Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. The Chinese Exclusion Act was approved on May 6, 1882. The Chinese Exclusion Act banned Chinese laborers, both unskilled and skilled. Meanwhile, Chinese-exclusion practices shaped immigration law during that time period. The law was extended for another 10 years by the Geary Act of 1892. Chinese Exclusion Act Approved, May 6, 1882 "An Act to prohibit the coming of Chinese laborers into the United States" for 10 years. Proposed by California congressman Thomas J. Geary, The Geary Act went into effect on May 5, 1892. Many immigrants came to America seeking greater economic opportunity, while some, such as the Pilgrims in the early 1600s, arrived in ...read more, Ellis Island is a historical site that opened in 1892 as an immigration station, a purpose it served for more than 60 years until it closed in 1954. The passage of the act represented the outcome of years of racial hostility and anti-immigrant agitation by white Americans. The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers. Later measures placed a number of other restrictions on the Chinese, such as limiting their access to bail bonds and allowing entry to only those who were teachers, students, diplomats, and tourists. 3 According to the U.S. national census in 1880, there were 105,465 Chinese in the United States, compared with 89,863 by 1900 and 61,639 by 1920. Officially titled "An act to execute certain treaty stipulations relating to Chinese," the Chinese Exclusion Act prohibited the immigration of Chinese laborers for ten years. Chester A. Arthur. The Chinese Exclusion Act: The Chinese Exclusion Act was the culmination of years of increased Chinese emigration to the United States. Americans in the West persisted in their stereotyping of the Chinese as degraded, exotic, dangerous, and competitors for jobs and wages. Believing that courts gave too much advantage to the immigrants, the government succeeded in cutting off Chinese access to the courts and gradually transferred administration of Chinese-exclusion laws completely to the Bureau of Immigration, an agency operating free from court scrutiny. Families were forced apart, and businesses were closed down. In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed. The National Archives at Seattle has 50,000 case files from the Chinese Exclusion Act from Chinese who entered the U.S. through the ports of Seattle, Sumas, Port Townsend, Washington; Portland, Oregon; and Vancouver, B.C. Skilled and unskilled Chinese workers involved in the mining industry were prohibited from entering America for a decade. After the Act was passed, anti-Chinese violence increased. In other words, the exclusion was the result of a grassroots anti-Chinese sentiment. The first major act restricting immigration to the US Why was the The Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) put into place There were economic fears, on the West Coast, native born Americans blamed Chinese workers for their unemployment and declining wages Many Americans on the West Coast attributed declining wages and economic ills to Chinese workers. I. CH. In May 1852, California imposed a Foreign Miners Tax of $3 month meant to target Chinese miners, and crime and violence escalated. The Chinese Exclusion Act was the first U.S. law to restrict the immigration of a specific ethnic group. Chinese communities in the United States underwent dramatic change because of the Chinese Exclusion Act. Other scholars have argued that the exclusion should be blamed on top-down politics rather than a bottom-up movement, explaining that national politicians manipulated white workers to gain an electoral advantage. It was extended in 1892 for another ten years by the Geary Act and then made permanent in 1902. Then in 1882, the United States passed a federal law. In 1902, the law was extended again. The first recorded Chinese immigration into San Francisco was in 1848, but it began in earnest in 1852 when 18,000 arrived in a town with a then population of fewer than 37,000. Because of the severe restrictions on female immigrants and the pattern of young men migrating alone, there emerged a largely bachelor society. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 In May 1882, Congress, responding to pressure from unions, passed the Chinese Exclusion Act. In fact, the phenomenon of illegal immigration became one of the most significant legacies of the Chinese-exclusion era in the United States. The State Department. Omissions? It was the culmination of several decades' worth of agitation on the part of white workers in the United States, as well as violence directed against Chinese workers. The passage of the act represented the outcome of years of racial hostility and anti-immigrant agitation by white Americans, set the precedent for later restrictions against immigration of other nationalities, and started a new era in which the United States changed from a country that welcomed almost all immigrants to a gatekeeping one. More loosely, it alludes to the entire range of democratic reforms that proceeded alongside the Jacksonians’ ...read more. Chinese Immigrants And The Gold Rush. Under the continuing anti-Chinese pressure, Chinatowns were established in urban cities where the Chinese could retreat into their own cultural and social colonies. Laborers are widely defined as "skilled" and "unskilled" at the end of the legislation. It was the first law in the United States that restricted immigrants with a detailed agenda. About this speech. Initially, they laboured in gold mines, where they showed a facility for finding gold. Building on the 1875 Page Act, which banned Chinese women from immigrating to the United States, the Chinese Exclusion Act was the first law implemented to prevent all members of a specific ethnic or national group from immigrating. Chinese communities underwent dramatic changes as well. It was called the Chinese Exclusion Act. In 1882, the U.S. Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, a law that would simultaneously halt Chinese immigration to the United States and bar this group from becoming citizens. Chinese immigrants were placed under a tremendous amount of government scrutiny and were often denied entry into the country on any possible grounds. The Chinese Exclusion Act bans the immigration of laborers for 10 years starting in August 1882, when the legislation goes into effect. Corrections? Signed into law by President Chester A. Arthur in 1882, it was a response to a nativist backlash against Chinese immigration in the American West Coast. Subsequent amendments to the law prevented Chinese labourers who had left the United States from returning. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was passed while President Chester Arthur was in office. All Rights Reserved. Please select which sections you would like to print: While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. As a result, they encountered hostility and were gradually forced to leave the field and move to urban areas such as San Francisco, where they were often confined to performing some of the dirtiest and hardest work. Floods and drought contributed to an exodus of peasants from their farms, and many left the country to find work. “The Chinese Question,” cartoon by Thomas Nast. Chinese Exclusion Act; May 6, 1882 An Act to Execute Certain Treaty Stipulations Relating to Chinese Whereas, in the opinion of the Government of the United States the coming of Chinese laborers to this country endangers the good order of certain localities within the territory thereof: … Various factors contributed to the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1943, such as the calming of the anti-Chinese sentiment of previous decades, the establishment of quota systems for immigrants of other nationalities who had rapidly increased in the United States, and the political consideration that the United States and China were allies in World War II. 2. It also required Chinese residents in the U.S. to carry special documentation—certificates of residence—from the Internal Revenue Service. 58) created a ten-year Moratorium on the immigration of Chinese laborers into the United States. The basic exclusion law prohibited Chinese labourers—defined as “both skilled and unskilled laborers and Chinese employed in mining”—from entering the country. Her contributions to SAGE Publications's. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. PBS.Chinese Immigration And The Chinese Exclusion Acts. Updates? Chinese Exclusion Act; Arthur, Chester A. The Chinese Exclusion Act (formally Immigration Act of 1882) was a U.S. federal law that was the first and only major federal legislation to explicitly suspend immigration for a specific nationality. Non-laborers needed a certificate from the Chinese government regarding their qualifications. Thus, Chinese exclusion was not only an institution that produced and reinforced a system of racial hierarchy in immigration law, but it was also a process that both immigration officials and immigrants shaped and a realm of power dominance, struggle, and resistance. A treaty with Japan in 1894 had assured free immigration, ...read more, The Chinese diaspora, which began in the 1800s, was so vast that virtually every major city in the world—from New York to London, Montreal and Lima—boasts a neighborhood called “Chinatown.” Chinese immigration to the United States dates back to the middle of the 19th century, ...read more, The United States has long been considered a nation of immigrants. Meant to curb the influx of Chinese immigrants to the United States, particularly California, The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 suspended Chinese immigration for ten years and declared Chinese immigrants ineligible for naturalization. Chinese Americans were finally allowed to testify in court after the 1882 trial of laborer Yee Shun, though it would take decades for the immigration ban to be lifted. This treaty with the Chinese Government banned Chinese emigrants from entering America and called for the deportation of any who arrived after 1880. When President Chester A. Arthur signed the Chinese Exclusion Act, it restricted immigration from China into the United States for the next ten years. Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. President Chester A. Arthur signed it into law on May 6, 1882. Chinese Exclusion Act Passed by Congress in May of 1882 and signed into law by President Chester A. Arthur, the Chinese Exclusion Act banned Chinese immigration into the United States for 10 years and barred Chinese that were already in the country from becoming citizens. SESS. They also protested against racial discrimination through other venues, such as the media and petitions. The Act represents the first law ever passed by Congress that denied entry to the United States on the basis of race or ethnicity. Enacted in 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act, formally titled “An Act to execute certain treaty stipulations relating to Chinese,” was one of the first laws limiting immigration into the United States. When gold was discovered in the Sacramento Valley of California in 1848, a large uptick in Chinese immigrants entered the United