Read complete books and articles on: Chinese Exclusion Acts

Chinese Exclusion - policy of prohibiting immigration of Chinese laborers to the United States; initiated in 1882. From the time of the U.S. acquisition of California (1848) there had been a large influx of Chinese laborers to the Pacific coast. They were encouraged to emigrate because of the need for cheap labor, and were employed largely in the building of transcontinental railroads. By 1867 there were some 50,000 Chinese in California, most of them manual laborers. Their numbers continued to increase after the conclusion in 1868 of the Burlingame Treaty with China, which guaranteed the right of Chinese immigration; it did not, however, grant the right of naturalization. In the following decades a great deal of anti-Chinese sentiment arose in California, partly because the growing American labor force had to compete with cheap Chinese labor and partly because many Americans were opposed to further immigration by what they considered to be an inferior people. In 1877 anti-Chinese riots occurred in San Francisco. Efforts were made to ban Chinese immigration, and in 1879 Congress passed a bill to that effect. It was vetoed, however, by President Hayes on the grounds that it violated the Burlingame Treaty. In 1880 a new treaty with China was concluded; it allowed the United States to regulate, limit, or suspend the entry of Chinese labor, but not to prohibit it. In 1882, however, the Chinese Exclusion Act banned immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years. Some of the later acts (1888 and 1892) were flat violations of the 1880 treaty. A new treaty was signed in 1894 by which China agreed to exclusion of Chinese laborers for 10 years. When that period expired, Congress continued the exclusion unilaterally until the immigration law of 1924 excluded, in effect, all Asians. In 1943 the acts were repealed when a law was signed setting an annual immigration quota of 105 (since changed) and extending citizenship privileges to Chinese.

See R. D. McKenzie, Oriental Exclusion (1928); S. C. Miller, The Unwelcome Immigrant (1969); B. L. Sung, The Story of the Chinese in America (1971).

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11 of the Best Books and Articles on: Chinese Exclusion Acts

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

Closing the Gate: Race, Politics, and the Chinese Exclusion Act » Read Now
by Andrew Gyory. 354 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 barred nearly all Chinese from US shores for ten years. Gyory traces the origins of the Act, contending that rather than confronting divisive problems, politicians sought a safe solution to the nation's crisis.
2.

Entry Denied: Exclusion and the Chinese Community in America, 1882-1943 » Read Now
by Sucheng Chan. 286 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...Treaty, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, and the acts 1884 amendment...successive Chinese exclusion acts in the light...objectives of the exclusion act so long...their...
3.

Claiming America: Constructing Chinese American Identities during the Exclusion Era » Read Now
by K. Scott Wong, Sucheng Chan. 217 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...during the sixty-one years of Chinese exclusion from 1882 to 1943. As indicated...to the passage of the first Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. However, the...in their...
4.

The Sino-American Alliance during World War II and the Lifting of the Chinese Exclusion Acts, in American Studies International » Read Now
by Xiaohua Ma. 23 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

...II and the Lifting of the Chinese Exclusion Acts. by Xiaohua Ma...continuing existence of the Chinese Exclusion Acts was one example of this unaltered...psychological...
5.

Laws Harsh as Tigers: Chinese Immigrants and the Shaping of Modern Immigration Law » Read Now
by Lucy E. Salyer. 338 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

...them entry under the Chinese exclusion acts. Christian Fritz...that not only had Chinese deluged the court...first decade of the exclusion acts existence , but...campaign...
6.

Asian Americans and Congress: A Documentary History (Chap. 3 "The Chinese Exclusion Laws: Congress and the Politics of Unbridled Passion") » Read Now
by Hyung-Chan Kim. 598 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

With California's passage of the Save Our State Initiative in 1994, fear of aliens has once again appeared in U.S. legislative history. Since 1790, congressional legislation on federal immigration and naturalization policy has been harsh on Asian immigrants, although less so since 1965. This...
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With California's passage of the Save Our State Initiative in 1994, fear of aliens has once again appeared in U.S. legislative history. Since 1790, congressional legislation on federal immigration and naturalization policy has been harsh on Asian immigrants, although less so since 1965. This documentary history covers all major immigration laws passed by Congress since 1790. The volume opens with an overview of the basis on which Congress has restricted Asian immigration. It then includes discussions of particular immigration legislation, showing the significance to Asian Americans and the documents themselves.
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7.

