Chinese Immigration
In 1784, the United States began relations with China when the American trading ship Empress of China arrived in Canton, China from New York, thus welcoming the opening of China Trade. Significant Chinese immigration began with the California gold rush in 1849, and continued throughout the nineteenth century as thousands of Chinese emigrated to the United States due to economic dislocation in China, when millions of peasants were forced off the land in search of food and work as the population had reached 300 million.
While the majority of immigrants came to settle in the United States permanently, many worked for a time and returned home with whatever savings they had set aside from their work. The majority of Chinese immigrants were single men who worked for a while and returned home. At first Americans looked up them with curiosity and favor, and accepted their arrival. Yet soon thereafter this favor turned to violence, as riots against the Chinese broke out towards the late nineteenth century.
The Chinese did not only mine for gold, but took on jobs such as cooks, peddlers, and storekeepers. In the first decade after the discovery of gold, many had taken jobs nobody else wanted or that were considered too dirty. However, in 1870, hasty exploitation of gold mines and a lack of well-paying jobs for non-Asians spurred sentiment that the "rice-eaters" were to blame. By 1880, a fifth were engaged mining, another fifth in agriculture, a seventh in manufacturing, an added seventh were domestic servants, and a tenth were laundry workers. Approximately 30,000 Chinese worked outside of California in such trades as mining, common labor, and service trades.
As time passed, the resentment against the Chinese increased from those who could not compete with them. Acts of violence against the Chinese continued for decades, mostly from white urban and agricultural workers. In 1862 alone, eighty-eight Chinese were reported murdered. Though large landowners that hired Chinese, railroads and other large white-owned businesses, and Chinese workers themselves pushed against a growing anti-Chinese legislation, the forces opposing the Chinese prevailed, issuing laws that excluded or harassed them from industry after industry. Mob violence steadily increased against the Chinese until even employers were at risk. Eventually, laws such the Naturalization Act of 1870 and the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 restricted immigration of Chinese immigrants into the U.
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
They could be beaten up, robbed, forced out of town, or put out of business. In fact, even anti-Chinese legislation is common. Laws targeting Chinese immigration and culture are simply too many to count. The violent and discriminatory treatment of Chinese immigrants in 19th century America makes manifest a lack of social progress in an era often celebrated for expansion and physical growth. The first Chinese immigrants to arrive in America came in the early 1800s.
Many came for gold and job opportunities, believing that their stay would be temporary but it became permanent. The Chinese were originally welcomed to California being thought of as exclaimed by Leland Stanford, president of Central Pacific Railroad, “quiet, peaceable, industrious, economical-ready and apt to learn all the different kinds of work” (Takaki 181). It did not take long for nativism and white resentment to settle in though. The Chinese, who started as miners, were taxed heavily; and as profits declined, went to work the railroad under dangerous conditions; and then when that was done, work as farm laborers at low wages, open as laundry as it took little capital and little English, to self-employment. Something to note is that the “Chinese laundryman” was an American phenomenon as laundry work was a women’s occupation in China and one of few occupations open to the Chinese (Takaki 185). Chinese immigrants were barred from naturalized citizenship, put under a status of racial inferiority like blacks and Indians as with “Like blacks, Chinese men were viewed as threats to white racial purity” (188). Then in 1882, due to economic contraction and racism Chinese were banned from entering the U.S. through the Chinese Exclusion Act. The Chinese were targets of racial attacks, even with the enactment of the 1870 Civil Rights Act meaning equal protection under federal law thanks to Chinese merchants lobbying Congress. Chinese tradition and culture as well as U.S. condition and laws limited the migration of women. Due to all of this, Chinese found strength in ethnic solidarity as through the Chinese Six Companies, which is considered a racial project. Thanks to the earthquake of 1906 in San Francisco, the Chinese fought the discriminatory laws by claiming citizenship by birth since the fires
Farmers lost basically everything and looked elsewhere for employment. In 1860 the earned pay for a Chinese laborer in China was around $3-$5 a month. However, if a Chinese worked on the railroad system in the U.S. the potential earning could range anywhere from $25-$30 a month. With the conditions imposed in their homeland $25 to $30 a month was like gold. Therefore, Chinese immigrants (mostly men) took refuge in the United States in hopes of working in the west temporarily. Some worked in mining and other areas while the majority were attracted to the railroad system.
Gold Rush 1849 was the reason for such a frenzy. It caused people to migrate to California from near and far too dig for gold from the river. According to the film, The Chinese Exclusion Act Explained: US History Review, “This attracted Chinese entrepreneurs to try to make it rich”. The Chinese was one of the cultures that was one of the cultures that left their home to find a better life for their families. However, after being greeted in the United States, they were discriminated against them since they were feared by the Europeans. Racism towards the Chinese immigrant caused a lot of hardship on them in the Western civilization, enabling them to enter or exit without returning to the States.
