Immigration Legislation, 1790-1924• 1790 Naturalization Act: Whites only • 1868 Burlingame Treaty: recognized free migration and emigration of Chinese to

US as visitors, traders or permanent residents. • 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act: no more Chinese emigration • 1906 Gentlemen’s Agreement: Tensions with Japan intensified in 1906 when the

public school system in San Francisco, California, segregated immigrant Japanese children. A 1907 agreement between the United States and Japan, known as the Gentlemen’s Agreement, resolved the dispute, but tensions persisted between the two ascendant powers.

• 1907-1913: deny land ownership to Japanese immigrants • 1920: aliens who are ineligible for citizenship are not allowed to lease agricultural

land or acquire agricultural land from minors • 1921: Ladies Agreement: Japan barred emigration of picture brides • 1922: Cable Act: white woman lost citizenship if she married Asian • 1923: Alien Land Law: illegal for aliens ineligible for citizenship to acquire,

possess, enjoy, use, cultivate, occupy and/or transfer real property. Their was based on ineligibility of Japanese to be naturalized citizenship. This underscored necessity of citizenship.

• 1923: Asian-Indian Exclusion Act • 1924: National Origins Act: prevented Asian men from bringing their Asian wives to

US. Still let European men go home to get their wives • 1924 ; US Border patrol established

Asian Immigration to the United States by Country of Birth, 1820-2000

0

100000

200000

300000

400000

500000

600000

700000

800000

1820 1830 1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000

China

Hong KongJapan

Korea

Philippines

VietnamOther Asia

Foregin Born Population in the United States: Asian, 1850-1990

0

1000000

2000000

3000000

4000000

5000000

6000000

Percent of Immigrants to CA

China, 5.5

Hong Kong, 1.6

India, 3.5

Japan, 1

Korea, 2.4

Laos, 1.5

Philippines, 11.1

Taiwan, 2.9

Thailand, 1.3

Vietnam, 10.3

Percent of Persons in the United States Who Are Asian Alone: 2000

California's Proportion of US total

China, 21

Hong Kong, 42

India, 22

Japan, 35

Korea, 33

Laos, 50Philippines, 43

Taiwan, 50

Thailand, 50

Vietnam, 43

Legal Immigrants to the 10 Most Intended Zip Codes of Residence in CA: 1993

Employment Based Immigrants for the 10 Most Frequent Zip Codes of Intended Residence: 1993

Japanese ethnic solidarity

• a shared identity as countrymen and common cultural values

• contributed to the establishment of the Issei ethnic economy, which in turn provided an economic basis for ethnic cohesiveness.

• But both their ethnicity and their economy developed within an American context of what Edna Bonacich terms ‘ethnic antagonism.’

• Racial exclusionism defined the Japanese as strangers and pushed the Issei into a defensive Japanese ethnicity and group self-reliance.

• Denied access to employment in the industrial and trade labor market, many Issei entered entrepreneurial activity, turning to self-employment as shopkeepers and farmers.

• Many Asians went to Hawaii first and worked in sugar fields. Experiences in Hawaii very different from continental experience.

• 1898: Davis Company ordered supplies• dried blood• laborers (75 Japanese)• mules and horses

Japanese Farming

• 1910grew 70% of CA strawberries• 1940grew 95% of CA fresh snap beans• grew 67% of CA fresh tomatoes• grew 95% of CA fresh celery• grew 44% of CA fresh onion• grew 40% of CA fresh green

peas

From a CA farmer about Japanese land ownership

• “near my house is an 80 acre tract of as fine land as there is in CA. On that tract live a Japanese. With that Japanese lives a white woman. In that woman’s arms is a baby. What is that baby? It isn’t Japanese. It isn’t white. I’ll tell you what that baby is. It is a germ of the mightiest problem that ever faced this state; a problem that will make the black problem of the South look white. All about us the Asiatics are gaining a foothold.”

Laws directed toward Japanese Immigrants

• 1906: Gentlemen’s Agreement• 1907-1913: deny land ownership to Japanese

immigrants• To avoid 1913 land law—Japanese leased land under

their American-born children• 1920: aliens who are ineligible for citizenship are not

allowed to lease agricultural land or acquire agricultural land from minors

• 1921: Ladies Agreement: Japan barred emigration of picture brides

• 1923: Alien Land Law: illegal for aliens ineligible for citizenship to acquire, possess, enjoy, use, cultivate, occupy and/or transfer real property. Their was based on ineligibility of Japanese to be naturalized citizenship. This underscored necessity of citizenship.

• Issei: first generation Japanese immigrant• Nisei: Second generation Japanese immigrant• Sansei: Third generation Japanese immigrant• Yonsei: Fourth generation Japanese immigrant• Gosei: Fifth generation Japanese immigrant

• Nihonmachis: Japantowns• Kodomo no tame ni: For the sake of the children• Ko: duty to parent• Giri: mutual obligation• On: ascriptive obligation• Gaman zuyoi: strength and endurance

Chinese Immigration to US, 1901-2000

0

50000

100000

150000

200000

250000

300000

350000

400000

450000

Year 1901-1910 1911-1920 1921-1930 1931-1940 1941-1950 1951-1960 1961-1970 1971-1980 1981-1990 1991-2000

In Class Exercise

• Using the ideas of acculturation, primary and secondary structural assimilation, compare and contrast the experiences of the Japanese and Chinese as minority groups in America.