Fears that the U.S. is being invaded by illegal aliens, of vast numbers waiting to stream across the border and undermine the American working class may seem ripped from the today’s headlines today, but a century and a half ago politicians weren’t
Fears that the U.S. is being invaded by illegal aliens, of vast numbers waiting to stream across the border and undermine the American working class may seem ripped from the today’s headlines today, but a century and a half ago politicians weren’t looking south toward Mexico when debating immigration policies, they were looking west, toward China. Concerns over Chinese immigration shaped U.S. immigration policies in ways we still observe today.
Guest Madeline Y Hsu from UT’s Center for Asian-American Studies discusses the tumultuous experience of Chinese immigration to the U.S., the passing of the Chinese Exclusion Act, and sheds light on the lingering immigration issues first discussed in the 19th century that continue to concern us in contemporary political debates.
- Madeline Y. HsuProfessor in the Department of History and Director of the Center for Asian-American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin
- Christopher RosePostdoctoral Fellow, Institute for Historical Studies, The University of Texas at Austin
When and how did Chinese immigration to the United States begin? I know that a lot of people might associate it with the gold rush in California in the mid-19th century — is that about the right time frame?
The gold rush was the reason for a big increase in Chinese migration to the United States; Chinese will become more visible, particularly on the west coast, after the mid-19th century, and will be used extensively as manual labor on the railroad and west coast agriculture. But, Chinese start trickling into the United States really with the Clipper trade out of Boston. Some Chinese will also come to the United States as students, brought in by missionaries. We know that there were a few Chinese that showed up in displays of exotic persons put by people such as P.T. Barnum. But, it’s really after the gold rush that we have Chinese coming in visible, and in significant numbers.
What social and economic challenges did Chinese immigrants face upon their arrival? Did they come in legally, or illegally, and what kind of challenges did they face as a result?
When Chinese first started arriving to work in the United States–and, if we think of the United States as a land of opportunity, we have to remember that this was true as well for Chinese–many Chinese looked to the west coast as a place where there were many employment opportunities. At this point in time, the United States had not yet started trying to restrict immigration and so, the United States really was a land of immigrants–so, the Chinese come.
Up until completion of the transcontinental railroad, it was actually quicker to travel from places like Hong Kong to San Francisco; you could catch a ship across the Pacific Ocean–it would take several weeks–than it was to travel from the east coast of the United States over to the west coast. So, when we think about pioneers and people helping to construct economies, Chinese were really critical on the west coast, and particularly California. We mostly associate the Chinese with the railroads, but they were also active in many, many industries such as cigar manufacturing, boots and shoes, textiles; they were really critical for laying the agricultural foundations in California. They diked certain rivers. They turned certain swamp lands into farmland. Chinese had a really critical role on the west coast.
It was also California that starts feeling the strains of having what was regarded of having an alien population. As early as 1855, Californians concerned about the Chinese