Download From Chinese laborers in the 1800s to millions of

European Immigration: 1880-1920
Between 1880 and 1920, a time of rapid industrialization and urbanization, America received
more than 20 million immigrants. Beginning in the 1890s, the majority of arrivals were from
Central, Eastern and Southern Europe. In that decade alone, some 600,000 Italians migrated to
America, and by 1920 more than 4 million had entered the United States. Jews from Eastern
Europe fleeing religious persecution also arrived in large numbers; over 2 million entered the
United States between 1880 and 1920.
The peak year for admission of new immigrants was 1907, when approximately 1.3 million
people entered the country legally. Within a decade, the outbreak of World War I (1914-1918)
caused a decline in immigration. In 1917, Congress enacted legislation requiring immigrants
over 16 to pass a literacy test, and in the early 1920s immigration quotas were established. The
Immigration Act of 1924 created a quota system that restricted entry to 2 percent of the total
number of people of each nationality in America as of the 1890 national census–a system that
favored immigrants from Western Europe–and prohibited immigrants from Asia.
Asian-American History
From Chinese laborers in the 1800s to millions of U.S.
citizens today
by David Johnson
When they first arrived in the United States, Asian (usually Chinese) immigrants were
welcomed, or at least tolerated. After the California gold rush brought thousands of Chinese to
California, however, Asian immigrants faced restrictive laws and occasional violence.
In the late 1800s, Chinese, and eventually other Asians, were excluded from citizenship. These
laws were repealed during World War II, followed by further immigration-law changes, making
it easier for Asians to enter the United States.
Today, Asian immigrants have a high rate of assimilation and participation in the American
mosaic.
Gold Rush Boom
The Chinese were the first Asians to arrive in large numbers. By the 1830s, Chinese were selling
goods in New York City and toiling in Hawaiian sugarcane fields.
Gold was discovered in California in 1848, eventually attracting thousands of Chinese miners
and contract laborers. In 1850, just over 1,000 Asian immigrants entered the U.S., but ten years
later, the figure had jumped to nearly 37,000, mostly Chinese.
Violent Protests
In some quarters, Chinese workers were welcomed. The Central Pacific Railroad recruited
Chinese to work on the transcontinental railroad in 1865. Three years later the Chinese and the
U.S. ratified the Burlingame Treaty which facilitated Chinese immigration.
However, many people feared being "overwhelmed" by the influx, which had swelled to nearly
65,000 in 1870, and over 107,000 in 1880. Some cities passed laws against Chinese and other
Asians, often referred to as "Mongolians." Anti-Chinese riots erupted in Chico, California, in
1877 and in Rock Springs, Wyoming, in 1885.
Japanese Arrive
Meanwhile, increasing contact with Japan prompted Japanese to move to Hawaii and California
to work in agriculture. In 1869 the Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Colony was established in
California.
Contact with the Philippines
In 1899, following the Spanish-American War, the Philippines came under U.S. control,
prompting increased immigration. In 1902, the pensionado program, which allowed Filipinos to
study in the U.S., was implemented.
Because most Filipinos are Roman Catholic, their integration into American life was somewhat
easier than for other Asians. Though Filipinos faced the same prejudices as Chinese and
Japanese laborers (as described in Carlos Bulosan's book America is in the Heart), Filipinos
arrived with English skills, making assimilation easier.
Japanese Internment
During World War II, more than 100,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry were placed in
internment camps. Even though many did not speak Japanese or have close ties to Japan, they
were nonetheless regarded as wartime threats. Although the U.S. was also at war with Germany
and Italy, Americans with ancestors from those countries did not face internment.
In 1988, Congress passed a measure giving $20,000 to Japanese Americans who had been
interned during the war. President George H.W. Bush signed it the following year.
Increasing Numbers
Although Asian immigration increased steadily through much of the 20th century, the region still
contributed fewer newcomers than Europe, Latin America, and North America.
