Chinese Immigrants To America

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America was the place to be. Everyone from around the world wanted to live in this new, strange place called America. It seemed as if America was painted with gold, but on the inside it wasn’t as extraordinary as it was made out to be. During the late 20th century the chinese immigration population was the fastest growing immigration population throughout North America. The gold rush brought many Chinese to America in hopes of finding gold and getting rich fast. In the following three decades after the goldrush, over 300,000 Chinese immigrants came to America looking for opportunity. Unfortunately, the Chinese had their hopes high and many of them ended up working as laborers, working on farms or starting a small business. As many different…show more content…
When the Chinese arrived to Angel Island they were subject to interrogation, more extensive examinations and longer detentions than any of the other immigrants that came into America. Chinese were the most common immigrant to be held in detention and they made up 70% of the detainee population. Their average stay was two to three weeks, the longest of any immigration group. The wait on Angel Island could be anywhere from days to weeks to months. Chinese immigrants became very frustrated with how long they had to wait and how they were being treated. To let out their feelings Chinese immigrants wrote poetry on the walls of the detention center barracks. “I clasped my hands in parting with my brothers and classmates. Because of the mouth, I hastened to cross the American ocean. How was I suppose to know that the western barbarians had lost their hearts and reason? With a hundered kinds of oppressive laws, they mistreat us Chinese.” (Lee and Yung, pg. 69) This poem is written by an anonymous Chinese detainee who had obviously had a horrific experience at Angel Island. Even though the Chinese immigrants had to face many challenges getting into America, usually they did it…show more content…
without eligibility. Eligibility being either that you have family in the United States and you’re going to work for them, becoming married to someone in the U.S. and coming into the U.S. to open businesses. Certain caucasian lawyers and law firms helped the Chinese get into America after the exclusion laws were set in place. Besides lawyers helping certain Chinese families enter into the U.S. not many Chinese immigrants got permission to legally enter into America. After the exclusion laws were set in place many Chinese who were still in America tried to fight again these laws. Unfortunately, despite many protests from the Chinese still living in America the laws weren’t lifted. Finally, during WW2 The Reed-Johnson Act was uplifted by Washington because China and the United States became allies. When Washington lifted the Chinese exclusion laws it led to a great amount of Chinese immigrants coming to America during the 1920s and 1930s. Once the laws were lifted Chinese immigrants still felt hated and not wanted in the United States. Over time this feeling got better and less prominent. “As a young child, I noticed a lot of oppression towards my parents, then as I grew up I noticed the same thing towards myself. Fortunately, the era that I grew up in wasn’t nearly as bad as the era that my parents grew up in.” Even though the laws were lifted in the modern world, the Chinese

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