Chinese Exclusion Act

After civil war had settled down, many immigrants came to America to live from many countries such as Germany, Ireland, and England. There are as many as 12 million immigrants at this time. Regarding Chinese immigration, they immigrated to the United States from 1849 to 1882. Between this period, America had California Gold Rush, which is one of the reasons Chinese people immigrated. Because the Chinese Exclusion Act was taken into practice, no more Chinese people could immigrate to the United States after 1882. Chinese immigration is the divergent point for Chinese’ lives who lived in America.

One of the first significant pieces of federal legislation aimed at restricting immigration was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which banned Chinese laborers from coming to America. Californians had agitated for the new law, blaming the Chinese, who were willing to work for less, for a decline in wages.The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first significant law restricting immigration into the United States. Those on the West Coast were especially prone to attribute declining wages and economic ills on the despised Chinese workers. Although the Chinese composed only .002 percent of the nation’s population, Congress passed the exclusion act to placate worker demands and assuage prevalent concerns about maintaining white “racial purity.”

Before the war, Chinese Americans were known as non-citizen immigrants who aren’t allow to go back to visit China. The male immigrants can’t to bring their wives over from China and they weren't allowed to marry whites legally. In fact any white American woman that married a non-citizen Chinese man automatically lost her citizenship under US law. This left Chinese communities across the United States empty of children, filled with aging bachelors, and inexorably dying away. Ironically the renewal of the Chinese American community came about because of the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906 that destroyed immigration and birth records across the city. The US Supreme Court in Wong Kim Ark v. United States in 1898 had affirmed citizenship

Early Chinese immigrants became laborers in mines and railroads. Due to many chinese immigrants taking jobs, there was a backlash in the 1870s against Chinese immigrants in the work force. The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act was passed, which excluded Chinese laborers from entering the country barred all immigrants of Chinese descent from obtaining citizenship. Chinatowns were immigrant neighborhoods, where the old country still lives inside the new one. “As the American economy weakened, the Chinese labor force became a threat to mainstream society”(Chinatown Resource guide).

But the Chinese were considered inferior and the Anglo Saxon American didn’t understand their religion. Subsequently with the “Chinese Exclusion Act” of 1882 new Chinese immigrants were severely limited to coming to America until the 1940’s. As the “Chinese Exclusion Act” prevented the Chinese from immigrating to America from 1882 to 1943. Once the Chinese were denied immigration in 1882, their agricultural jobs in California were quickly filled with Japanese and Mexican immigrants, eventually dominated by the Mexican migrant worker, still today agriculture in the United States is mostly harvested off the backs of the Mexican migrant worker. Many immigrants coming to America today arrive with the dream that they can work hard and earn a decent living, eventually owning their own slice of the American pie called, “The Home.” Immigration reform present day revolves around closing our borders, mainly the border with Mexico, as you read this paper new sections

In any case, financial misery in the 1870s raised hostile to Chinese assumption as white workers and lawmakers censured Chinese work for California's monetary troubles. After expanded savagery and segregation by hostile to Chinese developments, the United States passed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, banning every single Chinese worker into the nation and extremely limiting vast scale Chinese migration. Just vendors, ambassadors, researchers and understudies, voyagers, and offspring of American residents were permitted. Incompletely because of China's interest with the Allied countries amid World War II, the U.S. canceled the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1943 permitting Chinese to wind up naturalized residents and allowed 105 Chinese to go into

The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law that was passed out to the public and signed by the President at that time named Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882. It was one of the most outrageous restrictions out of all the immigration acts in US history, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese people from coming into United States. This act followed several revisions made in 1880 to the US and China Burlingame Treaty of 1868, this revisions has allowed for the US to stop Chinese immigration. The act itself was intentionally passed to last for 10 years, but was eventually renewed in 1892 and made then it was finally made permanent in 1902. The Chinese Exclusion Act was the first law to be followed that was meant to prevent a specific ethnic group from coming into the United States.

The Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 is a Congressional Act passed by congress and signed by President Chester A. Author prohibiting Chinese laborers (skilled and unskilled) from coming to the United States for ten years. If Chinamen did not have proper identification then they would face deportation, this caused the Chinese population to drop drastically. This act was created due to racism and white racial superiority, negative stigmas of Chinese people, low job availability and the envy of Chinese labor.

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, was the first significant law that restricted immigration into the United States. The Chinese Exclusion Act was signed in by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882. This new law was only supposed to be in effect for ten years but instead was renewed every ten years until 1943 (WWII).

The government in the earlier years did not accept the situation that there was so many Chinese immigrants working and arriving in the U.S. illegally. In 1882 the U.S. congress passed The Chinese Exclusion Act, since they feared of overpopulation (Waxman, Sarah.). What this did was close its door to Chinese laborers, those who offended could face imprisonment or deportation. Also any Chinese immigrants already in the U.S. were denied American citizenship. The act stopped the Chinese community from growing, so the Chinese had to figure out a way to keep their business going. Soon after the Chinese Exclusion Act, there was Geary Act. The Geary Act basically prohibit the coming of Chinese immigrants into the U.S. This let Chinese laborer to go

For decades, Chinese people in America have faced discrimination and hostility. The Chinese was initially brought over by the cheap labor of building railroads and the Gold Rush in California. But in the 1870s, the competition for jobs and depression led to racism and hatred for them. Almost every Chinese person have been segregated in Chinatowns. Eventually, the Chinese Exclusion Act ended Chinese immigration. However, it all changed during World War II when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. The United States and China became allies and declared war on Japan. So the Chinese in America got an opportunity to expand their economic and social influence. Furthermore, Americans changed their point of view about the Chinese Americans due to the alliance

Chinese immigrants were unable to denounce the law’s extension and its discriminatory nature. In 1902, Congress made the exclusion indefinite after the establishment of a new treaty with the Chinese government in 1894: the treaty became more restrictive of emigration. China later refused to renew the treaty with the United States of America in 1904 because of its acknowledgment of such harsh legislature against the Chinese. In 1905, there was a boycott of goods from the United States in China. Although this did not have the severe impact on American economy that Chinese citizens hoped for, it certainly aided in the rise of Chinese economic nationalism

Before the war, Chinese Americans were known as non-citizen immigrants who aren’t allow to go back to visit China. They can’t bring their spouse over from China or marry Americans legally. If an American woman marry a non-citizen Chinese man, she would lose her citizenship. The Chinese communities in the United States were fill with single men with no children. But due to the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, it destroyed all the immigrants and birth records. This incident allow many Chinese to fraudulently say that they were born in San Francisco and that makes them US citizens. (Sasaki) Later on, the congress began to consider to repeal for the Chinese Exclusion Act. Madame Chiang Kai-shek took a tour to the U.S. and spoke to several congressmen

Americans were suffering from the lack of jobs during this time; therefore, they passed the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act to present the Chinese as scapegoats for this situation. Because of the Chinese’s hard work, they were able to gain small amounts of money at a time and became hired by many people. Soon, they have taken all the jobs available, leaving the Americans without much hope of surviving. In the cartoon “What Shall We Do With Our Boys” by George Frederick Keller from the magazine “The San Francisco Illustrated Wasp”, a Chinese man portrayed as a ten armed monster working as much as possible while a group of white men are sitting around doing nothing. In between them is a thin wall with an opening. This implies that many people

In 1852, there were over 20,000 Chinese immigrants living in California (Franks). Americans reacted very negatively to this influx, and their negative sentiments were made apparent in the California Supreme Court’s People v. Hall verdict, which rendered Chinese testimony unreliable. Then, in 1882, President Chester Arthur signed the Chinese Exclusion Act, a law that prohibited Chinese laborers from entering the United States (Foner, 651). From the 1850s up to the Exclusion Act of 1882, Americans felt increasingly negative sentiments towards the Chinese. As illustrated through newspaper and magazine depictions along the Pacific Coast, the Americans perceived the Chinese as inferior and