Chinese Immigration Research Paper

Chapter One: Introduction to Investigation

Immigration to North American nations has been a staple process for countries like the United States and Canada. Without immigrants, these two nations would not have become as large and successful as they are today. However, easy and encouraged immigration has not always been a constant for these two countries. Throughout the centuries, there have been issues and disputes over immigration for particular ethnicities and groups of people which continue even to this day. One example being the current dispute on Mexican immigrants residing or entering the United States and whether it requires heavier government intervention. Within this situation, Mexican immigrants, both legal and illegal, face legislation,
public reception and economic challenges that are potentially or already are discriminatory in nature. A similar problem beginning almost two centuries ago has already occurred in both the US and Canada regarding Chinese immigration, and was treated in similar if not worse response to that of today’s Mexican immigrants. Hopefully by examining the US’s and Canada’s responses to past Chinese immigration, those involved in today’s similar issue can make better judgements based on what has and has not worked in the past.

The aforementioned problem was one of the largest past uproars concerning American and Canadian immigration, which was with the sudden flow of Chinese immigrants to North America in the 1800s to the 1920s. Most of who hailed from Southern China, poor Chinese immigrants that journeyed to the United States to secure their share in the American Dream, often found that dream a fantasy. Upon arrival in North America, Chinese faced a wide range of obstacles; from rudimentary racism and nativism all the way up to federal legislation, an onslaught of hardships were hurled their way, all of which made it exceptionally difficult to make a decent living.

There were, however, some discrepancies between the American reception of Chinese immigrants and Canadian reception of Chinese immigrants, which poses the question: To what extent were the US and Canada similar in their reception of Chinese immigrants during events leading up to the US’s Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) and events leading up to Canada’s Chinese Immigration Act (1923)?
The time periods being the United States from 1850 to 1882 and Canada from 1880 to 1923, where both immigration eras were ended by each country’s individual exclusion act. Despite how these two eras have quite large time spans, ranging from thirty five to forty three years in length, the ranges appropriately encompass events for both nations that pertain to the thoroughness of this investigation. This is in part due to the difficulty in finding primary sources from the time, both from North Americans and from immigrants. That being said, the investigation was undertaken using what could be found (both primary and secondary sources) to examine the similarities and differences between American reception of Chinese and Canadian reception in social, economic and political areas. The social area concerns the initial reception and sentiments regarding Chinese immigrants by American and Canadian people. The economic area pertains to Chinese employment objections, discrimination faced by Chinese in the labor force, and the Chinese laundry business. The political area examines legislation enacted in both
countries that were directed at and/or affected Chinese immigrants as well as politicians that influenced public opinion on the matter.

The course of this investigation has determined that while the United States and Canada differed slightly in the social reception of Chinese immigrants, the evidence suggests that the two countries possessed, to a greater extent, more similarities in political and economic objections in their receptions of Chinese peoples.

Chapter Two: Background on Investigated Chinese Immigration

In the early 1800s, Chinese immigration to North America and particularly the United states was low, with numbers in the single digits.
This was in part due to a law that the then Chinese emperor had set, which effectively banned emigration, notably during the Opium Wars between China and England beginning in 1839. , Yet, this was later lifted, and waves of immigrants began to enlarge significantly. Immigrant to America rose from 450 immigrants in 1850 to 63,000 by 1870. ,

Another factor contributing to larger immigrant waves from China, was rapid and widespread population growth. From 1787-1850, southern China’s population doubled from sixteen million to twenty-eight million and with this jump in numbers, domestic food production did not correspondingly increase to meet demand and resulted in sizeable food shortages and starvation. These food shortages occurred partly due to lack of healthy farmland, and partly due to the decrease in plots available to build housing to accommodate population growth.
Accompanied