Why did the US not want Chinese immigrants?
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The Chinese Exclusion Act was approved on May 6, 1882. It was the first significant law restricting immigration into the United States. Show In the spring of 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by Congress and signed by President Chester A. Arthur. This act provided an absolute 10-year ban on Chinese laborers immigrating to the United States. For the first time, federal law proscribed entry of an ethnic working group on the premise that it endangered the good order of certain localities. The Chinese Exclusion Act required the few non-laborers who sought entry to the United States (such as diplomatic officers) to obtain certification from the Chinese government that they were qualified to immigrate. But this group found it increasingly difficult to prove their status because the 1882 act defined laborers as "skilled and unskilled...and Chinese employed in mining." Thus very few Chinese could enter the country under the 1882 law. The 1882 exclusion act also placed new requirements on Chinese who had already entered the country. If they left the United States, they had to obtain certifications to re-enter. Congress, moreover, refused state and federal courts the right to grant citizenship to Chinese resident aliens, although these courts could still deport them. When the exclusion act expired in 1892, Congress extended it for 10 years in the form of the Geary Act. This extension, made permanent in 1902, added restrictions by requiring each Chinese resident to register and obtain a certificate of residence. Without a certificate, they faced deportation. The Geary Act regulated Chinese immigration into the 20th century. With increased immigration following World War I, Congress adopted new means for regulation: quotas and requirements pertaining to national origin. Congress shifted its attention to limiting immigration from a wider variety of countries, including many in Southern and Eastern Europe and all of Asia. The Immigration Act of 1924 (also known as the Johnson-Reed Act and the National Origins Act) established the 1890 census as the basis for determining how many immigrants would be admitted — the limit for each nationality was 3 percent of that nationality already living in the United States and recorded by the census takers. In 1943, when China was a member of the Allied Nations during World War II, Congress repealed all the exclusion acts. However, quotas remained, leaving a yearly limit of 105 Chinese immigrants. Foreign-born Chinese also won the right to seek naturalization. The so-called national origin system, with various modifications, lasted until Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1965. Effective July 1, 1968, a limit of 170,000 immigrants from outside the Western Hemisphere could enter the United States, with a maximum of 20,000 from any one country. Skill and the need for political asylum determined admission. The Immigration Act of 1990 provided the most comprehensive change in legal immigration since 1965. The act established a "flexible" worldwide cap on family-based, employment-based, and diversity immigrant visas. The act further provides that visas for any single foreign state in these categories may not exceed seven percent of the total available. In 2011-2012, Congress condemned the Chinese Exclusion Act and affirmed a commitment to preserve civil rights and constitutional protections for all people: the Senate unanimously passed Senate Resolution 201 in 2011; and the House of Representatives unanimously passed House Resolution 683 in 2012. 
Chinese immigrants had come to San Francisco as early as 1838, but large numbers of Chinese only began to come in 1850 for the same reason many Americans were flocking to California - the 1849 Gold Rush. The Chinese immigrants were mainly peasant farmers who left home because of economic and political troubles in China. Most intended to work hard, make a lot of money, and then return to their families and villages as wealthy men. In this goal, the Chinese did not differ from many immigrants who came to the United States in the 19th century. Living together in communities and neighborhoods, they, like all immigrants, maintained their culture. However, while many Americans looked down on all immigrants, the Chinese were considered racially as well as culturally inferior. Most Americans believed that the Chinese were too different to ever assimilate successfully into American culture. This view was expressed and reinforced by the stereotypic images of Chinese immigrants recorded in the media of the time. The image of the Chinese that appeared in the media focused on aspects of Chinese culture that appeared sinister and exotic to Americans. The Chinese were criticized for following a different religion, using opium, playing different gambling games (fan tan), speaking a different language, wearing different clothes and styles, eating different foods, celebrating different holidays, and for living in a bachelor society rather than as family men with wives and children. One example of a cultural difference unacceptable to Americans was the queue (long hair worn in one braid down the back) worn by Chinese men. This style had been dictated by the Manchu conquerors when they captured China in 1644 and established the Qing dynasty, making themselves rulers of China. The queue was considered a symbol of Chinese submission to this non-native dynasty. For a Chinese man to cut his hair was a capital crime punishable by beheading. Because most Chinese immigrants expected to return home to China, it was necessary to maintain this hair style. Americans, on the other hand, considered the hair style unhygienic, unmanly, and uncivilized. 19th Century Views To understand the treatment of the Chinese in the 19th century, one has to consider how white Americans viewed racial and cultural difference at the time. During the
