Exclusion Law: When Did It Affect Half A Million People?

The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in 1882 and prevented Chinese labourers from entering the United States for 10 years. It was the first significant law restricting immigration into the country and was driven by racial concerns and anti-Chinese sentiment. The Act was renewed in 1892 and made permanent in 1902, before being repealed in 1943.

The Chinese Exclusion Act was signed into law on May 6, 1882

On May 6, 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was signed into law by President Chester A. Arthur. The Act prohibited all immigration of Chinese labourers to the United States for 10 years, with exceptions for merchants, teachers, students, travellers, and diplomats. It was the first significant law restricting immigration into the United States, and the first US immigration law to target a specific ethnicity or nationality.

The Act was the culmination of growing anti-Chinese sentiment and violence, as well as various policies targeting Chinese migrants. The Act followed the Angell Treaty of 1880, which revised the US-China Burlingame Treaty of 1868 to allow the US to suspend Chinese immigration. The Burlingame Treaty had previously allowed unrestricted Chinese immigration, but rising tensions in the US led to a renegotiation of the treaty.

The Chinese Exclusion Act was initially intended to last for 10 years, but was renewed and strengthened in 1892 with the Geary Act and made permanent in 1902. The Act and its extensions attempted to stop all Chinese immigration into the United States, with only certain exceptions. However, these laws were widely evaded.

The Act had a significant impact on Chinese immigrants who had already settled in the United States. It required them to obtain certifications for re-entry if they left the country, and excluded them from US citizenship, making them permanent aliens. The Act also refused state and federal courts the right to grant citizenship to Chinese resident aliens. The Chinese community in the US was effectively frozen in 1882, and the population declined over the following decades.

The Chinese Exclusion Act was driven largely by racial concerns and economic tensions. Non-Chinese labourers often required higher wages to support their families and had stronger political standing to bargain for higher wages. The Chinese labourers, on the other hand, were often in debt to the merchants who paid for their passage and had little choice but to work for low wages. The Act was also a response to cultural tensions, as many Chinese immigrants settled in their own neighbourhoods, leading to perceptions of Chinatowns as places of vice and moral degradation.

The Act was not repealed until 1943, when China became an ally of the US during World War II. The repeal, known as the Magnuson Act, allowed a quota of 105 Chinese immigrants per year and granted foreign-born Chinese the right to seek naturalization.

The Act prohibited Chinese labourers from entering the US for 10 years

The Chinese Exclusion Act was signed into law by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882. The Act prohibited Chinese labourers from entering the US for 10 years, with exceptions for diplomats, teachers, students, merchants, and travellers. It was the first significant law restricting immigration into the US, and the first US immigration law to target a specific ethnicity or nationality.

The Act was the culmination of growing anti-Chinese sentiment and violence, as well as various policies targeting Chinese migrants. The Act followed the Angell Treaty of 1880, which allowed the US to suspend Chinese immigration. The Angell Treaty was a set of revisions to the US-China Burlingame Treaty of 1868, which had allowed for an unrestricted flow of Chinese people into the US.

The Chinese Exclusion Act required non-labourers seeking entry to the US to obtain certification from the Chinese government that they were qualified to immigrate. However, this group found it difficult to prove their status because the 1882 Act defined labourers as "skilled and unskilled labourers and Chinese employed in mining". As a result, very few Chinese people could enter the country under the 1882 law.

The 1882 exclusion Act also placed new requirements on Chinese people who had already entered the US. If they left the country, they had to obtain certifications to re-enter. In addition, Congress refused state and federal courts the right to grant citizenship to Chinese resident aliens, although these courts could still deport them.

When the exclusion Act expired in 1892, Congress extended it for another 10 years in the form of the Geary Act. This extension was made permanent in 1902, with the addition of a requirement for each Chinese resident to register and obtain a certificate of residence, without which they faced deportation. The Act was finally repealed in 1943 with the Magnuson Act, which allowed 105 Chinese immigrants to enter the US each year.