States to join the California Gold Rush. One such tool was the American judicial system. It signaled the shift from a previously open immigration policy to one where criteria were set regarding who—in terms of ethnicity, gender, and class—could be admitted. By then, the U.S. was embroiled in World War II and seeking to improve morale on the home front. Attitudes toward new immigrants by those who came before have vacillated between welcoming and exclusionary over the years. Associate Professor, Department of Criminal Justice, Wayne State University. Because of the severe restrictions on female immigrants and the pattern of young men migrating alone, a largely bachelor society emerged. United States 1882. The very definition of what it meant to be an American became more exclusionary. Chinese Exclusion Act, formally Immigration Act of 1882, U.S. federal law that was the first and only major federal legislation to explicitly suspend immigration for a specific nationality. 3. The infestation ruined up to one-half of the potato crop that year, and about three-quarters of ...read more, An ambiguous, controversial concept, Jacksonian Democracy in the strictest sense refers simply to the ascendancy of Andrew Jackson and the Democratic party after 1828. Immigration patterns, immigration communities, and racial identities and categories were significantly affected. The law prohibited Chinese laborers—defined as “both skilled and unskilled laborers and Chinese employed in mining”—from entering the United States. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. The Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed in 1943 with the passage of the Magnuson Act, which permitted a quota of 105 Chinese immigrants annually. It was passed after a campaign against Chinese workers, which included violent assaults. The Chinese Exclusion Act A Special Presentation of American Experience Examine the origin, history and impact of the 1882 law that made it illegal … This was a Congressional Act which was signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, which intended to ban the immigration of Chinese laborers to USA for the next ten years. Transcript of Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) An Act to execute certain treaty stipulations relating to Chinese. In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which, per the terms of the Angell Treaty, suspended the immigration of Chinese laborers (skilled or unskilled) for a period of 10 years. Chinese-Americans already in the country challenged the constitutionality of the discriminatory acts, but their efforts failed. Chinese Exclusion Act National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first and only major U.S. law to ban immigration for a specific nationality. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Synopsis. The legislation proved very effective, and the Chinese population in the United States sharply declined. They were aided in their legal battles by Frederick Bee, a California entrepreneur and attorney who was one of the principal American advocates of the civil rights of Chinese immigrants and who represented many of them in court from 1882 to 1892. In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which, per the terms of the Angell Treaty, suspended the immigration of Chinese laborers (skilled or unskilled) for a period of 10 years. April 4, 1882: Veto of the Chinese Exclusion Act. In the spring of 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by Congress and signed by President Chester A. Arthur. 1882. The Opium Wars (1839-42, 1856-60) of the mid-nineteenth century between Great Britain and China left China in debt. This makes the act even more prohibitive than it might otherwise have been. The Chinese Exclusion Act (PDF, 428KB) of 1882 was signed into law on May 6, 1882. Chinese immigrants and their American-born families remained ineligible for citizenship until 1943 with the passage of the Magnuson Act. By 1910 the enforcement of the exclusion laws had become centralized, systematic, and bureaucratic. However, to truly understand this policy, you have to look further back in history. The exclusion laws had dramatic impacts on Chinese immigrants and communities. Congress closed the gate to Chinese immigrants almost entirely by extending the Chinese Exclusion Act for another 10 years in 1902 and making the extension indefinite in 1904. Some Chinese simply evaded the laws altogether by immigrating illegally. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! If an earlier immigrant exited the country, he needed a re-entry certifica… The Chinese Exclusion Act was a very important law and had significant effects on American society and demographics. Sen. John F. Miller of California, a proponent of the Chinese Exclusion Act, argued that the Chinese workers were “machine-like…of obtuse nerve, but little affected by heat or cold, wiry, sinewy, with muscles of iron.” Partly in response to that stereotype, organized labour in the West made restricting the influx of Chinese into the United States one of its goals. Following an 1852 crop failure in China, over 20,000 Chinese immigrants came through San Francisco’s customs house (up from 2,716 the previous year) looking for work. The impact of the exclusion laws went beyond restricting, marginalizing, and, ironically, activating the Chinese. The Chinese were valued as cheap labor in the building of the railroads and in agriculture. The basic exclusion law prohibited Chinese labourers—defined as “both skilled and unskilled laborers and Chinese employed in mining”—from entering the United States. The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by Congress and signed by Pres. The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers. Located at the mouth of Hudson River between New York and New Jersey, Ellis Island saw millions of newly arrived immigrants pass ...read more, President Abraham Lincoln’s signing of the Homestead Act on May 20, 1862 granted Americans 160-acre plots of public land for the price a small filing fee. https://www.history.com/topics/immigration/chinese-exclusion-act-1882. from 1882 to 1943. Despite the disproportionate time and resources spent by U.S. immigration officials to control Chinese immigration, many Chinese migrated across the borders from Canada and Mexico or used fraudulent identities to enter the country. