“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door. "
The Quote on the Statue of Liberty, engraved 1903
The United States of America was founded on the idea that anyone could leave their destitution and ‘make it’ in America. This idea came to be called the American Dream; a phrase that was written into being around 1850. Not thirty years later, however, an entire immigrant group would be barred from entering the country, and that bar would last for sixty-one years. The Chinese Exclusion Act was put into law by President Chester Arthur in 1882 and repealed in 1943. During that period, all Chinese laborers were barred from immigrating to the United States. The Chinese Exclusion Act stagnated the growth of Chinese Culture in the United States and led to the racial stigma that fueled racism against Japan in the Second World War.
The Chinese Exclusion Act was enacted to curb the influx of Chinese immigrants seeking work in the failing post-Civil War economies. The Chinese settlers created enclaves in many West-Coast cities; the most famous of these being the “China-Town” in San Francisco. Anti-Chinese sentiment grew from the Nativist policies of Denis Kearney, his Workingman’s Party, and California statesman John Bigler. White power organizations fought against Chinese immigrants as well, specifically the Supreme Order of Caucasians in April 1876 and the Asiatic Exclusion League in May 1905. They stated that Chinese laborers had driven wages down to an unacceptable level,[1] Resultantly, they fought against the rights of Chinese Immigrants, many of whom had been natur...
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... Chinese Exclusion Act, 1882. Accessed August/September, 2013. https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/chinex.htm.
Dundes Renteln, Alison. "A Psychohistorical Analysis of the Japanese American Internment." Human Rights Quarterly 17, no. 4 (1995): 618-48. doi:10.1353/hrq.1995.0039.
Gyory, Andrew. Closing the Gate: Race, Politics, and the Chinese Exclusion Act. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998.
Railton, Ben. The Chinese Exclusion Act: What It Can Teach Us about America. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
US, Congress. "Chinese Exclusion Act, 1882." Chinese Exclusion Act, 1882. 1882. Accessed August 22, 2013. https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/chinex.htm.
USCIS. "WW2 Japanese Relocation Camp Internee Records." WW2 Japanese Relocation Camp Internee Records. Accessed August 22, 2013. http://www.japaneserelocation.org/.
One particular ethnic group that suffered severe discrimination was the Chinese people. They first came to America for several reasons. One of them was the gold rush in California in 1849, in which they were included in a group of immigrants called the “Forty-Niners” (179). From gold mining, they switched to other jobs with resulted in the rise of anti-Chinese sentiments. People felt that Chinese people were taking the jobs away from them, because Chinese people worked for much smaller salaries that businesses preferred. This mindset gave way to the creation of The Chinese Exclusion Act passed in 1882, which prohibits more Chinese immigrants from coming to America. In addition, the act states “no State or court of the United States shall admit Chinese to citizenship”. Like the Naturalization Act, the Chinese Exclusion Act was created to hinder Chinese people from becoming citizens so that America could remain homogenously white (186). It also aimed to stop Chinese people from establishing a bigger community in the country in hopes of eliminating the threat of competition to their white counterparts (186). Like African-Americans, Chinese people were considered racially inferior and have struggled to prove that they were worthy to be called true Americans, rather than
"Transcript of Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)." Our Documents. The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2014. .
The Naturalization Act of 1790, which restricted naturalized citizenship to only "free white persons," marks the beginning of racial eligibility for citizenship in the United States (Koshy, 1998, p. 290). Subsequent exclusionary policies, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the Immigration Act of 1917, the National Origins Quota Law of 1924, further emphasized whiteness as one of the most defining prerequisite for naturalization. In the early 20th century, the meaning of the racial category "white" became the subject of multiple legal disputes involving Asian Indians. Disagreement over the inclusion of Asian Indians in the "white" category originated due to the fact that "their complexion was dark, but they were ethnologically Caucasian" (Shah, 1999, p. 249). One of the most infamous cases, United States vs. Bhagat Singh Thind, was presented in an article from the March 10, 1923 issue of The Literary Digest, describing the outcome of the case and its implications on the Indian community, primarily in California. Through a textual analysis of the article, this paper discusses the formation of the legal definition of whiteness, the ways of justification of social inequality, and the construction of Asian Indians as a racially unassimilable group in U.S. immigration history.
The Asian Exclusion Act of 1924 eventually superseded the Gentlemen’s Agreement and was quite possibly the most exclusionary immigration policy the the US had ever enacted. The Immigration Act of 1924, otherwise known as the Oriental Exclusion Act, was signed on July 1, 1924, banning all Asian immigrants into United States and effectively ending the first wave of Korean immigration until the end of World War II (Son I). The 1924 Immigration Act stemmed from nativists who petitioned for implementing “immigration restriction” as means of bottlenecking the influx of “undesirable foreigners” (Lee 134). The objective of this Act was to significantly decrease the inflow of “eastern and southern European immigrants” and outright banned Asian immigration
Marsh, James H. "Japanese Internment: Banished and Beyond Tears." The Canadian Encyclopedia. N.p., 23 Feb. 2012. Web. 7 Jan. 2014. .
