Immigration And The Chinese Exclusion Act Of 1880

With riots and protests to his previous veto of the bill, President Chester Arthur signed “An Act to Execute Certain Treaty Stipulations Relating to the Chinese” into law.” Nicknamed the Chinese Exclusion Act, it was one of the first Federal laws that discriminated against immigrants by their ethnicity. It remained law for over sixty years before Congress repealed it in 1943 to help improve Chinese morale against Japan. While originally intending to stay law for only ten years, it was renewed many times. In 1892, it was renewed as The Geary Act and in 1902 it was made permanent; requiring that Chinese immigrants carry with them there certificate of residence.The hostility against Chinese immigrants had been going on for decades prior to the Exclusion Act, going as far back as the end of the California Gold Rush. While Chinese immigrants were often discriminated it was at a local, not federal level. The Chinese Exclusion Act was the Gilded era’s worst policy because it negatively helped redefine the US federal government's stance on immigrants, had many people openly opposing it, and the arguments for the Act were mostly untrue.

During this time the Chinese Exclusion Act was in place, forbidding the entrance of Chinese immigrants into the United States.

In 1882 the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed, and Alien Contract Labor Laws of 1885 and 1887 prohibited certain laborers from immigrating to the United States. " Immigration Act of 1882 levied a head tax of fifty cents on each

Chinese Exclusion Act was a law that passed by Congress on May 6 of 1882, that halted the immigration of the Chinese laborers for a span of 10 years and denied neutralization to the existing Chinese in the United States. Following an economic crisis in the late 19th century that left many without jobs and slowed down the expansion of the Western States, many Chinese immigrants laborers were blamed for the falling of wages and lack of employment opportunities. The Chinese laborer faced violence, social isolation, and discriminatory laws that was included in the passage of the exclusion act. Although the act had little effect on the U.S’s economy beyond the Chinese community, it set a lasting effect for immigration policy, it was the first U.S law the refusal to admit members of a specific ethnic group or nationality. Since Chinese immigration was helping the U.S’s economy bloom. Why the sudden stop of only one ethnic group coming to the U.S? What social, economic, and political caused the Chinese Exclusion Act?

The 1890s to the 1920s was the first time that the federal government was taking a real stand and control over immigration policies. It also saw the two greatest waves of immigration in the country’s history. War, poverty, political turmoil, social upheaval, food shortages, lack of available jobs and more prompted people from foreign countries to move to the United States because it was the land of dreams and prosperity. After the depression of the 1890s immigration jumped from 3.5 million to 9 million in a ten year period. By 1900, New York City had as many Irish residents as Dublin and more Italians than any city outside Rome and more Poles than any city except Warsaw. It had more Jews than any other city in the world, as well as large amount of Slavs, Lithuanians, Chinese, and Scandinavians (Collier). The government began to limit these new immigrants. From 1882 until 1943 most Chinese immigrants were barred from entering the United States under the Chinese Exclusion Act, the nation’s first law to ban immigration by race or nationality. In 1892, Ellis Island was opened in New York evaluate immigrants before allowing them to enter the United States. On the West Coast, Angel Island, a similar immigrant station opened near San Francisco. World economies slowed and other problems occurred that caused people to become desperate for work and a fresh start.

In 1880, the Hayes Administration authorized a well known U.S. diplomat named James B. Angell. His job was to negotiate and control a new treaty they were planning with China. The treaty was called the Angell Treaty, which permitted the United States to restrict or prohibit Chinese immigration. In 1882, the Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which eliminated the process of immigration of any Chinese laborers, whether it were skilled workers or unskilled workers for 10 years. The Act also required every Chinese person going on a voyage in or out of the country to carry a certificate identifying his or her occupation as a laborer, scholar, diplomat, or merchant. This Act was the first in the whole American history to place broad restrictions

Interestingly, State and Federal courts still had the authority to deport Chinese resident aliens. President Chester Arthur passed it on May 6, 1882. Such a devastating act was a culmination of hatred towards Chinese people that had been brewing since the California Gold Rush. During the California Gold Rush, Chinese people had an affinity for striking gold. Jealousy from white miners pushed them towards cities like San Francisco where they started businesses (Yuning Wu).

