Chinese Immigration Issue Analysis

Over time many factors have been a part of molding the immigration policy that we know and hold true to. Not just one argument caused the view we see threw when pondering immigration, but many have settled their opinions into our policy. One of the many arguments used was the argument against the Chinese and how they were so-called dangerous. Horace Davis states, “The experience of other nations who have permitted Chinese immigration and showed you that wherever it has been allowed the same unvarying features mark their presence, and that after centuries of contact with other people in the islands of the East Indies their race peculiarities are just distinct as they are today in California; so that our only hope lies in a law restricting their

Chinese Americans have arrived to the United States through three waves of immigration. The journey of immigrating to the United States consisted of many obstacles and hardships. Chinese Americans have been in this country for centuries, and still remain one of the smallest minority minorities. To this day, they are still perceived as foreigners in the eyes of other Americans, and have been victimized for their successes. To gain a deeper understanding of Chinese immigration, we must look at the Chinese American experience of immigrant jobs, exclusion and discrimination, and the model minority stereotype.

After the first wave of Chinese immigrants arrived in the United States in the early 1840s during the California Gold Rush, many Chinese people continued to travel across the Pacific, escaping poor conditions in China with hopes and ambitions for a better life in America. Many more Chinese immigrants began arriving into the 1860s on the Pacific coast for work in other areas such as the railroad industry. The immigrants noticed an increasing demand for their labor because of their readiness to work for low wages. Many of those who arrived did not plan to stay long, and therefore there was no push for their naturalization. The immigrants left a country with thousands of years of a “decaying feudal system,” corruption, a growing

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

There were many reasons for the Chinese to come to America. Overcrowding, poverty, war, and other catastrophes in China were all reasons (push) for traveling to America, as well as effective external influences. The discovery of gold was a major pull for Chinese peasants in coming to the West Coast. America's labor needs were the most important external catalyst for immigration. However, there were very few ways of traveling to the United States. With loans from the Six Companies, Chinese were able to afford fare to America, and they traveled here to work primarily as gold miners, fishermen, or agricultural workers; later settling into laundry services and restaurant work (Tsai, China overseas 12-13).

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The pain and the suffering, the oppression, and the exclusion all describe the history of Asia America. When they arrived to the United States, they become labeled as Asians. These Asians come from Japan, China, Korea, Laos, Thailand, and many other diverse countries in the Eastern hemisphere. These people wanted to escape from their impoverished lives as the West continued to infiltrate their motherland. They saw America as the promise land filled with opportunity to succeed in life. Yet due to the discrimination placed from society and continual unfair

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.

Chapter one of the The Contemporary Asian American Experience: Beyond the Model Minority, provides a great overview of the Asian American immigration history to U.S. and the aspects leading to the arrival of refugees from Asian countries. Since the early 1800s, hundreds of thousands of Asians have been migrating to America. As with many other immigrants, they were viewed as low class workers. Asian immigrants had very dangerous and low paid jobs that the majority of whites did not want to do. As a result, many white employers took advantage and exploited them. What strikes me the most is that Asian Americans participated in very important jobs but they were not recognized for their crucial contribution to the prosperity of the United States.

We’ve spent so much time in our class on various racial issues seen in the United States of America. It’s our national sport, in a way, it’s always as if there is only one side: nonwhites. But this is one of those binaries where you need both sides to make sense of it. When comparing Asian Americans in America during mid-19th century and the turn of the 20th century, there were many similarities and differences. One way in which they were similar was most Asian Americans intended to work hard, make a lot of money, and then return to their families and villages as wealthy men or stay and fulfill the American dream because this goal didn’t differ from Asian Americans from many immigrants who came to the United States. One way in which they were different was that many white/ European Americans looked down on all immigrants, but Asian Americans were considered racially as well as culturally inferior because most Americans believed that Asian Americans were too different to ever assimilate successfully into American culture. This view was expressed and reinforced by the stereotypical “imaginations” and “images” of Asian immigrants in the 19th and 20th century.

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

In the 1850’s, the Gold Rush in California lead the Chinese to immigrate to California. They were welcomed with harsh treatments and little payment for jobs. Still, they stayed because of the many job opportunities that could provide them with money for their families back in China.

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

Even though all the stakeholders are concerned in solving the illegal immigration issues, there seems to be no agreement on the best strategy to be followed. However, all the stakeholders agree that border security needs to be enforced, employers of illegal immigrants punished and they also seem to agree that the illegal immigrants that have been in the country for some time now need to be allowed to work legally and pay back taxes and some fines to the government. The stakeholders listed for the immigration policy reforms include Senator Chuck Schumer of New York State and Senator Marco Rubio of Florida State, both from states with high percentages of the immigrant population. They were part of the eight Senators who drafted the comprehensive

Immigration is central to the growth and identity of the Hispanic population. Immigration to the United States is about several expectations: the search for a better life, better safety, work, and education, for the immigrants themselves and for their children and their children’s children. The majority of Hispanics in the United States are native born. Of the 55 million people in 2014 who identified themselves as of Hispanic or Latino origin, 35 percent were immigrants.