Timeline of Chinese Legislation and Immigration

By: Allison Wedwaldt, Laura Thomson & Urvashi Chatterjee

Overview:

The first documentation of the Chinese immigrants to the Unites States was back in the 1800's, primarily during the California Gold Rush. The population began to grow and flourish in America, but during the 1900s Chinese immigrants faced many challanges when they tried to enter the United States. ^[1]

Timeline:

• 1882- The Chinese Exclusion Act was signed by US Congress, which was the first federal immigration law to suspend Chinese immigration for 10 years and prohibited Chinese citizenship in the United States. 
• 1888- The Scott Act prohibited immigration of all Chinese, including those who had only gone back to China to visit.

• 1889- Chinese exclusion case (Chae Chan Ping vs. United States) was brought to the Supreme Court, which ruled that an entire race that the government deemed difficult to assimilate might be barred from entry regardless of prior treaty

• 1900- The San Francisco quarantine, a legislation designed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to harass Chinese lving in San Francisco's Chinatown was formed. They initiated the bubonic plague scare, which was an attempt to label the Chinese as "carriers of diseases," and to remove Chinese from the center of San Francisco.

• 1902- The Chinese Exclusion Act was renewed indefinitely and extended for another ten years.
• 1904- Although the Chinese Exclusion Act had only been renewed for another ten years in 1902, in 1904, US Congress made the Chinese Exclusion Act permanent.
• 1905- Construction of the Angel Island Immigration Station began in the area of California known as China Cove.
• 1907- The US Court extends the Naturlization Act to apply to other Asian countries so that they would not be allowed to enter the country.  
• 1910- Angel Island opened, which kept the immigrants from communicating with other Chinese prior to admittance into the United States. Here, men and women were separated from one another and all immigrants were locked into dormitories surrounded by a barbed wire fence that prevented escapes until immigrant were admitted into the country or deported. 

• 1912- The Chinese American Citizen Alliance is formed by American-born Chinese in California to defend the civil rights of Chinese Americans.

• 1917- an "Asiatic Barred Zone" was established by the Immigration Act, which barred all Asians who were 16 and over to take a literacy test.

• 1921- The first "Quota Law" was passed, which restricted the number of immigrants from each country to 3% of its population represented in the 1910 US Census.
• 1923- Chinese student immigration ended because of strict requirement for having the funds necessary to return to China.
• 1925- In the Chang Chan et al vs. John D. Nagle court case, the Supreme Court ruled that Chinese wives of American citizen were not entitled to enter the United States, known as the "War Brides Act".
• 1928- In the Lam Mow vs. Nagle case, the Supreme Court ruled that a child born of Chinese parents on American vessels was not born in the United States, and therefore not an American citizen.
• 1941- The Japanese military attacked the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor on December 7th, in which they succeeded in siking five U.S battleships and killed 2,400 American citizens. As a result, the American people's paranoia of all Asian people grew.

• 1943- The Chinese Exclusion Laws were repealed in the Magnuson Act in the name of unity among the Allies and China's quota was set at a token 105 immigrants annually.
• 1947- Congress amended the "War Brides Act", which now allowed Chinese wives of Chinese-American veterans to immigrate to the United States on a non-quota basis.
• 1952- The Immigration and Nationality Act elimininated race as a prohibit to immigration or citizenship.
• 1965- Immigration and Naturalization Act eliminated national origins quotas; 20,000 people per country allowed in; priority to those with skills and family in United States; ^[2]
• 1981- Mainland Chinese and Tawianese were allowed to send 20,000 people each year to the U.S.

Sources:

1. http://teachingresources.atlas.uiuc.edu/chinese_exp/resources/resource_2_2.pdf
2. http://online.sfsu.edu/~ericmar/catimeline.html
3. http://www.flowofhistory.org/themes/movement_settlement/uspolicytimeline.php
4. http://academic.udayton.edu/race/02rights/immigr05.htm
5. http://us_asians.tripod.com/timeline-1900.html
6. http://us_asians.tripod.com/timeline-1910.html
7. http://www.chssc.org/history/histtimeline.html