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.
The Chinese Exclusion act banned all Chinese people moving to America. Chinese people emigrated to California in 1848 during the California Gold Rush. Massive amounts of Chinese people moved to the west Coast to make money and return home to the Qing Empire. They were mainly drawn to the west coast as a way to prosper economically. Many were discriminated against and given low wages, and had poor
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.
Throughout history there have been cases of certain groups of people accused of being inferior to others. Most of these accusations are formed from a lack of understanding about people’s traditions, and lifestyles. It becomes increasingly more difficult when foreign cultures try to immigrate to other countries or areas. One case of this was The Chinese Exclusion act, which halted Asian immigration for ten years and prevented the immigrants already here from gaining citizenship. One of the reasons American citizens supported the Chinese Exclusion Act was, they were worried that the Chinese would take all of their jobs and force them to compete with each other. Another reason was, they believed many of the stereotypes that were given to the Chinese immigrants at that time.
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.”
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
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.
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?
There were multiple reasons why the Chinese experienced discrimination, most reasons coming from the fact that the Americans felt threatened by the presence of these foreign people they have never had experience with before. The Chinese stole jobs by working for cheap, they had an extremely different culture than the westerners, and the Americans did not like them; this made them targets of discrimination. As stated in the Chinese Exclusion Act, "...the coming of Chinese laborers to the United States be, and the same hereby,suspened" (DOC 1). This quote shows an example of one of the unfair laws made against the Chinese because they were disliked by the Americans. The Chinese Exclusion Act made them easier to be cruel towards.
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
It is crucial to recognize the huge toll the Chinese Exclusion Act took on Chinese immigrants and Chinese Americans, and the negative influence of racialization it had on immigration policy of other countries. In this paper, I will discuss the consequences of the Chinese Exclusion Act on Chinese culture and society in the United States, regarding to the isolation of Chinese society in U.S., paper identities and lives of illegal Chinese immigrants and how this Act guided the establishment
In the late 1800s, America passed a fierce act due to the rising tension between the Chinese immigrants and whites. Chinese immigrants were troubled with biased laws and stereotyping. The Chinese Exclusion Act was one of these law. It... The immigrants were stereotyped as barbarians, anti-christian, anti-white, or as slaves. They were called heathens, racial slurs, and much worse; and the Chinese were seen as idolaters, the lowest, and the vilest. Some may argue they were taking over jobs because of how they were willing to work for less. But ultimately, the most influential factor in why Americans passed the Chinese Exclusion Act was racial prejudice toward the Chinese.
In the 1800’s, immigrants from different areas of the world began coming more frequently to the United States. With these immigrants, came the Chinese. After some time, an Exclusion Act was passed by the United States to keep the Chinese from immigrating. This happened in 1882 and was even extended in 1892. This act was supported in being passed because the Chinese were taking many jobs from the Americans, and also because the Chinese brought conflicting cultural elements to America.
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).