Exclusion of Chinese Americans in History

They had no stake in their community, state or nation. The use of the Irish and Italian, as well as the Chinese immigrants as strikebreakers became commonplace in the 1870’s (Lee 55). Because they were kept from really becoming successful, few Chinese immigrants were allowed to bring their wives and families over to California. While it is true that he Irish were also used as unskilled laborers, by their very “whiteness”, they were not viewed as the same threat as the “brown-skinned” Chinese. This stigma has followed the Chinese immigrants through World War II, the 1950’s and the “red China” scare, all the way up to the scandals of finance reform and the Asian connection in the Clinton administration.

For more than a century and a half, Asian Americans, including Chinese, were barred from naturalization (Volpp 2). In 1870, Senator Cowan warned, Whether this door (of citizenship) shall now be thrown open to the Asiatic population…(for the Pacific Coast this would mean) an end to republican government there, because it is very well ascertained that those people have no appreciation of that form of government; it seems to be obnoxious to their very nature; they seem incapable either of understanding or carrying it out…(Volpp 1). This was another way they were kept from participating in local politics, taking away their voice, collective and individual, and even their future. These white men became increasingly threatened by immigrant labor, specifically the Chinese. This kept them in the category of foreigner, banned from owning property and thus from being able to not only prosper in the United States, but to have a stake in the politics of America. This statement helped start not just the discrimination of Chinese immigrants in the labor movement, but also the right they would have to naturalize and become citizens. This racial exclusion has shaped the ability of Asian Americans to acquire citizenship (Volpp 3). This was another way the Nativists helped shape the anti-Chinese movement. Even though the Irish and Italians were used, once again the Chinese became the focus of the anti-immigrant sentiment. They were, in effect, strangers in their own country.