This movement proposed that individuals of East Asian descent are a danger to the Western world socially, economically, and culturally. Violence against Asians escalated to the extent that race riots often broke out, leading to the deaths of many Chinese as well as Japanese (Lee 135). The introduction of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 cemented the pre-existing xenophobic mindset when it became the first legal U.S. document to prevent immigration of a certain ethnicity. As a result, Chinese were banned from immigration and legal residents were denied their citizenship. Though surrounded by anti-Asians, Asian Americans found allies who initiated a countermovement. Lawyers and Christian organizations stood in solidarity with the marginalized group by serving as attorneys as well as advocating for Asian American equality. Such allies included lawyers Thomas Riordan, George McGowan, and Alfred Worley who aided Chinese immigrants in court (Lee 161). These allies proved the most helpful since Asian Americans were vulnerable; some could not understand English enough to defend themselves in court while others did not understand the complicated legislative language. White Christian leaders were also important allies because their prestige brought “moral loftiness to their work” (Lee 163). These leaders were often influential in their church and by aiding Asians, they also encouraged their
Regarded as unassimilable, Asian immigrants were systematically discriminated by way of American immigration policies. The earliest policy enforced that overtly excluded groups of individuals based on racial categorization was passed in 1882. This was known as the Chinese Exclusion Act. As the years went by, hostile sentiments towards Asians fostered and eventually manifested themselves in the Immigration Act of 1924. In response to these discriminating policies, prospective immigrants sought alternate routes to America, often involving the channel of human smuggling. Despite the presence of human smuggling prior to the late 20th century, heightened awareness of this exploit resulted from the media sensation around the Golden Venture ship,
Kwong, Peter. 1999 “Forbidden Workers: Illegal Chinese Immigrants and American Labor” Publisher: The New Press.
The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882. It was one of the most effective immigration law passed by congress. The Chinese Exclusion Act also required Chinese “non-laborers” in China who desired to enter the U.S. to have permission from the Chinese government that
White people believed that the labor force should be composed primarily of Whites. As the fight for labor intensified in the West, the government decided that it was time to take action not only as a result of what was going on in the West but also because the Chinese were fraudulently entering the United States. Unfortunately for the Chinese, the action that was taken by the government favored the White population. The government passed two acts that would limit the actions taken by the Chinese. President Arthur passed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. This act was the first of its kind in American history where congress decided to fully section off a certain race on the grounds of the Chinese endangering the well being and order of other localities. When passed, the act was dated to stand for ten years. When the ten years were up, Congress passed another act to follow up on the Chinese Exclusion Act, known as the Geary Act. Not only was the Geary Act a follow up but it also added other restrictions upon the Chinese minority. For the Chinese people already residing within the borders of the United States, this was terrible news. Not only were they being shunned from the rest of society, but this also became a deciding and influential factor for Chinese immigrants to be committed of crimes much similar to the unjust accusations Song Lee
The Chinese immigrated to the United States and the government had to maintain the order of immigration processes. To maintain order and address the issues of the Americans who were angered by the influx of the Chinese, the US government passed the Chinese Exclusion Act. The Chinese Exclusion Act was signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882. It restricted immigration by only allowing Chinese merchants, teachers, students, tourists, and government officials to enter the United States. In addition, the law prevented the chinese from becoming a us citizen and placed rules on who they can marry. The law did not send immigrants back to China, but simply regulated who can enter the US. The Chinese Exclusion Act of
In the spring of 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by Congress and signed by President Chester A. Arthur.
The earliest form of racial discrimination against Asian Americans was encountered during the California Gold Rush. The Gold Rush attracted Chinese immigrants who came to California to fill the high demand for laborers. However, as more and more Chinese immigrated to California and the lower-paying labor jobs were filled, the Chinese began filling higher-paying positions typically held by Whites. As a result, an anti-Chinese Movement was formed followed by the enactment of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 which prevented any additional Chinese immigration into the United States. Essentially, Chinese were discriminated against by the Whites due to fear of the Chinese taking over their jobs. After World War II, the federal government ended the 1882 ban on Chinese immigration and gave citizenship to Chinese Americans born abroad (Charles and Guryan 507).
The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed on May 6, 1882, and excluded the immigration of all Chinese laborers for 10 years and denied United States citizenship to all Chinese non-citizens residing in the prior to the passage of the act (Powell).