Asian Immigration in the 19th Century
...conomic problems to. Many people believed that intense competition for jobs created by Asian immigrants caused wages to plummet. Such philosophy was shared by many writers including Henry George who noted, “It is obvious that Chinese competition must reduce wages…” (Editor Henry George Supports Chinese Exclusion on Economic and Racial Grounds, p. 97). Many individuals failed to realize that outside influences also affected the lack of labor, such as the Industrial Revolution that was lessening need for unskilled labor. The lack of job opportunities for unskilled labor was causing Euro-American men to lose their jobs and lack the ability to sustain their families. The economic situation worried the European settlers who believed that the rampant loss of jobs and decrease in wages was thought to have moral implications as well. “Chinese competition was creating economic, and moral turmoil in white families. White men were paid lower wages, there was wide spread drunkenness, women were turning to prostitution, and there was child delinquency” (Nayan Shah, lecture, 10/8/04). Due to the lack of understanding of Eastern culture, Americans were apprehensive to accept Chinese immigrants in their society. Americans feared that the Chinese were a causing a harmful effect on the American culture and negative images of the Chinese were used to play on the people’s worst fears of making the United States a society with corrupt, non-Anglo-Saxon values. Asian immigrants were considered immoral and therefore were looked down upon. Because Asian immigrants were viewed as inferior, they were forced to face societal discrimination, racism, and outright violence. The anti-Asian sentiment that was felt in the United States was just a part of the long tradition of racism and inequality. Part of the reason this was allowed to happen is the approval of the Naturalization Act of 1790. The Act allowed the government to deny citizenship based on race, which affirmed that white persons were superior to other races. An example of such discrimination is the idea of school segregation of white and Asian children, “California has decreed that, whenever is so desired, the local school authorities may provide separate schools for the Chinese and Japanese children…” (Asiatic Exclusion League Argues for Excluding Japanese and Korean Immigration, p. 115). Because the Euro-Americans believed that whites were not only different from but also superior to other races, dual wages were justified, “Despite the skepticism that was expressed about their physical strength, Chinese soon became the backbone of the company’s construction crews, providing the bulk of the labor not only for unskilled tasks but for highly demanding and dangerous ones as well. Regardless of the nature of the work they did, however, all Chinese were paid the same wage, which was considerably lower than what Euro-American skilled workers received” (Sucheng Chan, Shifting Chinese Immigrant Employment, p. 83) Chinese workers in most fields of work were discriminated against by Euro-Americans, paid lower wages, and were kept separated from them. An extreme case of racism took place in a mining town where the growing hate for the Chinese was finally released in a violent and deadly assault on them. The Chinese had to witness the destruction of the community that they had built up for themselves, “They had been eyewitnesses to the shooting in ‘Chinatown,’ and had seen the whites, male and female, old and young, searching houses for money, household effects, or gold, which were carried across to ‘Whitemen’s Town’” (Chinese Laborers Report on a Race Riot at Rock Springs, Wyoming Territory, p. 68) This incident clearly shows that the Euro-Americans were not able to see just how barbaric, uncivilized, and immoral they really were. Instead Americans were only concerned about protecting their personal wellbeing. In order to defend their own interests, legislators passed laws to restrict the immigration of Asian Americans into the United States. Due to the extensive anti-Chinese sentiment felt throughout the whole United States, the government decided it was necessary to deal with the problem of Asian immigration. As a result, several laws were passed that restricted and almost prohibited the immigration of Asians into the United States. One such law was the Chinese Immigration Exclusion Act of 1882, which greatly limited the immigration ...