Discussion on the Chinese Exclusion Act - Paper Example

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The topic for discussion is the Chinese Exclusion Act. The Act was one of the United States federal law enacted on 6th May 1882 by President Chester A. Arthur, restricting Chinese immigrants who came as laborers. The act took place after 1880 Angell Treaty, which was a series of amendments to the 1868 USChina Burlingame Treaty that gave the US the mandate of suspending Chinese immigration. The act was first planned to take up to 10 years, however, it was renewed in 1892with the Geary Act which gave it a permanent status in 1902. Initially, the Chinese Exclusion Act was implemented to restrict immigrants of a particular ethnic group, from coming into the United States. Later on, it was abolished on 17th December 1943, by the Magnuson Act. The Chinese tried all the ways possible to see that they challenge the Act, but they didnt succeed in any way (Lee, 1998).

In spite of the readiness of entrepreneur to take Chinese laborers, anti-Chinese campaign emerged in reaction to the continuing beliefs that the immigrant workers were potential threats to the white labor and the contamination of the white race. With respect to the scientific racism conjecture, the popularity of the perception of the hierarchy Chinese together with the rest of the non-whites where the position at the bottom as culturally inferior. Such beliefs were backed by the negative stereotypes that were established by the American and European traders and travelers, they were overstated by the mass-media (Soennichsen, 2011).

Who does this Affect?

The Chinese Exclusion Act affected the minority population in the USA who were the Chinese immigrants. The Act was meant to prevent them from immigrating into the USA and instead they were turned back to their country, the act which was viewed to be of racism and ethnicity (Lee, 1998).

It was established that there were some of the prominent issues that pushed the Chinese to come into the US before some restrictions were put against them. All Chinese arrived in America searching in hopes of looking for work as the laborer in order to get money to send to their poor families or to work for something before going back to China a few years after they have acquired wealth. Another reason that made Chinese to come to the US is that America symbolized something far beyond monetary prosperity. It depicted the home of freedom from prejudice views. Although, the most imperative objective for Chinese immigration was economic hardship they experience back in their country due to the expansion of the British supremacy over China subsequent to the defeat of China by the British in the Opium War of 1839-1842 (Soennichsen, 2011).

The Act was having a wide perception to people. First, it illegalized immigrants who came as a laborer, then facilitating access to the entry of diplomats, merchants, teachers, students and travelers, the Act provided a standard for the formation of dissimilatory class and race-based immigration laws in the US. Secondly, the Act was one of the illustrations of the government-mandated racism (Soennichsen, 2011). Lastly, the Act, combination with the 1878 ruling In re Ah Yup effectually deprived of naturalization rights to Chinese immigrant and served as the establishment for racism against Asian immigrants, such as the Japanese as inassimilable "aliens."

Importance of exclusion laws to the history

The effects of exclusion laws extended further beyond marginalizing, restricting and ironically stimulated the Chinese. It signified the change from the old open immigration policy in the US to the one that the federal government applied control over the immigrants. The set criteria were based on the type of people, with regards to their gender, ethnicity and social class; could secure admission. Immigration communities, racial identities as well as the immigration patterns and communities were widely influenced. The specific meaning of being an American turned out to be more exclusionary. In the meantime, the immigration laws were molded by the Chinese-exclusion practices, within that time. Considering that the court favored the immigrants by giving them too much advantage, the government achieved in cutting off the Chinese access to the courts and then slowly moved the administration of the Chinese-exclusion laws fully to the Bureau of Immigration, which is an immigration agency that independent operation from court scrutiny. The implementation of the exclusion laws became systematic, centralized, and bureaucratic (Soennichsen, 2011).

Impact of Chinese Exclusion ActThe exclusion law led to the dramatic impact on the Chinese communities and the immigrants. The Act led to the drastic decrease of the population of the Chinese immigrants living in the US and banned the ones who left from returning. With refrence to the US national census, the number of the Chinese immigrant in1880 was105, 465 immigrants, compared to 1900 with 89,865 immigrants and 1920 with 61,639 immigrants. The Chinese immigrants were subjected to government scrutiny and on most occasions, they were blocked from getting into the country under any given circumstances. In 1910, the US government established the Angel Island Immigration Station, which was situated on San Francisco Bay (Soennichsen, 2011). Whereby the Chinese immigrants who arrived in America, were detained for some weeks to years pending investigation of whether they will be granted entry or denied. Also, the Chinese communities experienced drastic changes. There was forceful separation of families and closed their business down. Due to harsh limitations among the female immigrants together with the series of youthful men immigrating, a large bachelor society emerged. With the continuous anti-Chinese pressure, the Chinatowns were developed within the urban areas, whereby the Chinese were free to get back into their social and cultural colonies (Soennichsen, 2011).

The Chinese Exclusion Act had some impacts on the legal history in the United States. It was trailed by the 1892 Geary Act that prolonged the stipulation of the Exclusion Act for an extra ten years. The ban against the Chinese laborers was made permanent in 1902. Furthermore, the Congress pursued to restrain the capability of the Chinese laborers to go back to the US after traveling overseas. Conditions for returning to U.S was such, as either possessing a property that values not less than $1,000 or having a wife who is from the US. Both requirements revealed the class-based discrimination inbuilt within the Chinese Exclusion Act; some of the Chinese who were relatively wealthy were able to fulfill those requirements to return. Towards the end of 1888, the Scott Act made it difficult for the Chinese travelers go back to the United States (Lee, 1998).

The conjunction of the Exclusion Act together with the efforts of the Chinese immigrants to avert unfair treatment and low pay by the white employees, led to a shortage of cheap labor within the continental United States as well as subsequent capture of the Hawaiian Kingdom, in Hawai'I (Lee, 1998).

Japan was also on targets, particularly by owners of the sugar plantation in Hawaii as the following likely source of labor. However, as the number of the Japanese immigrants arriving in US expanded; the anti-Chinese opinion was shaped as anti-Japanese racism by most of the equal force responsible for early anti-Chinese agitations. Although, because of the increasing global recognition on the Japan prestige together with the recognition of the increasing military power, the US officials were undecided to openly discriminate against the Japanese immigrants. Consequently, the immigration policies targeting the Japanese, for example, the 1924 Johnson-Reed Act and the 1907 Gentlemen's Agreement did not exclusively or specifically single out Japan. Moreover, the officials who were fast at criticizing the Chinese state that they were inassimilable and racially inferior always ended short of ending the Japanese with the same claims, which instead made the Japanese racialized primarily as too much culturally different due to their fully fledged American society members. The racialization attested to have numerous consequences in the World War II (Lee, 1998).

Is this still an Issue today?

In 1943, the measures for repealing the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed which was the discriminatory execution of laws against the immigrants from china and instead they developed an immigration ratio for the Chinese immigrants for approximately 105 visas per year. This move marked the end racism against the Chinese immigrants, and even to the present days, the Chinese are allowed to move freely in and out of US provided that they fulfill the immigration policies. Chinese immigrants are now able to get into US work there, live and also invest regardless of their social status or ethnicity (Soennichsen, 2011).

References

Lee, E. (1998). At America's gates: Chinese immigration during the exclusion era, 1882-1943 (Vol. 1). University of California, Berkeley.

Soennichsen, J. (2011). The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. ABC-CLIO.