| Chinese Exclusion Act (united States) |
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The act excluded all Chinese Laborer s from the United States for 10 years. Amendments made in 1884 tightened the provisions that allowed previous immigrants to leave and return, and clarified that the law applied to ethnic Chinese regardless of their country of origin. The act was renewed in 1892 by the Geary Act for another 10 years, and in 1902 with no terminal date. It was repealed by the 1943 Magnuson Act , allowing a national quota of 105 Chinese immigrants per year, although large scale Chinese immigration did not occur until the passage of the Immigration Act Of 1965 . The act was passed in response to the large number of Chinese who had immigrated to the Western United States as a result of unsettled conditions in China and the availability of jobs working on Railroad s. It was the first Immigration Law passed in the United States targeted at a specific ethnic group. Although the law has long been repealed, it was around long enough to be made part of the United States Code . Even today, although all its constituent sections have long been repealed, Chapter 7 of Title 8 of the U.S.C. is headed, "Exclusion of Chinese." It is the only chapter of the 15 chapters in Title 8 (Aliens and Nationality) that is completely focused on a specific nationality or ethnic group. The United States was not the only country to have racially restrictive immigration policies. Australia , Canada , and New Zealand also had similar policies. See The Chinese Immigration Act, 1923 , White Australia . Chinese came to America in large numbers during the 1849 Gold Rush in California , and again in the 1860s when the Central Pacific Railroad recruited them to build its portion of the Transcontinental Railroad . Most came from Southern China, which was in poverty after the Taiping Rebellion , looking for their fortunes. At first, surface gold was plentiful, and the Chinese were greatly appreciated and well-received. As the easy gold dwindled and competition for it intensified, animosity to the Chinese increased. Nativist groups demanded that California's gold was only for Americans, and began to physically threaten foreigners' mines. After being forcibly driven from the mines, the Chinese settled in cities, mainly San Francisco, and took up wage labor and menial work. With the post Civil War economy in decline by the 1870s, anti-Chinese animosity became politicized by labor leader Dennis Kearney and his Workingman's Party as well as by Governor John Bigler , both of whom blamed Chinese "coolies" for depressed wage levels. They were also accused of immoral and unsanitary habits, and became the targets of mob violence. From 1910 to 1940 , the Angel Island Immigration Station on what is now Angel Island State Park in San Francisco Bay served as the processing center for hundreds of thousands of Chinese immigrants; upwards of 30% were returned to China. SEE ALSO
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| "http://historymattersgmuedu/d/5046/" class="copylinks" target="_blank">Dennis Kearney, President, and H L Knight, Secretary, “Appeal from California The Chinese Invasion Workingmen’s Address,” Indianapolis Times, 28 February 1878 |