Essay Sample on Immigration: A History of Movement for Work & Settlement

Introduction

Immigration is an issue that has been there even before Civil, but after the war, it intensified. After the war, the immigrants started entering the United States, and by the beginning of the 20th century, approximately 12 million people had arrived in the country. While some of the immigrants went to the United States to permanently live there, others went to the state for work purposes and returned to settle in their country. The Chinese immigrants, for example, were men who had left their families in China and after saving some money, they returned in their country.

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The movement between the United States and China started in 1784 when sailing between the two countries became possible through The Empress of China (Monroe, n.d). The ship destination was in Guangzhou American missionaries arrived there in 1830. It is at the same time that Chinese travelers arrived in the United States. The first Chinese travelers arrived in 1785, and they got stranded at Baltimore, Maryland. The evidence of Chinese culture was first witnessed in 1839 when a merchant from Philadelphia who had been doing business with China for twelve years came back to the country. He came with a variety of items from China ranging from artifacts, botanical samples, arts and many more all which promoted the Chinese culture.

The relationship between China and the United States started in 1844 with the signing of the Wangxia Treaty (Monroe, n.d). This process was started in 1843 when the U.S secretary of state was sent to negotiate the treaty. He performed the task successfully, and the terms of the treaty favored the U.S by giving them more privileges in China.

The Tianjin had a positive impact on the relationship between China and other countries. The 1858 treaties made trade possible by opening more ports and the Qing court allowed the establishment of diplomatic offices in Beijing. The Chinese associate the problems they face in their country with the United States and refer to them as injustices that should be corrected. The relationship created through the treaty seemed to have opened immigration doors, and Chinese started traveling to the United States to offer labor. When California Gold Rush was opened in 1849, any Chinese citizens arrived in the United States to offer labor in the firms. They provided unskilled labor in the railroads, mines and other areas that needed this kind of skills. Within 20 years 100,000 Chinese had arrived in the United States.

When the American saw that the number of Chinese immigrants was increasing their perception changed and they viewed them as inferior people as compared to their Caucasian counterpart (Monroe, n.d). Congress acted to curb the number of Chinese immigrants by implementing a Page Act in 1875 that could prohibit the coming of Chinese coolies as well as Chinese women who came to the country to act as prostitutes. The Chinese Exclusion Act was also passed to prohibit Chinese immigration in the United States for ten years. The Chinese were undermined as they were seen as low-class individuals with no education and dangerous and the subsequent effect was harassment.

The Chinese could no longer enter the United States as more treaties were signed by the two countries to restrict entry to the United States. Although the Chinese public did not approve the treaties, the Chinese government agreed to sign the treaties. The other treaty that dealt with the issue of immigration of Chinese is Bayard-Zhang Treaty signed in 1888 (Jaggers, Gabbard, & Jaggers, 2014). The treaty signed by the two countries restricted the migration of Chinese citizens to the United States for an additional of t20 years. This meant that for a total of 30 years no Chinese could be allowed to enter the U.S. this could help minimize the number of Chinese immigrants in the country. To ensure that any Chinese who left the United States and returned to China could not come back.

The Scott Act was extended, and in 1892 the Geary Act used to extend the prohibition for an additional decade (Soennichsen, 2011). Apart from restricting the new immigrants those already in the country were expected to carry their residence permits whenever they went. Their rights were further curtailed, and even after the Geary Act became ineffective in 1902, Congress came up with other legislative measures that prohibited the migration of the Chinese to the country. Additionally, they came up with other legislative measures that facilitated removal of the Chinese immigrants who were already in the U.S. The Chinese immigrants were only left in some specific areas especially in the rural areas in places referred to as "China towns."

Conclusion

In conclusion, the relationship between China and the United States was promoted by Wangxia Treaty. The Tianjin also boosted the relationship between the two countries and The Empress of China ship eased the transport between the two countries. The Chinese migrated to the United States to offer unskilled labor and when they increased in number the Congress passed Acts to prohibit their migration. The migrants who were already in the country faced harassment, and they were required to produce residence permits whenever they went.

References

Jaggers, J., Gabbard, W. J., & Jaggers, S. J. (2014). The devolution of US immigration policy: An examination of the history and future of immigration policy. Journal of Policy Practice, 13(1), 3-15.

Monroe, E. U.S.-China Relations: A Brief Historical Perspective. Retrieved from http://uscpf.org/v3/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/backgrounder-on-US-China-relations.pdf

Soennichsen, J. (2011). The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. ABC-CLIO.