The Columbia Guide to Asian American History (Chap. 4 "The Anti-Chinese Movement") » Read Now
by Gary Y. Okihiro. 323 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

Offering a rich and insightful road map of Asian American history as it has evolved over more than 200 years, this book marks the first systematic attempt to take stock of this field of study. It examines, comments, and questions the changing assumptions and contexts underlying the experiences and...
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Offering a rich and insightful road map of Asian American history as it has evolved over more than 200 years, this book marks the first systematic attempt to take stock of this field of study. It examines, comments, and questions the changing assumptions and contexts underlying the experiences and contributions of an incredibly diverse population of Americans. Arriving and settling in this nation as early as the 1790s, with American-born generations stretching back more than a century, Asian Americans have become an integral part of the American experience; this cleverly organized book marks the trajectory of that journey, offering researchers invaluable information and interpretation. • Part 1 offers a synoptic narrative history, a chronology, and a set of periodizations that reflect different ways of constructing the Asian American past. • Part 2 presents lucid discussions of historical debates -- such as interpreting the anti-Chinese movement of the late 1800s and the underlying causes of Japanese American internment during World War II -- and such emerging themes as transnationalism and women and gender issues. • Part 3 contains a historiographical essay and a wide-ranging compilation of book, film, and electronic resources for further study of core themes and groups, including Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Hmong, Indian, Korean, Vietnamese, and others.
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8.

A Legal History of Asian Americans, 1790-1990 (Chap. 5 "The Regulation Period (1882-1920)" and Chap. 6 "The Restriction and Exclusion Period (1921-1952)") » Read Now
by Hyung-Chan Kim. 204 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

This book describes the historical and legal experiences of Americans of Asian ancestry who began to come to the United States in the mid-19th century. Like all immigrants in America, they arrived with hopes of making a better life and home in a free country. Instead, Asian-Americans have been...
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This book describes the historical and legal experiences of Americans of Asian ancestry who began to come to the United States in the mid-19th century. Like all immigrants in America, they arrived with hopes of making a better life and home in a free country. Instead, Asian-Americans have been mistreated and discriminated against by their fellow Americans--even by Congress and the Supreme Court, which should have made and judged laws without prejudice. This study examines the way immigration and naturalization laws were unfairly administered against Asian immigrants and throws light on a less than admirable period of American legal history. It will be of great interest to scholars in Asian American studies, legal history, and American history.
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9.

Dividing Lines: The Politics of Immigration Control in America (Chap. Four "Chinese Exclusion and Precocious State-Building in the Nineteenth-Century American Polity") » Read Now
by Daniel J. Tichenor. 378 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

Immigration is perhaps the most enduring and elemental leitmotif of America. This book is the most powerful study to date of the politics and policies it has inspired, from the founders' earliest efforts to shape American identity to today's revealing struggles over Third World immigration...
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Immigration is perhaps the most enduring and elemental leitmotif of America. This book is the most powerful study to date of the politics and policies it has inspired, from the founders' earliest efforts to shape American identity to today's revealing struggles over Third World immigration, noncitizen rights, and illegal aliens. Weaving a robust new theoretical approach into a sweeping history, Daniel Tichenor ties together previous studies' idiosyncratic explanations for particular, pivotal twists and turns of immigration policy. He tells the story of lively political battles between immigration defenders and doubters over time and of the transformative policy regimes they built.Tichenor takes us from vibrant nineteenth-century politics that propelled expansive European admissions and Chinese exclusion to the draconian restrictions that had taken hold by the 1920s, including racist quotas that later hampered the rescue of Jews from the Holocaust. American global leadership and interest group politics in the decades after World War II, he argues, led to a surprising expansion of immigration opportunities. In the 1990s, a surge of restrictionist fervor spurred the political mobilization of recent immigrants. Richly documented, this pathbreaking work shows that a small number of interlocking temporal processes, not least changing institutional opportunities and constraints, underlie the turning tides of immigration sentiments and policy regimes. Complementing a dynamic narrative with a host of helpful tables and timelines, Dividing Lines is the definitive treatment of a phenomenon that has profoundly shaped the character of American nationhood.
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10.

Making and Remaking Asian America through Immigration Policy, 1850-1990 (Chap. One "Two Contrasting Schemes: Understanding Immigration Policies Affecting Asians before and after 1965" and Chap. Two "The Communities' Responses: Asian America prior to 1965") » Read Now
by Bill Ong Hing. 344 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library
11.

Asian Americans and the Supreme Court: A Documentary History (Chap. 2 "Deportation and Expulsion") » Read Now
by Hyung-Chan Kim. 1166 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

Covering the past 150 years, this documentary history critiques major Supreme Court decisions on litigations that Asian Americans brought before the Court. Separate sections written by contributing scholars focus on cases pertaining to the question of the government's right to exclude, expel, or...
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Covering the past 150 years, this documentary history critiques major Supreme Court decisions on litigations that Asian Americans brought before the Court. Separate sections written by contributing scholars focus on cases pertaining to the question of the government's right to exclude, expel, or deport persons of Asian ancestry, the constitutional question of U.S. citizenship for persons of Asian ancestry, the alien laws of California and Washington, and Japanese internment. A seventh section casts the problem of denying Asian Americans their constitutional rights within the framework of Asian American "foreignness" as viewed by white America. The final chapter reviews major immigration laws passed by Congress in the 20th century and discusses the implications of the Immigration Act of 1990. The volume concludes with a case, name, and subject index.
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