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. 126. It reinforced and extended the Chinese Exclusion Act’s ban on Chinese immigration for an additional ten years. It was the first federal law that excluded immigration of a single group of people based on race. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Chinese-Exclusion-Act, Densho Encyclopedia - Chinese Exclusion Act, Yale Law School - Lillian Goldman Law Library - The Avalon Project - Chinese Exclusion Act; May 6, 1882, Chinese Exclusion Act - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). Proposed by Stephen A. Douglas–Abraham Lincoln’s opponent in the influential Lincoln-Douglas ...read more, The Gentlemen’s Agreement between the United States and Japan in 1907-1908 represented an effort by President Theodore Roosevelt to calm growing tension between the two countries over the immigration of Japanese workers. President Chester A. Arthur signed it into law on May 6, 1882. The excluded Chinese did not passively accept unfair treatment but rather used all types of tools to challenge or circumvent the laws. Criteria were gradually set regarding which people—in terms of their ethnicity, gender, and class—could be admitted. Chinese Exclusion Act. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was a historic act of legislation that demonstrated how the federal government of the United States once openly condoned racial discrimination. The Chinese Exclusion Act significantly decreased the number of Chinese immigrants in the United States: according to the U.S. national census, there were 105,465 in 1880, compared with 89,863 by 1900 and 61,639 by 1920. Chester A. Arthur in 1882. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first significant law restricting immigration into the United States. Families were forced apart, and businesses were closed down. Still others have adopted a “national racism thesis” that focuses on endemic anti-Chinese racism in early American national culture. In 1910 the Angel Island Immigration Station was established in San Francisco Bay. The Supreme Court upheld the Geary Act in Fong Yue Ting v. United States in 1893, and in 1902 Chinese immigration was made permanently illegal. © 2021 A&E Television Networks, LLC. Violence soon broke out between white miners and the new arrivals, much of it racially charged. The Chinese Exclusion Act ended in 1943 when it was repealed with the passage of the Magnuson Act, which permitted an annual quota of 105 Chinese immigrants. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). FORTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS. Thousands of years before Europeans began crossing the vast Atlantic by ship and ...read more, The United States experienced major waves of immigration during the colonial era, the first part of the 19th century and from the 1880s to 1920. Meant to curb the influx of Chinese immigrants to the United States, particularly California, The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 suspended Chinese immigration for ten years and declared Chinese immigrants ineligible for naturalization. American experience with Chinese exclusion spurred later movements for immigration restriction against other "undesirable" groups such as Middle Easterners, Hindu and East Indians, and the Japanese with the passage of the Immigration Act of 1924. A common strategy was that of the so-called “paper son” system, in which young Chinese males attempted to enter the United States with purchased identity papers for fictional sons of U.S. citizens (people of Chinese descent who had falsely established the identities of those “sons”). Chester A. Arthur offering a bill excluding Chinese immigration to the “Western vote,” cover of. This act provided an absolute 10-year moratorium on Chinese labor immigration. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first law passed in the United States that excluded a people of a specific ethnicity from immigrating to the country. Take advantage of our Presidents' Day bonus! The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was signed into law on May 6, 1882. Chinese gold miners working alongside white miners at Auburn Ravine in central California, 1852. April 04, 1882. Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. This year marks the 130th year since the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. An 1854 Supreme Court Case, People v. Hall, ruled that the Chinese, like African Americans and Native Americans, were not allowed to testify in court, making it effectively impossible for Chinese immigrants to seek justice against the mounting violence. “Throwing Down the Ladder by Which They Rose,” cartoon by Thomas Nast, Cartoon depicting U.S. Pres. It was the first significant law restricting immigration into the United States. However, before the act was passed, there were limitations against the Chinese … Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Passed by U.S. Congress in 1882 and signed into law by President chester a. arthur, the Chinese Exclusion Act (22 Stat. Chinese-Americans already in the country challenged the constitutionality of the discriminatory acts, but their efforts failed. Despite having come from a country without a litigious tradition, Chinese immigrants learned quickly to use courts as a venue to fight for their rights and won many cases in which ordinances aimed against the Chinese were declared unconstitutional by either the state or federal courts. By 1870, Chinese miners had paid $5 million to the state of California via the Foreign Miners Tax, yet they faced continuing discrimination at work and in their camps. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That from and after the expira- Immigration of tion of ninety days next after the passage of this act, and until the Chinese laborers expiration of ten years next after the passage of this act, the coming of to States the suspendedUnited Although the Chinese composed only .002 percent of the nation's population, Congress passed the exclusion act to placate worker demands and assuage prevalent concerns about maintaining white "racial purity.". The first major restriction on immigration to the United States. Various factors contributed to the repeal, such as the quieted anti-Chinese sentiment, the establishment of quota systems for immigrants of other nationalities who had rapidly increased in the United States, and the political consideration that the United States and China were allies in World War II. About the Chinese Exclusion Act Chinese Exclusion Act Case Files Related Microfilm Publications - Search Online About the Chinese Exclusion Act The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was a federal law that prohibited the immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years. Source (not specified) President Arthur vetoes the first Chinese Exclusion Act, which would have banned the immigration of Chinese laborers for twenty years and denied American citizenship to current Chinese residents. It excluded laborers and Chinese employed in mining. In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which prohibited immigration from China (The Act was not repealed until 1943). Its summary is as follows: 1. It signaled the shift from a previously open immigration policy in the United States to one in which the federal government exerted control over immigrants. The Chinese already living in the United States could no longer obtain their United States citizenship and if they left for China (or anywhere) they were required to obtain certificates to re-enter. Immigrants who were caught not carrying the certificates were sentenced to hard labor and deportation, and bail was only an option if the accused were vouched for by a “credible white witness.”. "use strict";(function(){var insertion=document.getElementById("citation-access-date");var date=new Date().toLocaleDateString(undefined,{month:"long",day:"numeric",year:"numeric"});insertion.parentElement.replaceChild(document.createTextNode(date),insertion)})(); FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. Immigration patterns, immigration communities, and racial identities and categories were significantly affected. The Kansas-Nebraska Act was an 1854 bill that mandated “popular sovereignty”–allowing settlers of a territory to decide whether slavery would be allowed within a new state’s borders. It also banned miners. Upon arrival there a Chinese immigrant could be detained for weeks to years before being granted or denied entry. A dedicated staff of local volunteers is indexing these files. The two-part cartoon from the July-December 1882 issue of The Wasp reflects how some citizens saw the situation. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. It lasted for 10 years and was extended for another 10 years by the 1892 Geary Act, which also required that people of Chinese origin carry identification certificates or face deportation. The Chinese had constituted a significant minority on the West Coast since the middle of the 19th century. The basic exclusion law prohibited Chinese labourers—defined as “both skilled and unskilled laborers and Chinese employed in mining”—from entering the United States . The act was renewed in 1892 and later made permanent in 1902. Many scholars explain the institution of the Chinese Exclusion Act and similar laws as a product of the widespread anti-Chinese movement in California in the second half of the 19th century. The Chinese Exclusion Act (formally Immigration Act of 1882) was a U.S. federal law that was the first and only major federal legislation to explicitly suspend immigration for a specific nationality. They significantly decreased the number of Chinese immigrants into the United States and forbade those who left to return. The Civil War-era act, considered one of the United States’ most important pieces of legislation, led to Western expansion ...read more, The Irish Potato Famine, also known as the Great Hunger, began in 1845 when a fungus-like organism called Phytophthora infestans (or P. infestans) spread rapidly throughout Ireland. Officially titled "An act to execute certain treaty stipulations relating to Chinese," the Chinese Exclusion Act prohibited the immigration of Chinese laborers for ten years. Under the continuing anti-Chinese pressure, Chinatowns were established in urban cities, where the Chinese could retreat into their own cultural and social colonies.
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