From Encouraging To Reject: In The 19th Century American Immigration Policy Adjustment In China

As the largest immigrant country in the world, US immigration policy has beenplaying a significant role in US nation-building, economic development and domesticpolitics. Chinese immigrants, as members of US multi-cultural society, had madeconsiderable contributions to American nation-building and western development.However, Chinese immigrants’ contributions to the US have not yet been fullyrecognized by US society, conversely they incurred exclusion from the US.Since the second half of the nineteenth Century, Chinese people, driven by theAmerica’s “push” factors and China’s “pull” factors, began to immigrate to the US inphenomenal numbers. The Burlingame Treaty between China and US in1868symbolizes the formation of US encouragement policy towards Chinese immigration,and spurred a large wave of Chinese immigrants into the US. However, for variousreasons, increasing arrivals of Chinese gradually instigated strong anti-Chinesesentiments in the American West. In order to discourage Chinese influx andundermine Chinese laborers’ competition in the labor market, various discriminatorylaws and taxations were often perpetrated upon them. When an economic crisis struckthe US in the1870s, Chinese immigrants became scapegoats for the economic woesof other races, and fell into victims of American ingrained racism and domestic partypolitics.Throughout the1870s, anti-Chinese activities and violence broke out frequentlyon the West Coast with an aim to expel the Chinese from the US territory. Under thepersistent anti-Chinese efforts, the organized labor movement against Chineselaborers, and pressure exerted by the western politicians on Congress, USimmigration policy towards the Chinese was ushered in a phase of restriction andexclusion with the Chinese Exclusion Act of1882abrogating free immigrationprovisions. There was no simple explanation for the anti-Chinese animosity and howthe anti-Chinese movement was transformed from a local phenomenon to a nationalconcern. Among various reasons, economic and political factors were particularly influential in determining the US policy shift from encouragement in1868toexclusion in1882.