Chinese Discrimination In Australia Essay

When they arrived in America most of the Chinese immigrants moved west. Most of the Chinese immigrants moved west because they wanted to get jobs in rural areas and build homes for their families. A lot of Chinese immigrants got jobs working on building railroads. The Chinese immigrants were very good at this job, because they got paid very low wages, and that affected the pay rates of white Americans, European immigrants, and Russian immigrants. In the 1882 Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act. This act stated that Chinese laborers could not enter the country, because chinese immigrants accepted low wages, and also affected the pay rates of others. However Immigrants from Italy and Russia did not have to go through this. They also had an easier time getting jobs because of

The Gold Rush started on January 24, 1848 when James W. Marshall found a gold nugget in a river while building a sawmill for John Sutter. It was a time where people

American citizens despised the Chinese workers because they worked very hard and followed instructions for very little pay, as stated in a speech given by a German immigrant on the Chinese exclusion act he said “It is almost impossible for a poor white servant girl to find employment in a white family. No! The mistress of the house wants a Chinaman. Why? He is very handy. She can say, ‘John Chinaman, do this’, and John does it, and John never says a word”. The white immigrants assumed that the Chinese were doing this to spite them and steal the jobs the white immigrants and American citizens thought they were entitled to. Another example of Americans and white immigrants accusing the Chinese of taking

During WWII and around that time period things got pretty heated towards different races, Chinese taxi drivers were bashed and when they would be selling their goods at markets to get money to even survive they would

The discovery of gold in 1851, by Edward Hargraves brought about major economic, social and political changes to the nation of Australia. Gold attracted people from all over the world to come to Australia, to strike it rich. People

The immigration policy of Australia has been in a constant state of flux ever since Federation in 1901, when the first legislative piece, the Immigration Restriction Act, was introduced. The Immigration Restriction Act has become infamous in Australian history and throughout the world, more nefariously as the ‘White Australia Policy’. The White Australia Policy was Australia’s seemingly indestructible way of ensuring a White Australia. However, the immigration of European refugees after World War II, which aimed to defend the nation from Japanese invasion, challenged this policy. From 1901, Australia held a strong belief that coloured people, specifically Asians, were inferior and detrimental to the Australian way of life, and did all in it’s

The Chinese exclusion act was a movement that prohibited Chinese immigration; people used it as a discrimination against Chinese people. In one year Chinese immigration dropped from 40,000 to 23. This shows how people where violent and discriminant to Chinese fellows.

Following the success of the American Gold rush, the Australian Gold rush attracted many migrants from all over the globe. The Chinese prospectors were perhaps the most controversial and the most interesting nationality to come to the goldfields

This was for many reasons but one main reason being the fact that the whites could lose their occupations and industries to a Chinese being, which were also known as coolies. Source 1 states that some of the earliest evidence was during the gold rush during the 1850’s, Chinese were hard workers and needed to support their families and themselves. It also states in source 1 that South Sea Island Islanders (commonly known as ‘Kanakas’) were imported as cheap labour to work in Northern Queensland. This was so they could work on the sugar cane fields; the process is called ‘black birding’. Source 7 shows that the origins that the Policy was built on was because of ‘racial exclusiveness’ on the gold fields. The Dictation Test, as seen in source 5, was given to all non-European people attempting to enter Australia in the years between 1901 and 1958. The test was harsh and any foreigner who took the test was almost always set to fail. It was incredibly unfair to the ‘coolies’ that were trying to enter. Another reason that the immigration act was passed was because of ‘racial

The motivations for the Chinese to come to the United States are similar to most immigrants. These motivations are what most people call "The American Dream." These could be looking for a better life, having a better job, running away from political issues. However, for Chinese these American dreams were not too easy to achieve at first compared to other immigrants. Chinese suffered a lot more obstacles and discriminations because they are relatively small and easy to be targeted on. Even more the legal system passed a law in 1963 forbidding Chinese to testify against white men in court. This anti-Chinese action was most critical in the Pacific Coast; as a result, it caused the dispersion of Chinese that had settled in California to the

In 1882 the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by Congress. This act exiled Chinese laborers from arriving in the United States. This was the first time ever that a specific ethnicity was banned from immigrating to the U.S.A. Racism against the Chinese was strong, so the ban remained for ten years, but was eventually made “permanent”. However, China soon became a war ally in World War II, so the ban was repealed in 1943.

There were several reasons, that led Chinese people migrate to Australia and those reasons are largely different from those of Afro-American slaves. Between 1839 and 1842, Britain and China had Opium War concerning disagreement of their trading. Ryan (1995, p.15) argues that after the war, Hong Kong was dominated by Britain and people,

The Chinese Exclusion act was passed and supported because the Chinese were taking jobs from the Americans. By 1852 25,000 Chinese had already immigrated to America, and then in 1880 already 106,000 Chinese were populating the United States. Just by sheer amount, there were many people who needed jobs. The Chinese were, like many immigrants, hardworking as well as willing to work. They not only were hard workers, but did their tasks well and effectively. Delegate C.R. Kleine talks about how the Chinese reputation for work was, he says: “The mistress of the house wants a Chinaman. Why? He is very handy. She can say, ‘John Chinaman, do this’, and John does it”. Chinese men were often chosen over a white man or woman for a job and this made the Americans angry and desperate. In a play written by Henry Grimm we see a Chinese man with “plenty work, plenty money, [and] plenty to eat” then in contrast, we see a white man named Frank B. that is struggling to get by with any work, food, or money.

The California gold rush began when a gold nugget was uncovered in the American River during 1848. Not only did this discovery entice Americans from all over the United States to travel to California in hopes of making their own profit, but it also brought a torrent of Chinese immigrants to the United States between 1849 and 1882. At the time of the gold rush, China's economy was very weak. There were wars and famines occurring. When news of the gold rush reached China, many Chinese men set out to America with hopes of gaining wealth and returning back to their homes. “After the gold rush, Chinese immigrants worked as agricultural laborers, on railroad construction crews throughout the West, and in low-paying industrial jobs” (Chinese Immigration to the United States - For Teachers). Some even opened their own businesses.

The need to compete for possessions, jobs, and status causes people to feel animosity towards other ethnic groups. For example, during the 1800’s the Chinese occupied many of the jobs building railroads; this made the Anglo-Americans angry, they felt as if the Chinese were taking over the job market. In turn, this led the Chinese to become “victims of open discrimination and hostility”. Although the Chinese were already barred from schools and the court system, the Anglo-Americans felt that the Chinese