Asian Immigrants Coming To California In The Early 1900s

Asian Discrimination in America

When the wave of Asian immigrants came to California in the early 1900s, they were everything but welcome. Like other immigrants, they wanted a better life in America. At first, many Japanese immigrants found jobs in farming, which they were already experts in. This gave them the ability to send their children to public school, enabling them to have a better life. Everything was great until white landowners saw Asians, specifically Japanese, as a threat to the economy. With Japanese immigrants having success, white politicians exploited their success, using it against them to create anti-Asian campaigns. So the way they discriminated against Asians was to establish the California Alien Act of 1913, which was
Another reason they wanted to immigrate was because America was seen as a land of better opportunity and a chance for a better life. Most of the Japanese immigrating to America were men. In the year 1900, “only 410 of 24,326 Japanese immigrants were female. Before the 1900s, there was the California gold rush. This “Gold Rush” intrigued many people worldwide, thinking they could have a better life and be rich. Many people immigrating to California were Asians trying their luck to strike gold. Then, when the gold rush ended, they were considered cheap labor. They would work in mines, in agricultural jobs, and in factories. Many wanted to escape the economic conditions in China. They had to face a decline in food and land while also having to pay expensive taxes and deal with inflation. In China, they were going through an economic depression. Along with the depression, China had to go through wars like the Opium War and the Sino-French War. Then came the idea that Asians were below other people, and the government issued the Chinese Exclusion Act on May 6th, 1882, to try to stop Chinese people from immigrating to America. During the same time as the Chinese Exclusion Act and before the Alien Acts happened in California, Japanese people began to immigrate to California, looking for a better life, as did the Chinese immigrants. They were intrigued by the employment of railroads, mining companies, and agricultural producers. This only increased as the 1900s started, with many immigrants working for white farmers. From their jobs, a lot of the Asian immigrants gained enough money to own, lease, and even rent land that no one wanted at the time. With this land, they would plant vegetables and fruits day and night. Japanese people even wanted their kids to learn