Introduction
The history of migration and immigration of communities across the world has been considerably long and debatable following a number of unforeseen circumstances that result from such activities.
There have been substantial arguments rising from communities living in world-renowned cities with issues regarding discrimination, nepotism, and prejudice lingering among them. Currently, population surge within big cities and towns across the world might have resulted from much immigration activities that historically have been part of global discussions (Yin 12).
The story of Chinese migration in the United States has been in constant documentation in literature, with its initial immigration story quite long and tantalizing. Numerous socio-economic motivational factors might have influenced Chinese first immigration to North America (Yin 13). This essay seeks to examine the Chinese immigration to the United States and its impacts.
History of Chinese immigrants
The Chinese American history is typically a story that entails ethnic Chinese or Chinese Americans migration and immigration activities into the US, which is distinguished in three major immigration waves beginning with the 17 century.
The history of the Chinese Americans’ immigration into the United States is a long historical issue that literature is always anticipating to cover and somehow tormenting for those who experienced real events while somewhat fruitful for the modern immigrants (Olson 4).
According to literature documented by Olson, the immigration trends associating the Chinese people into the US began as early as 1700 century when in the 1780s, a group of approximately 100 Chinese explorers journeyed Pacific Ocean towards North America (4).
They decided to settle on the Western coast of Canada and subsequently began exploring the Northwest of Pacific Ocean (Olson 4). A continued influx of Chinese migrants from China slowly began surging into the US thus occupying few regions that finally became populated with Chinese American towards the 1800s, with Lewis and Clark, who were American explorers, marking important events.
Chinese American immigration in 1800s-1900s
The mid-1800 century witnessed substantial immigration trends of Chinese Americans, with several Chinese men traversing the US to join their earlier fellow fortune hunters (Olson 4). This move was in the 1850s when thousands of Chinese populace flocked into the US with their major focus directly intended to occupying the present-day California.
The notion behind this immigration trend towards California at the time hinged upon accounts of the gold rush or simply presence of gold in the American West, especially in California (Olson 4). At this time, fortunately or unfortunately, few Chinese men found the unintended fortune that included working as cooks, labourers, servants, and even launderers (Olson 4).
Factually, as postulated by Olson, “by the 1860s, most of the California’s gold had been mined and Chinese fortune looked elsewhere to make money” (4). During this crucial moment before fortune hunters could imagine of the aggravation, the United States needed railroad and the Central Pacific Railroad of the US was currently employing labourers to engage in land clearing and laying tracks.
The United States, during this epoch, wanted to construct a railroad that would connect the gradually developing western terrain with the already established Eastern States. Since the Chinese fortune hunters for gold could no longer access the gold itself, most Chinese labourers opted to join the construction workforce to build America’s earliest transcontinental railroad and others became agricultural labourers (Olson 4).
The immigration trends involving Chinese immigrants gradually became uncontrollable as it approached the 1880s, only twenty years from the gold rush disappointment and at this time, there were approximately 300, 000 Chinese American residing in the US (Olson 4).
A majority of the Chinese immigrants occupying California as manual contract labourers began experiencing torment since they possessed very little personal freedom, although this has normally appeared as a common historical fallacy to those who understand the history well (Yin 14). This moment marked a great wave of immigration of not only Chinese immigrants, but also millions of new communities that were assembling in cities and towns within the US.
Motivations for Chinese migration to the U.S
A continuum of intertwined factors from social, economic, and political issues might have contributed to the unending Chinese Americans’ migration trends that accustomed the American nation back in the years (Behnke 4).
According to Behnke’s own presumptions, “immigrants have many different reasons for leaving home and they may leave homes to escape poverty, war, or harsh governments, or even want better living conditions for themselves and their children” (4).
The case of motivational factors that triggered Chinese American immigrants is no expectation from the aforementioned issues articulated under such presumptions. For numerous decades, the US has remained renowned as a nation that proffers many socio-economical opportunities and this aspect might have triggered the Chinese to move to the US (Behnke 4).
Economically, relative to America’s economical reputation coupled with Chinese economic misfortunes of Chinese pre-historical era akin to other immigrants, the majority of Chinese immigrants were running away from poverty, hardships, and even the emergence of Taiping Rebellion (Chen 15). Therefore, the aspiration to change their future was the first motivational factor that stirred them.
Gold has been the most precious natural resource that almost each human being anticipates to possess. According to Yin, among the major motivational factors that triggered the movement of Chinese immigrants into the US was the presence and discoveries of gold around John Sutter’s Sawmill by around 24th of January 1848 (12).
Yin affirms, “Although some individuals arrived in the New World as early as the eighteenth century, it was until the Gold Rush years that Chinese immigration became large enough to have a significant impact on the American society” (12). In essence, the discovery of gold in California was the most motivational aspect that precipitated enormous immigrations continentally into the US.
At this time, informants were becoming more dexterous in producing and disseminating gold-related information that connected the US to great riches, hence making the Chinese overwhelmingly convinced to visit this country of opportunities (Yin 14). Notions of Americans as wealthy people and fortune hunters tales began penetrating into Guangzhou (Canton), which was China’s south provincial capital, thus subsequently rising migration morale.
