2023 - O/N - 9489/12 | Q1

The Act of 1882 has been a success. Chinese immigration has declined and the ruling against Chinese becoming citizens has been enforced. We see that no harm has been done to our relationship with China’s government and people. While there were initially some complaints from employers that good labour was in short supply, this is no longer the case. Tragically, the disorder following the introduction of the Act did last for some years. Our Constitution is clear that we have a right to decide who can, and who cannot, come into America. There has been no violation of the principles on which this country is based. There is no place in America for people from such an alien culture.

While there may have been a case for permitting immigration after the dreadful losses in the war against slavery, there must now be effective limitations on immigration. We are becoming the dumping ground for the unemployable, the undesirable, the dangerous radical, the old and sick. Those we admit must be those who we need and who will conform in every way to our values.

From a speech in the House of Representatives on a Bill to extend the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 for a further ten years, April 1892.

When I and my brothers came to America from China in the 1870s, Chinese workers were largely welcomed and tolerated. Our labour was much needed and our willingness to work hard in those jobs which Americans did not wish to do was praised. Our labour built the railroads to the West. We cleared the land, planted and harvested in California. We did not fill the jails like the Irish and we did not form labour unions like the Europeans. We were seen as law-abiding citizens who contributed much to America.

Much was changed by the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. The intentions were to prevent future immigration from China and prevent Chinese from becoming American citizens. It failed in the first, as many entered illegally, but succeeded in the second. The Act caused an outbreak of killing and looting against our people and led to further outbreaks of racial hatred. It angered the Chinese government and fuelled the anti-foreign Boxer uprising. There were many complaints from Californian food growers that they could no longer harvest their produce. Worst of all we felt that it violated the very principles on which the United States was founded – those of equality and liberty.

From ‘The Life Stories of Undistinguished Americans as told by themselves’, published in New York, 1906.

We would like to assure members of Congress that there are many benefits to encouraging further immigration. Many manufacturers report a growing shortage of unskilled labour in roles that many Americans dislike. Immigrants will fill those positions and are accustomed to hard work. They will help create more jobs and wealth. We also need many skilled workers in agriculture, mining and our clothing industries. Any restrictions will anger the Italian and Polish immigrant societies, seeing them as an attack on their nations. The Jewish and Roman Catholic communities see restrictions as an attack on their beliefs and wish to see their communities grow. Immigrants are no threat to America. They have made America what it is today.

From a pamphlet by the American Emigrant Company, published 1910.
The company made its money assisting those who wished to emigrate to the United States.