Chinese Immigration in the 19th Century America
1. Introduction
Since its founding, the United States has attracted immigrants from all over the world and consists of a variety of different cultures. Immigration has had an enormous impact on American society and economy and shaped the country remarkably.
American was dominated by the image of the melting pot that “melts up” all race differences and cultures to become on American culture. The ideas of multiculturalism started at the end of the nineteenth century and turned into the concept of cultural pluralism that defined the nation as a mixture of diverse ethnicities with different cultural backgrounds, all co-existing and contributing to the new nation.
Over the past centuries, there have been debates on how to define the “real” American and the “real” American identity. A lot of these struggles also led to Civil War (1861-1865). After war, congress passed the 14th Amendment to answer the question of whether former slaves could be citizens of the United States. The Amendment says that all persons born and naturalized in the United States are citizens of the United States. But debates on who is a “real” American, who could stay in the country and who should get kicked out continued.
One group of immigrants that had a huge influence on the prospering economy and the growing expansion of nineteenth century America, especially in the west, were the Chinese.
Significant Chinese immigration began with the discovery of gold in California and the following Gold Rush in 1849. First the Chinese were labouring in mines and later also in agriculture and industry. The Transcontinental Railroad also provided a major source of labour for the Chinese. During the expansion of the west, there was a need for many unskilled and cheap workers.
Non-Chinese workers despised the Chinese because many of them lost their jobs and due to the Chinese immigrants that would work for less money than any other workers. Since many white workers were faced with unemployment,
Since its founding, the United States has attracted immigrants from all over the world and consists of a variety of different cultures. Immigration has had an enormous impact on American society and economy and shaped the country remarkably.
American was dominated by the image of the melting pot that “melts up” all race differences and cultures to become on American culture. The ideas of multiculturalism started at the end of the nineteenth century and turned into the concept of cultural pluralism that defined the nation as a mixture of diverse ethnicities with different cultural backgrounds, all co-existing and contributing to the new nation.
Over the past centuries, there have been debates on how to define the “real” American and the “real” American identity. A lot of these struggles also led to Civil War (1861-1865). After war, congress passed the 14th Amendment to answer the question of whether former slaves could be citizens of the United States. The Amendment says that all persons born and naturalized in the United States are citizens of the United States. But debates on who is a “real” American, who could stay in the country and who should get kicked out continued.
One group of immigrants that had a huge influence on the prospering economy and the growing expansion of nineteenth century America, especially in the west, were the Chinese.
Significant Chinese immigration began with the discovery of gold in California and the following Gold Rush in 1849. First the Chinese were labouring in mines and later also in agriculture and industry. The Transcontinental Railroad also provided a major source of labour for the Chinese. During the expansion of the west, there was a need for many unskilled and cheap workers.
Non-Chinese workers despised the Chinese because many of them lost their jobs and due to the Chinese immigrants that would work for less money than any other workers. Since many white workers were faced with unemployment,