Closing Gate to Chinese The United States is the ideal land for immigrants who seek opportunities and American Dreams regardless of their ethnicity, however, the Chinese ended up with America closing the gate to immigration and exclusion. This book Closing the Gate: Race, Politics, and the Chinese Exclusion Act written by Andrew Gyory answers a query about the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, in particular, why did the US government pass this bill? According to the author Andrew Gyory, modern historians who have examined the issue fail to offer a comprehensive explanation for this case. Gyory also claims that the Chinese Exclusion Act was not developed from nationwide racism, neither nor the behest of national labor leaders despite the fact that these elements formed an …show more content…
Instead, he believes that the reason Chinese Exclusion Act came into existence largely because politicians from the nation quested votes from western states. Moreover, office seekers mistakenly assumed that the anti-Chinese legislation had unexpressed support from workers across the nation. Furthermore, Gyory argued that the laboring classes would intensely benefit from passing this bill. Interestingly, In President Abraham Lincoln’s message to Congress in 1863, he gave his support for open immigration. The very next year, in July 4, 1864, the U.S. government approved an act that encouraged immigration by authorizing the federal government to enforce contracts made on foreign soil and sanctioned imported laborers as well (Gyory 20) Properly speaking, the United States welcomed outside immigrants to join the land of freedom at first, nevertheless, this policy eventually was crushed and restrictions on
Chapter six examines the anti-Chinese sentiment with the emerging class antagonism and turmoil between white capitalists and workers. The unwelcomed arrival of Chinese immigrants brought along their own social organizations such as the huiguan, fongs, and tongs. These types of social organizations secured areas of employment and housing for Chinese immigrants in California. This social structure that was unknown to Anglos led them to also categorize Chinese on the same level as Indians by depicting them as lustful heathens whom were out to taint innocent white women. These images were also perpetuated onto Chinese women, thus, also sexualizing them as all prostitutes.
The author talks about the federal immigration statute that was generally directed at the Chinese immigrants. He specifically mentions the1882 Chinese exclusion law that was meant to address the issues of unemployment in America by restricting the entry of both the unskilled and skilled Chinese laborers. This law turned the Chinese Americans into ’illegal aliens’ and barred them from becoming American citizens (Nokes 117). Those who were already American citizens were stripped off of their citizenship and were termed as national enemies. However, this is just an example of the many challenges that the Asian Americans have face din their quest to immigrate to America.
Annotated Bibliography on the topic of Immigration to the United States The United States experienced significant influxes of migration amid the provincial time, the first piece of the nineteenth century and from the 1880s to 1920. Numerous migrants came to America looking for more prominent monetary open door, while some, for example, the Pilgrims in the mid-1600s, touched base looking for religious flexibility. From the seventeenth to nineteenth hundreds of years, a huge number of African slaves came to America without wanting to. The principal critical government enactment limiting movement was the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. Individual states directed movement preceding the 1892 opening of Ellis Island, the nation 's first government
The Chinese Exclusion Act (CEA) was passed in 1882. The CEA was an act passed to keep all Chinese immigrants out of America. This act continued to detain the Chinese out of America for the next 60 years. But why was it passed is the question? I believe the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed because of the continual rumors going around about the Chinese.
Eventually, the United States repealed the Chinese Exclusion Act by President Roosevelt signing the Magnuson Bill in 1943. [1] Though the repeal of the Act ended white American worker and legislator's discrimination of the Chinese it proves that the U.S. was wrong to implement the exclusion. That is because it did not work. In fact, it had a positive impact on the Chinese communities with unity, support, workmen ship, courage, and pride. They became strong-willed and overcame the obstacles of the exclusion law with the paper system and the formation of China town networks.
“New policies and laws, discoveries that took place afterward were the Scott Act, which would continue to prevent Chinese immigrants back into the United States after leaving over 20,000 immigrants with their Certificates of Return outside of the United States, and because of this act being passed many Chinese immigrants were often left out of the economy. The government, Congress was responsible for this act being passed as a way to underrepresent immigrants into the US and not allow people that weren’t willing to contribute overall, leading to more tension and conflict even after 6 years of the Exclusion Act being passed”. (Immigration History) The government and Congress were responsible for this act being passed as a way too underrepresented immigrants into the US and not allowing people that weren’t willing to contribute overall, and that led to more tension and conflict even after 6 years of the Exclusion Act being passed.
Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 “was the first significant law restricting immigration into the United States.” Signed by President Chester A. Arthur, this act allowed a 10 year suspension on labor immigration from the Chinese. This act required that any non-laborers who wanted entry into the U.S. must have certification from the Chinese government in order to immigrate. They found that proving to be non-laborers was very difficult because this act excluded the Chinese who were skilled/unskilled laborers and those who were employed in mining.
One of this week’s readings focused on Ch. 5, “Caged Birds,” in Professor Lytle Hernandez’s book City of Inmates: Conquest, Rebellion, and the Rise of Human Caging in Los Angeles, 1771-1965, and this chapter was particularly interesting because it further explained the development of immigration control in the United States. As a continuation from the last chapter, there was a huge emphasis in the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the Geary Act of 1892. This essentially prohibited Chinese laborers from immigrating to the United States, as well as eventually requiring these people to comply with regulations. “Caged Birds” encapsulates the events afterwards, as the book heads well into the early-1900’s. The disenfranchisement of immigrants develops towards further exclusivity because “[by] 1917, Congress had banned all Asian immigration to the Unites States and also categorically prohibited all prostitutes, convicts, anarchists, epileptics, ‘lunatics,’ ‘
A door opened for many Europeans to come to America during the challenges immigrants faced after the 1880’s. The strong population of countries immigrated and almost all immigrants came into America through Ellis Island. “In the West, there were protests against Chinese immigrants, and in 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, barring immigration from China for the next 10 years.” (The ban was later extended and ultimately not repealed until 1943.) Immigrants coming to the United States faced many financial, social, and educational problems that made life more difficult than was expected.
Congress had to do something about this immigration problem, so the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 established a moratorium on Chinese immigration for ten years and deported anyone who came after the year 1880. The enforcement of the Chinese Exclusion act of 1882 during the Gilded age had a tremendous effect on the economy in the Bay area, population of immigrants in America, and the social class of America during the 1800s. Before the Chinese Exclusion Act was ratified, most of the Chinese in America were laborers. During the Gilded age, most of the
The Gold Rush, beginning in 1848 and ending in 1855, was a period in American history which opened the doors of opportunity to a new group of immigrants, the Chinese. The discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill, California, in 1848 was the cause of mass Chinese immigration that would last for decades to come. When James Marshall discovered gold in 1848, there were fifty-four recorded Chinese in California, this number quickly rose to 116,000 by 1876. Title (Chinese Immigration During the Gold Rush: The American Encounter) The California Gold Rush allowed for immigrants, such as the Chinese, to encounter the various beliefs and suspicions of the American society.
Thesis: The Chinese Exclusion Act. A document that was first signed in 1882 by President Chester A. Arthur. This was and still is important because it was the first law that restricted immigration into the United States. This document was signed because Congress was concerned about keeping white “racial purity,” even though the Chinese population consisted of only 0.002 (two thousandths) percent of the whole population.
However, in more recent times, Anti-Asian racism has evolved to take shape in an unprecedented way through the myth of the “model minority”. This idea essentially praises Asians for achieving more socioeconomic success than their other minority counterparts. The myth of the “model minority”
These immigrants were immensely different ethnically and culturally. This immigration resulted in nativism – the fear of immigrants – becoming a major issue. Ordinary citizens of the United States looked to both control and restrict immigrants with a number of laws including the Chinese Exclusion Act which was enacted in the year 1882 (Lamoreaux, 2010). Most of the immigrants resided in ethnic urban neighborhoods. Immigrants were also affected since most of them were poor and lived in poorer neighborhoods and slums where conditions were
The Chinese immigrants, however, were not the only ones to receive such hate and discrimination. This eventually spread towards Japanese and many other groups of Asian immigrants. However, instead of banning them altogether, the government just segregated them under the San Francisco Segregation order in the year of 1906. However, the Japanese government got involved and spoke out against this treatment. As a result, this would lead to the compromise of the Gentlemen’s agreement.