Xenophobia and fear of Chinese immigrants became catalyst for The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. This text shows how white Americans thought the Chinese were taking over because thousands of Chinese were

In the spring of 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by Congress and signed by Chester A. Arthur. The official date it became effective was May 6, 1882. The Chinese Exclusion Act was the first major law restricting immigration to the United States. It suspended Chinese immigration for ten years and declared the Chinese as ineligible for naturalization. The Act was originally supposed to last 10 years but was extended for another 10 years by the 1892 Geary Act, which also required that people of Chinese origin carry identification certificates or face deportation.

The United States had a laissez-faire policy, that was enacted from 1780-1875, that allowed immigrants into the United States without restriction. Around this time, most colonists wanted more immigrants in the area so that they could help in developing North America. From shipping companies to churches, private employers, railroads, even federal governments to states, wanted immigrants in the United States. This was happening between the 1700’s and early 1800’s. For about fourty years, between 1783 and 1820, an estimated 250,000 immigrants came to America.

Immigration has been affecting America's population ever since the founding of Jamestown in 1607. From the seventeenth to nineteenth century, hundreds of thousands of African, Asians, and Europeans have immigrated to America. Some of these people volunteered to venture to the new land while others were forced against their will. One of the earliest federal legislation immigration restrictions was the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. This act prohibited the immigration of all Chinese laborers to America. Prior to the establishing of Ellis island, individual states were in charge of regulating and controlling their own states immigration. Ellis island was Americas very first federal immigration station which took responsibility of regulating and

This law was later struck down by the Supreme Court in 1862 because they provided cheap labor and did not use any government facilities such as schools and hospitals. As time passed, more and more Chinese migrants came to California. This continued migration cause violence to often break out in Los Angeles cities. In 1879, California adopted a new constitution, with this constitution giving the state government authorization to determine who lived in which sate allowed the Chinese Exclusion Act to be passed. This act required that Chinese nonlaborers who wanted entry to get certification from their government that they qualified to immigrate. This made it difficult because the exclusion act stated excludeables were “skilled and unskilled laborers and Chinese employed in

To address the issue of white laborers losing their jobs to ethnic minorities, the government attempted to stop the influx of immigrants. Congress’ first attempt at immigration policy was with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which prohibited the immigration of all Chinese laborers to the United States (Jannson, 2014, pg 129). It was the first federal law that excluded the immigration of an entire ethnic group based on the assumption it was endangering the amount of jobs for the superior race (National Archives, 1989).

Evidently, the whites disregarded the Chinese immigrants. Gradually, the Chinese migrants were segregated away from the whites’ society. Moreover, the whites’ effort led to an enforcement of Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, which restricted the Chinese immigration. Additionally, the California government imposed unjust taxation on Chinese migrants. Now, the Chinese nowhere to escape, because the Chinese migrants had their faith trapped within America’s boundaries. Therefore, the segregated Chinese migrants developed a strong community, called Chinatowns, where they set up their own businesses, opened fishing

Throughout the nineteenth century, many of the policies that were passed were formed on the idea of trying to keep the "other" from increasing into the majority. In fact, during the year 1882, the United States government allowed two major immigration laws to be passed, "the Immigration Act of 1882, a series of laws have been passed prohibiting the bringing over immigrants under contract to labor" . Additionally, the "Chinese Exclusion Act required the few non laborers who sought entry to obtain certification from the Chinese government... but this group found it increasingly difficult to prove that they were not laborers because the 1882 act defined excludables as ' skilled and unskilled laborers and Chinese employed in mining '" . Moreover, those policies may provide some