Chinese immigrants arrived in America in trickling numbers in the 1820s, and their numbers summed to 650 by 1849. However, the immigration rate took a sharp rise during the gold rush fever since, like many other immigrants, the Chinese were attracted by the 'quick fortunes" notion. This essay will discuss the impact of Chinese immigrants on the American West and how the Anglo-Americans respond to this immigration.
Firstly, the immigration of Chinese people to West America was much unwelcome by the natives. Their arrival attracted a lot of criticism for their cultural practices and lifestyle at large. Americans could not content with the fact that another group of people other than them could have a different mode of dressing, religion, way of settlement, and natural resemblance. For example, Americans developed a negative attitude toward the lifestyle of Chinese men who kept long hair. It was customary that Chinese men were to keep long hair. They reasoned that they should have retained their long hair lest upon returning to China lest they be beheaded. Unfortunately, Americans perceived this as an unhygienic and uncivilized practice among men. They also perceived it as a way of submitting to a non-native dynasty back in their land. Americans did not also like the language that the Chinese spoke. It was a piss off to them. Americans perceived and describe Chinese culture as inferior, which resulted in discriminatory and racial attacks.
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The inferiority perception for the Chinese people escalated into threat perceptions among Americans. Americans started to see the Chinese as a threat to the government, culture, and the Caucasian race. Americans could not understand how Chinese people could be so hardworking, yet they lived in dilapidated conditions and on low wages. They presumed that Chinese people had supernatural capabilities, maybe because of their religious practices. Precisely, Americans were not happy because of Chinese immigration.
What rights did Chinese immigrants and Chinese-Americans gain in these years, and what limitations did they experience?
Primarily, in the first decades of the new century, Chinese immigrants worked together to get included in the United States life. However, even if the Exclusion Act was still in place, Chinese students, merchants, and diplomats enter the nation. Thus, at some moments, the visitors were even tolerated to bring their families and wives. In taking advantage of that loophole, Chinese teenagers often came to America by acting like the merchants' family members.
Nonetheless, the Chinese continued to venture to America, even acquiring professional work plus achieving financial success; thus, they started moving to Chinatowns. Family is the most cherished Chinese culture for centuries got permitted by other acts in the states. Mainly, the Chinese offered labor services to the United States industries and sent money back to china to their poor families. They worked in cigar, wool mills, garments and shoe companies. Thus, the major reason Chinese wanted to get to American soil was because they were poor back at home and need money both for persona use and for their Chinese families (The Conquest of the Far West. Chap 16).
In 1882, the Chinese were banned from entering America while those who entered faced violence, discrimination, and segregation. Although the Chinese acquired education in the United States, children got into segregated schools. Nonetheless, the 14th amendment failed to permit immigrants to shift to American residents if they were Chinese natives. Hence, those features made adaptation hard for Chinese-Americans and led to their mainstream isolation. Further exclusion performances haunted them, including those unfit for the community (Chinese Exclusion Act 22 Stat. 58, Chap. 126). In addressing the privileges, the Chinese had gained in the past years, some states in America, like California, passed several measures aimed at Chinese residents, ranging from possessing licenses from Chinese businesses or even working to prevent naturalization. Other legislations got set to limit Chinese immigrant's numbers in America.
Feeling threatened by the Chinese presence, the Anglo-Americans quickly reacted to what they perceived as a foreign invasion. The first reaction was from novelists, who began to write stories about the Chinese people's character. The described the Chinese people as outwardly submissive but inwardly cunning and sinister. Some of the writers even predicted that Chinese immigration was a secret plan to one-day come and take over the government, rule over America, and replace American practices and replace it with the Chinese culture. The Anglo-Americans acted promptly by deciding to separate these invasive races in America and reduce their presence or prospective dominance. They used methods like restriction, segregation, reservation, and introduced exclusionary immigration laws and policies. Some policies included an agreement with Japan in the year 1907 to end the immigration of Asians to America and the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. The implementation of these policies saw the abolishment of Chinese settlement in America, and many were deported back to China, their motherland.
Consequently, the implementation of anti-Chinese policies that led to Chinese immigrants' deportation back to China saw the massive influx of Mexican immigrants to the American West. They came to replace the labor slots that had been left vacant by the Chinese. They came to work in industries where Chinese immigrants formerly worked. By 1919, a total of 8,000 Mexicans had come to California to provide labor in sugar beet and orchard farms. The demand for Mexican workers was so great that recruitment agencies were created to tap on the lucrative profits generated from the process.
In conclusion, the immigration of Chinese citizens to America West was much unwelcome based on the Anglo-Americans' reactions. These reactions included inferiority perceptions, racist and discriminatory attacks, and the introduction of policies that saw the deportation of Chinese immigrants back to China. The Chinese were consequently replaced by Mexican immigrants who were more preferred by the Americans.
References
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Chinese Exclusion Act [PDF] from - "Statutes at Large" (22 Stat. 58, Chap. 126). Chapter 16 from-
Brinkley, Alan. The Unfinished Nation: A Concise History of the American People. Eight Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1993.
The Conquest of the Far West. Chap 16