The McCarran-Walter Act of 1952 eliminated race as a barrier to immigration, and in 1965
national quotas were ended, thus facilitating Asian immigration.
Increasing Clout
Political power soon followed. Dalip Singh was elected to U.S. Congress from California's
Imperial Valley, and in 1962 Hawaii sent Daniel K. Inouye to the U.S. Senate and Spark
Matsunaga to the U.S. House. Two years later, Patsy Takemoto Mink of Hawaii was elected to
the U.S. House, becoming the first Asian-American woman in Congress.
Since then, hundreds of Asian Americans have been elected to state legislatures and municipal
positions.
A More Diverse Group
In 1979, the United States and China resumed diplomatic relations, making immigration easier
for Chinese. But, new arrivals came from other Asian countries as well, including India and
Pakistan. And in 1975 following the Vietnam War, more than 130,000 refugees fleeing from the
Communist governments of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos arrived on U.S. shores. Million of
Asians arrived in subsequent years.
In 1980, more than 2.5 million Asian immigrants entered the U.S., up from under 500,000 in
1960.
The Immigration Act of 1990 increased the numbers of Asians coming to the U.S. by raising the
total quota and reorganizing system of preferences to favor certain professional groups. This
allowed Asians with training in medicine, high technology, and other specialties to enter more
easily. From 5 million in 1990, the number of Asian immigrants more than doubled by 2009,
reaching 10.6 million.
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The Chinese Exclusion Act was approved on May 6, 1882. It was the first
significant law restricting immigration into the United States.
In the spring of 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by Congress
and signed by President Chester A. Arthur. This act provided an absolute 10-year moratorium on
Chinese labor immigration. For the first time, Federal law proscribed entry of an ethnic working
group on the premise that it endangered the good order of certain localities.
The Gentlemen's Agreement between the United States and
Japan in 1907-1908 represented an effort by President Theodore Roosevelt to calm
growing tension between the two countries over the immigration of Japanese workers. A treaty
with Japan in 1894 had assured free immigration, but as the number of Japanese workers in
California increased, they were met with growing hostility. In August 1900, Japan agreed to
deny passports to laborers seeking to enter the United States; this, however, did not stop the
many workers who obtained passports to Canada, Mexico, or Hawaii and then moved on to the
United States. Racial antagonism intensified, fed by inflammatory articles in the press. On May
7, 1905, a Japanese and Korean Exclusion League was organized, and on October 11, 1906, the
San Francisco school board arranged for all Asian children to be placed in a segregated school.
Japan was prepared to limit immigration to the United States, but was deeply wounded by San
Francisco's discriminatory law aimed specifically at its people. President Roosevelt, wishing to
preserve good relations with Japan as a counter to Russian expansion in the Far East, intervened.
While the American ambassador reassured the Japanese government, Roosevelt summoned the
San Francisco mayor and school board to the White House in February 1907 and persuaded them
to rescind the segregation order, promising that the federal government would itself address the
question of immigration. On February 24, the Gentlemen's Agreement with Japan was concluded
in the form of a Japanese note agreeing to deny passports to laborers intending to enter the
United States and recognizing the U.S. right to exclude Japanese immigrants holding passports
originally issued for other countries. This was followed by the formal withdrawal of the San
Francisco school board order on March 13, 1907. A final Japanese note dated February 18, 1908,
made the Gentlemen's Agreement fully effective. The agreement was superseded by the
exclusionary Immigration Act of 1924
The Chinese Exclusion Act required the few nonlaborers who sought entry to obtain certification
from the Chinese government that they were qualified to immigrate. But this group found it
increasingly difficult to prove that they were not laborers because the 1882 act defined
excludables as “skilled and unskilled laborers and Chinese employed in mining.” Thus very few
Chinese could enter the country under the 1882 law.
The 1882 exclusion act also placed new requirements on Chinese who had already entered the
country. If they left the United States, they had to obtain certifications to re-enter. Congress,
moreover, refused State and Federal courts the right to grant citizenship to Chinese resident
aliens, although these courts could still deport them.