans to Asian immigrants. To clarify, African Americans were still subject to much racial terrorism and many civil rights abuses, but they had recently gained major legislative victories with the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the 14th Amendment in 1868 that had helped to ensure their legal citizenship and equal rights in America. During this same time period, Asian immigration to America had begun to increase. Due to the nativist feelings that still pervaded in post-Civil War America and concerns about the labor market brought about by

Chinese Immigration to the United States in the nineteenth century until 1870 was shaped by a combination of factors including internal political turmoil and financial instability throughout China, growing western Imperial and economic influences in South East Asia, China 's deepening trade deficit with European nations, and industrial and technological innovations. Concurrently, the rising demand for inexpensive labour during the California Gold Rush, (1848-1858) development of national railway projects, and the range of economic possibilities in America provided many Chinese Sojourners with the opportunity to support their families and villages at home. Therefore, an understanding of the international context of Chinese immigration to America is necessary to fully understand the dynamics and complexity of the period.

Immigration has always been a topic of controversy (now more than ever). However, many Americans tend to forget their ancestors were all very much immigrants - most migrating to America in the pre-Civil Wars days such as the Germans, Irish, and Chinese. Immigrants traveled to the United States for many reasons. The Irish sought after a future in America after a potato famine left many families in great poverty and suffering from starvation. The German and Chinese also came in search of a better life, to provide for their families, and to chase after the “American Dream.”