Harsh political realities of the 1800 century were among the major reasons that motivated the Chinese immigrants to seek peace in the US. Apart from the Gold rush and Gold Mountains, remunerative wages as well as the Chinese imaginings to shape their future living standards and political repression factors have a significant contribution as impellent factors of Chinese immigration to the US. Economic situation was more catastrophic, particularly in Guangdong province in China and with little recovery from devastative events of Opium War, the Chinese could not anticipate for any better living in their homeland (Yin 13).
Coupled with their inability to meet the unremitting taxes following impositions by the Qing government that enacted the treaty of Nanjing-based on British terms, peasants and farmers were forced by that regime to sell their possessions including land and this element impelled them to seek abode in the US in 1850s (Yin 13). Subsequently, to discourage peasants from joining rebels, the Qing regime adopted extreme terrorism policy to execute males from villages that supported rebels, which impelled them to leave their motherland.
Development of anti-Chinese sentiments in the late 1800s
The Chinese immigration and settlement into the US did not receive a soft landing as Native Americans felt the itch of these migration events. As economic hardships, internal turmoil, and favorable rich America reports and cheap ship fares propelled massive Chinese immigration, the American government was eying on these movements (Chen 93).
As businesses across the ocean commenced with a massive influx of Chinese immigration activities that had began being much welcomed due to Chinese aptitude to provide the much-required labor force, the American government had no much interest in the initial period (Chan 98).
The stalemate gradually began when Native Americans noticed the devastating American economy that was by then undergoing depression with jobs becoming scarce and the first thing they thought of was getting rid of the Chinese immigrants (Olson 6). This move attracted attrition between the Native Americans and the Chinese over the dwindling vacancies, with the Americans blaming the Chinese immigrants of the economic misfortune and this element pushed the natives to seek ways of evicting the aliens.
Average Americans and their government as well-considered early migration trends characterized by normal sailing, merchandizing and domestic matters as minor curiosities (Yin 15).
Gradually, news about the confrontation between the Chinese immigrants and the Native American was spreading rapidly, which led to the American government intervention. This intervention led to the development of anti-Chinese sentiments fueled by aggravations and the US government first intervened in 1882 when the congress imposed the Chinese Execution Act, which led to a dramatic decrease of Chinese immigrants from the approximated 105,465 people to 61,639 in the 1920s (Chen 155).
Californians at this moment had already developed innermost grudge against the Chinese as the government’s effort to support deportation of the immigrants triggered discrimination, racial prejudice, and even violence in almost all the entire zones that they occupied (Behnke 5).
According to Yin (16), the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act barred the Chinese from acquiring American citizenship and the Chinese reputation in the US was constantly dwindling from what the Americans crowned them for, including their industriousness and honestly.
How Chinese Immigration in the 1800’s impacted the United States
After the Chinese migration into the US solidified following their craving for equity and justice in the country, which resulted from their triumphant retaliation against the discriminatory laws and regulations, they finally settled and attracted even more immigrants into the country (Chan 99).
Subsequently, the Chinese women population that was initially restricted began surging in the country to establish complete settlements with their husbands and families in California and other American States (Chan 94). Noticeably, the favourable reception that the early Chinese immigrants enjoyed had already created much impact on the United States stretching from social, cultural, to economical influence to the American society (Yin 16).
In essence, as pressure on the Chinese reduced and political pressure on their eviction vanished, the Chinese began participation in several socio-cultural activities accustomed to the American Natives. With their women and children, the Chinese immigrants filled almost all cities and towns in the US and their interaction with the Americans created a mixture of communal association, while contributing to both affirmative and negative impacts.
Affirmative contributions of Chinese Americans
Chinese immigrants did not only flavor the American nation with a blend of cultures, but they also had quite a significant contribution to the growth and development of the present-day United States (Olson 8).
China possessed strong artistic skills, which is among the reasons why they have managed to survive the hostilities in the US as the experiences in incorporating true-life stories to art became Americans’ anticipation. Behnke posits, “Despite struggling to survive through prejudice, discrimination, and violence, Chinese Americans went on to make important contributions to science, art, literature, music, film, and business in their new country” (5).
The consumption of the Chinese artistic culture was growing rapidly, Americans were becoming fond of it, and coupled with their merchandising and crafts skills, the American society began changing their perceptions against the Chinese immigrants (Behnke 6). Chinese immigrants and other immigrants from various parts of Southern Europe, Eastern, and Asian regions increased during the crucial American industrial era, consequently contributing to the American growth.
As Chinese merchants were becoming busier creating trading routes and connections between Western Asia and Europe trading with Chinese silk and other homemade goods, numerous Chinese migrants were busy seeking opportunities to work in different sectors in the American interior (Behnke 10). While the harsh conditions in their homeland could not allow talented Chinese farmers to practice farming on their own soil, the art of farming that has currently deepened its roots in the US was by then cherished (Chan 105).