19th century, European Americans looked more towards the social and natural sciences, rather than interpretations of the Christian bible, to find explanation and justification for their notions of racial superiority and inferiority. With scientific-sounding terminology and evidence, the theory of Social Darwinism applied Darwin’s biological theory to social phenomena. By the end of the century, the theory of Social Darwinism was widely accepted, especially among the middle and upper classes who
attended lectures on the subject at libraries and museums, read books purporting the theory in book clubs, and saw posters and exhibits like those reproduced in this lesson. The theory held strong appeal for European Americans as it offered a scientific explanation for the successes and failures of various groups of people as well as individuals. Another old notion, that of noblesse oblige, also came into play as European Americans sought to bring other “less fortunate” races some of the
advantages of European civilization without “polluting” their own gene pool. The expression of these ideas is evident in the materials in this lesson. Students can see how these ideas developed through the 19th century and how they were applied specifically to the Chinese. Yellow Peril Novels By the 1880s Chinese immigrants were being viewed not only as an inferior and undesirable population, but also as an actual threat to American culture, American government, and even the Caucasian race. Peoples of European background could not understand how the Chinese could live in such crowded, poor conditions and work so hard for such low wages. They concluded that the Chinese possessed some super-human power, perhaps a result of their mysterious religion, their strange and isolated culture, or induced by smoking opium which allowed them to accept their situation and continue to work hard. Novelists wrote stories in which Chinese characters were outwardly quiet and submissive but were inwardly sinister and cunning. Some of these Yellow Peril novels predicted that Chinese immigrants were part of a secret plan to invade and take over the government of the United States replacing American culture with that of the Chinese. These novels played on the worst racist fears of 19th century Americans who feared the tainting of American WASP blood and heritage by people of other cultures and races. Similar concerns were expressed with respect to African Americans, Native Americans, and any group of immigrants whose culture or physical appearance was deemed significantly different from that of WASP Americans. Anglo-Americans acted to keep these groups separate from mainstream society and used a variety of ways to do so—reservations, segregation, restricted and exclusionary immigration policies, and schemes to deport people or send them back to their place of ancestral origin. Some Americans noted the hypocrisy of the nation’s treatment of immigrant groups, Native Americans, and African Americans. The Bret Harte piece highlights the different reaction to bad behavior depending on the race of the offender. However, the majority of Americans during the 19th and well into the 20th century viewed race and society through the lens of Social Darwinism. It was the widespread belief in these ideas that helped in developing a national consensus and effort to exclude Chinese people from the American population. Why did the US ban Chinese immigration?Many Americans on the West Coast attributed declining wages and economic ills to Chinese workers. Although the Chinese composed only 0.002 percent of the nation's population, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act to placate worker demands and assuage concerns about maintaining white "racial purity."
When were Chinese immigrants banned from the US?The Chinese Exclusion Act was approved on May 6, 1882. It was the first significant law restricting immigration into the United States. In the spring of 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by Congress and signed by President Chester A. Arthur.
How were Chinese immigrants treated during the Gold Rush?Chinese immigrants soon found that many Americans did not welcome them. In 1852, California placed a high monthly tax on all foreign miners. Chinese miners had no choice but to pay this tax if they wanted to mine for gold in California. Chinese workers were also the targets of violent attacks in the mining camps.
What difficulties did Chinese immigrants face in the 1800s?Even as they struggled to find work, Chinese immigrants were also fighting for their lives. During their first few decades in the United States, they endured an epidemic of violent racist attacks, a campaign of persecution and murder that today seems shocking.
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