The Act was extended in 1892 and made permanent in 1902

The Chinese Exclusion Act was initially passed in 1882, but it was extended and amended several times in the following decades. When the Act expired in 1892, Congress extended it for another 10 years in the form of the Geary Act. This extension was then made permanent in 1902, adding restrictions by requiring each Chinese resident to register and obtain a certificate of residence. Without this certificate, they faced deportation. The Act regulated Chinese immigration into the 20th century and was widely evaded.

The 1892 extension of the Act, known as the Geary Act, added new restrictions on top of those that were already in place. All Chinese residents were required to register and obtain a certificate of residence from the US government. This certificate had to be carried at all times, and anyone unable to produce it when asked could be deported. The Geary Act also renewed the ban on Chinese labourers entering the country for another 10 years, with exceptions for diplomats, teachers, students, merchants, and travellers.

The Act was made permanent in 1902, and every Chinese American was ordered to gain a certificate of residence. This extension tightened the restrictions and further entrenched the Act as a tool of racial discrimination and gatekeeping. The permanent extension of the Act was part of a broader shift in US immigration policy, moving away from a previously open immigration policy towards one that exerted more federal control over who could enter the country. Criteria were gradually introduced to determine which people, based on their ethnicity, gender, and class, could be admitted.

The Chinese Exclusion Act had far-reaching consequences for Chinese immigrants and their communities in the US. It led to the separation of families and the closure of businesses. Due to the severe restrictions placed on female immigrants and the predominance of young male migrants, a largely bachelor society emerged. Under mounting anti-Chinese pressure, Chinatowns were established in urban cities, where Chinese immigrants could retreat into their own cultural and social colonies. The Act also had a significant impact on the number of Chinese immigrants in the US, with the population declining from approximately 105,000 in 1880 to 61,000 in 1920.

The Act was repealed in 1943 with the passage of the Magnuson Act

The Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed in 1943 with the passage of the Magnuson Act, also known as the Chinese Exclusion Repeal Act. This new legislation was proposed by US Representative (later Senator) Warren G. Magnuson of Washington and was signed into law on December 17, 1943. The Act allowed Chinese immigration for the first time since the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and permitted some Chinese immigrants already in the US to become naturalized citizens. However, it was still restrictive, limiting Chinese immigrants to an annual quota of 105 new entry visas. This quota was determined according to the National Origins Formula prescribed by the Immigration Act of 1924, which set immigration quotas on countries subject to the law as a fraction of 150,000 in proportion to the number of inhabitants of that nationality residing in the US as per the 1920 census. For China, this was determined to be 0.07%, or 105 per year.

The Magnuson Act was passed two years after the Republic of China became an official ally of the US in World War II. Various factors contributed to the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act, including the calming of anti-Chinese sentiment, the establishment of quota systems for immigrants of other nationalities, and the political consideration of the US-China alliance during World War II. The repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act was a significant step towards the non-racial immigration legislation and policy of the late 1960s.

The Act was the first significant law restricting immigration into the US

The Chinese Exclusion Act, passed in 1882, was the first significant law restricting immigration into the US. The Act prohibited all immigration of Chinese labourers for 10 years, with exceptions for merchants, teachers, students, travellers, diplomats, and government officers. It was the first US immigration law to target a specific ethnicity or nationality, and the first to prevent all members of a specific national group from immigrating to the US.

The Act was preceded by growing anti-Chinese sentiment and violence, as well as policies targeting Chinese migrants. It was initially intended to last for 10 years but was renewed and strengthened in 1892 with the Geary Act and made permanent in 1902. These laws attempted to stop all Chinese immigration into the US for ten years, with exceptions for diplomats, teachers, students, merchants, travellers, and government officers.

The Act was driven by racial concerns and the belief that Chinese immigrants were a threat to American values and the working class. It facilitated further restriction by being the model by which future groups could be radicalised as unassimilable aliens, and by marking a moment where such discrimination could be justifiable. The Immigration Act of 1924 further restricted immigration, placing quotas on all nationalities except Northwestern Europe, building on the 'gatekeeping' ideology established by the Chinese Exclusion Act.

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