In fact, as postulated by Olson (6), the attrition between the Native Americans and the Chinese immigrants due to the United States’ economic misfortunes hardened them even more and forced them to seek a different kind of jobs in restaurants, laundries, small factories, and homes subsequently influencing economic growth.
According to the literature documented by Yin (118), apart from economical and cultural influence, in learning and education, the Chinese American literature grew exponentially within American schools and this aspect contributed to several aspects of education in the contemporary United States.
Negative contributions of Chinese Americans
The immigration of Chinese nationalists into the United States might not have been actually tasty and much of the events happening in the country might have resulted from such Chinese emigrational events.
As postulated by Yin (11) the Chinese immigration in the US has a history of plea and protest against discriminatory coupled with laws that impel mistreatment, something that is not actually bad. However, these processions have greatly attributed to the erosion of significant rules and regulations that might have been imperative in controlling illegal immigration in the US (Behnke 8).
The immigration trends of the 1800s triggered by the stubborn and needy Chinese might have contributed heavily to the insecurity ramifications in the US fuelled by pounding immigration into the current America, with any race fighting for space and inclusion in American soil (Chen 142). To the later, the scramble for inclusion of numerous races in the US is quite evitable with great fear of terrorism attacks and other security matters salient in the entire United States.
The first legislation of its kind that recorded great history in the US was the aforementioned Exclusion Act of 1882 that barred Chinese women, who were Chinese labourers’ wives, from visiting the United States (Chan 96).
Back to the Chinese traditions, the Chinese society has been patriarchal and the only tolerable role for the married Chinese women by that moment were serving their husbands, parents-in-law, and bearing children (Chan 95). Such issues became historical when Chinese women began inflowing into the US following the abolition of the Exclusion Act and this ruling provided women with favourable conditions to migrate to the US (Chan 98).
The presence of Chinese women in the US did not only spur Chinese immigration into the US, but there was also a perception of staining major American cities with indecent behaviours. Chan (104) asserts that since Chinese men labourers were still earning meagre wages, their women decided to find possible means of supporting their husbands, and finally they ended engaging in unlawful prostitution that tinted the American cities.
The modern Chinese Americans
Finally, Chinese immigrants managed to conquer almost all discriminatory regulations by fighting on civil-liberty grounds, subsequently leading to an influx of massive Chinese populace to seeking abode in the US (Behnke 19).
The American congress in 1943 harmoniously withdrew the Chinese Exclusion Act, and in few years, the United States had set its focus on the World War II, thus giving an opportunity to immigration again. In the mid to late 1900s, Chinese immigration into the US increased substantially. Currently, approximately 10 million Asian people in total have managed to acquire American citizenship and settled in the US, with Chinese Americans making the largest populace (Olson 7).
Contemporary, a stroll around the United States’ major cities is reminiscent of traveling several countries continentally, with groceries and shops offering foreign products and selling international foods (Behnke 4). Chinese Americans are currently the most spread and populated immigrants occupying the largest portion of Native American immigrants in the modern days.
Based on the recent 2000 US census, Chinese Americans are approximately 2.4 million with permanent settlements in the US (Behnke 5). Generally, combined with other Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, they sum up to about 16 million immigrants residing in the US.
Chinese Americans are still suffering from poor communication in the US given the fact that during immigration, few of them managed to muddle through the US educational system (Yin 19). English proficiency in the Chinese Americans in the modern days gives them a hard time to cope with the ever-changing American lifestyle, including unrelenting medical challenges as chronic cancer and hepatitis B that kills thousands of them annually (Yin 130).
Still dwelling in low-cost rentals and others in America’s rural suburbs, Chinese are still suffering from discrimination and prejudice despite their great contribution to the growth and development of the American economical, social, and cultural endeavors. The majority are still languishing in poverty and living below the United States’ poverty line.
Conclusion
Scarcity of reliable sources may hamper the ability to determine the exact dates when the Chinese officially began migrating to the United States. Nonetheless, substantial literature links the events of the 1850s in China to the beginning of serious Chinese emigrational activities towards the US.
The Chinese immigration of 1800s into the US might have been very influential in triggering transnational migration towards the country with tales of California Gold, political, and economic misfortunes behind such movements. Chinese Americans have undergone severe torment prior to their emigrational activities to the US, including racial discrimination and prejudice.
Currently, despite having acquired permanent settlement and citizenships, Chinese Americans are still suffering from discrimination, ethnic bias, and healthcare inequalities following their inabilities to communicate proficiently in English. Intuitively, immigration to the US might never halt following its closer connection with wealth and power, especially in the current decades and Asians are still on the move to find fortunes in the US.
Works Cited
Behnke, Alison. Chinese in America, Minneapolis: Lerner Publications, 2005. Print.
Chan, Sucheng. The exclusion of Chinese women 1870-1943, Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1875. Print.
Chen, Jack. The Chinese of America, New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1980. Print.
Olson, Kay. Chinese Immigrants, 1850-1900, Minnesota: Capstone Publisher, 2002. Print.
Yin, Xiao-Huang. Chinese American Literature since the 1850s, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 2000. Print.