The Impact Of The Chinese Exclusion Act

The United States has had tension with Asian immigrants since the first wave of migration in the 1840’s, and in 1882 the United States declared a Chinese Exclusion which was to keep all Chinese from migrating into the United States. For the Chinese already in the U.S this created worry and tension. With the Chinese people no longer being welcome the freedom for the Chinese inside which was already not much was even more condensed. The little equality that they had was taken away and they were excluded, and looked down upon everywhere they went. They had trouble living and socially because of the prejudice they were facing. An example of the Chinese struggle before the exclusion act would be the Chinese Lynching that took place in 1871. In Los Angeles a mob captured men and in this case a 12 year old boy and hung them all at a Spanish hacienda because of the citizens strong discrimination against

Besides, in congress debates, people talked about racism and discriminatory prejudice against Chinese and African American. One senator said this, “the Caucasian race has a right, considering its superiority of intellectual force and mental vigor, to look down upon every other branch of the human family…we are the superior race today.” The Chinese Exclusion Act began being harsher and harsher. Chinese immigrants who have right to return were also forced to go back to China in 1889 by the Scott Act. Later on, other Asians were also prohibited from entering the United States. This is the first law of prohibition of race-based restrictions. After 1882, Chinese visitors who want admission to America had to take strict screening process so that they could prove that they met the requirements for entering. In 1892, the Geary Act was enacted. The Act has three requirements. One is to extend the ban on Chinese immigrants for ten years. Two is to create a presumption that persons of Chinese descent were residing in the United States unlawfully. Three is a requirement for labor to acquire a certificate confirming their legal status.

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

The Chinese Exclusion Act was not a good idea because the Chinese faced discrimination and were mistreated. In document D, it states how the Chinese men are loyal and hardworking. For those reasons, the Irishmen hate them. This evidence suggests that the Chinese men did no harm to the Irishmen. The Chinese worked more diligently than any other race and still faced discrimination because of resentment from the Irishmen. The Irish and Germans believed the Chinese were taking all the jobs available and cause them to lose money. Furthermore, in document B, it demonstrates how the Irishmen and Germans want to attack a powerless and emotionally drained Chinese man but the symbol of America, Columbia, is attempting to protect him from getting harmed.

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.

In the United States, we are known as a nation with equal rights. However, in our history, public issues arise jeopardizing the difference between the common good and individual rights. The Chinese Exclusion Act was one issue that was very controversial. Many people immigrate to our nation as a new start, a new beginning. In the Western United States, many immigrants were from China. Nativists believed America is for Americans only and no other race. This made many people hostile and discriminate Chinese people. Eventually, the Chinese Exclusion Act was signed by Chester A Arthur barring Chinese people wishing to immigrate to America. This violated their individual rights because they thought it was for the common good, however it violated our constitution. Violating their individual rights, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion act, disabling many chinese people to emigrate back to America which resulted in opposition and hatred, even though America believed it was for the common good. I believe it was unconstitutional as many Chinese people had no power to voice their opinion.

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

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.”

Besides the Page Law, the Chinese exclusion act of 1882 affected the characteristics of Chinese immigrants the most. In 1882, Chinese people were excluded because they became a threat to American society. Under the Chinese exclusion act, the number of Chinese was decreased and the bachelor society was formed. The bachelor society was a reaction to the Chinese exclusion act and a shelter for Chinese people to live in. A great example of bachelor society is Chinatown. Because of the influence of the Chinese exclusion act of 1882, Chinese immigrants concentrated in Chinatown and had special characteristics. In Chinatown, the first characteristic of the Chinese immigrants were mostly men because Chinese women were excluded. Besides, most Chinese immigrants formed split households in Chinatown because the Chinese exclusion act prohibited the Chinese family unification and the interracial marriage between White and Chinese.

In 1849, an inundation of Chinese immigrants came to the United States to take part in the California gold rush. Relations between the Chinese and Americans started off neutral, but soon conflicts arose. White workers saw Chinese as a threat to their status and tried to solve this issue by passing the Chinese Exclusion Act; this severely limited the number of Chinese allowed to immigrate into the country at the time. Although this compromise satisfied the white protests, it only lead to more conflicts with how the Chinese were treated during immigration. These conflicts would not be resolved for another 61 years.

According to the documents, describing the cruel actions of wicked men who intended nothing but hate towards the Chinese and racist comments that targeted specifically the Chinese depicts the idea that the Chinese Exclusion Act should have not been implemented in the United States in the year of 1882. The Chinese were strongly discriminated just like the African American people. To start on with (Document A) about a play divided in four parts called “The Chinese Must Go” by Henry Grimm in 1879, shows of the stereotypes about the Chinese. This document is nothing else but mimicking or impersonating how the Chinese tend to speak English in America. Their English maybe be taken as broken English, another way to describe someone’s struggle to speak

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 belief of nativism became so strong that unions barred the workforce of the Chinese for their threat of low wages, permitting congress to pass the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, completely banning Chinese immigration. Also congress passed both the Emergency Quota Act in 1921 and the Immigration Act in 1924 to limit the amount of immigrants allowed in the US due to the increasingly large numbers of new immigrants. Consequently, denying the American Dream to prosperity lurking

The Chinese Omission Act was approved on May 6, 1882. It was the first consequential law restricting immigration into the Coalesced States. This act provided an absolute ten-year moratorium on Chinese Labor immigration. For the first time, Federal law proscribed ingression of an ethnic working group on the premise that it imperilled the good order of certain localities. The 1882 omission act additionally placed incipient requisites on Chinese who had already entered the Country. If they left the Coalesced States, they had to obtain certifications to re-enter. Congress, moreover, relucted state and Federal Courts the right to grant citizenship to Chinese denizen aliens, albeit these courts could still deport them. It was elongated again in 1902,

Signed by President Chester A. Arthur on 6 May 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was the very first law passed by Congress that targeted a specific ethnic group. It was specifically implemented in order to restrict the immigration of the Chinese into the US as well as interdicting them from becoming a US citizen. “Until the expiration of ten years next after the passage of this act, the coming of Chinese laborers to the United States be, and the same is hereby, suspended; and during such suspension, it shall not be lawful for any Chinese laborer to come or to remain within the United States.” (Act Sec.1)[1] Evidently, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was an event of great misjudgment and blind racism as shown by its racial discrimination, unjust actions, and laws/prerequisites regarding immigration to the US. Already facing racial and financial hardships, this particular ban is clearly inequitable as the Chinese were only immigrating to earn money in order to support their families.