At the very beginning, “The Chinese were welcome in California in the mid 1800’s because there was a lot of work and not enough workers, but Chinese people had to live separately from Americans. When the economic conditions got worse, discrimination against the Chinese increased” (The History of Chinese Immigration to the United States). Yes the Chinese were welcomed at first, but the Nativists only used them for a little and wanted the Chinese gone. Once they saw things getting worse within the country and started calling them exorcist and demonic because they worked really hard and put up The Chinese Exclusion act so they could stop them from going into the
American objections to Chinese immigration took many forms, and generally stemmed from economic and cultural tensions, as well as ethnic discrimination. Most Chinese laborers who came to the United States did so in order to send money back to China to support their families there. At the same time, they also had to repay loans to the Chinese merchants who paid their passage to America. These financial pressures left them little choice but to work for whatever wages they could.
One of the most serious incidents of racial violence that has ever occurred in Los Angeles happened in October of 1871. Nineteen Chinese men and boys were murdered in a racial violence by a mob of five hundred locals. This riot was triggered when a fight broke out between two Chinese men over a Chinese girl. A Caucasian man was accidental slayed while caught in the crossfire. This was fueled by the growing movement of anti-Chinese discrimination in California, which would climax in the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. This would be known as the infamous Chinese Massacre.
As gold discoveries slowed down and the Civil War gradually came to an end, the First Transcontinental Railroad was finally completed between Omaha and Sacramento. Over time, unemployment began rising across the country, especially in California, where a vast majority of Chinese immigrants resided in. The welcoming of Chinese immigrants slowly began to wear off as the white working class perceived a threat to their livelihood that these immigrants could potentially cause, leading to an increase in racial tensions. These growing tensions culminated in the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 and eventually closed U.S. borders to all Chinese laborers, with the exception of ethnic Chinese individuals. This paper highlights the significant impact of large-scale Chinese immigration to California during the Gold Rush, the lasting contributions made by the Chinese towards Western ...
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. Soon after the first wave, many more Chinese immigrants began to arrive 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 wanted to go home at some point, and therefore there was no push for naturalization...
The Chinese immigrant experience has traveled through times of hardships, under the English man. They have struggled to keep themselves alive through racism, work, and acceptance. Although many have come to Canada for their lives’ and their children’s to be successful, and safe. It could not be just given until adversity gave them the life they hoped to one day life for. In the starting time of 1858, the Chinese community had started coming to different parts of Canada considering the push and pull factors that had led them here. Because of the lack of workers in the British Columbia region, the Chinese were able to receive jobs in gold mining. Most Chinese were told to build roads, clear areas, and construct highways, but were paid little because of racism. The Chinese today are considered one of the most successful races in Canada because of the push and pull factors that they had come across, the racism that declined them and the community of the Chinese at the present time.
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,
In chapter thirty five, author Shelley Sang-Hee Lee explains that “Immigration is an important part of our understanding of U.S. social experience” (Hee 128). Asian immigrants bring their diverse culture, language and custom from various Asian countries. They help improve American economic development. Also, they play an important role in American society. The first Asian immigration flow is the Chinese Immigration in the mid-19th century to work in the gold mines and railroads. The Asian immigrant population grew rapidly between 1890 and 1910 (Hee 130). The increasing of population of Asian immigrants have brought a lot of problems. Many of them were facing the issue of ethnicity, discrimination, and the process of assimilation. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 which banned the immigration of Chinese laborers and proscribed foreign-born Chinese from naturalized citizenship and the Asian Exclusion Act League in 1907 which limited the entry of Asian immigrants have reshaped the demographic of Asian immigrants in the U.S (Hing 45). With the rise of anti-Asian movements, many Asian immigrants were rejected from entering America or deported to their homeland. In the early history of immigration in America, the issue of deportation is an important part of the Asian American experience in the
Most of the immigrants coming on the steamboats came from southern and eastern Europe. The start of World War I in 1914 caused 15 million immigrants to come to the United States, they were coming from new places; 80% of them from Italy, Greece, Russia, the Empire of Austria-Hungary, Romania, and Turkey. The other immigrants came from Japan, China, Korea, Mexico and other parts of Latin America. A lot of these immigrants came for many reasons, the economy was very low, there was no jobs and no way to support their family, there were government-directed attacks against Jewish citizens, property, and villages. In China the federal legislation suspended Chinese immigration, limited the civil rights of the Chinese residents and forbade their naturalization, their own home wasn’t treating them well. However it started to become so much that the National Origins Act in restricted the amount of immigrants who attempt or try to enter the United States and also assigned slots according to quotas based on national origins. This stated that all potential immigrants from Asia are unworthy to enter the Unites States of
...xperienced harsh discrimination and even legal exclusion from our country. They were blamed for the lack of job opportunities and low pay of jobs and received extremely unfair treatment that labeled them as an inferior race. However, the inter-ethnic tension blinded us from seeing how the immigrants were contributing to our country in positive ways. They not only created economic and social gains for us, but also opened our minds to a whole new way of life and prepared us for the multicultural years to come. With all of the help and modernization that they contributed to our country, the racism and discrimination that the Chinese immigrants received day-in and day-out was not rightly justified or deserved.