Angel Island and Asian Immigration
Angel Island is located in San Francisco, California. The island was originally used as a military reserve in 1850 to defend the Bay from any attacks by the Confederate forces in the Civil War. It stayed in operation, however, through WWII. The Department of War also allocated 20 acres of land to be used to build an immigrant station in 1905. Between 1910-1940, it is estimated that this station processed 250,000 Chinese immigrants, 150,000 Japanese immigrants, and 1 million immigrants total. Angel Island was the point of entry for Asian immigrants who were coming to the United States.
Video on Immigration History at Angel Island:
History of Asian Immigration in California
Before the 1800s, very few people from Asian countries immigrated to the United States. However, this changed during the 19th century when many Asian countries began mass immigrating to America. Gold was discovered in California in 1848, which led to the recruitment of Chinese immigrants for labor work in mining. Other immigrants left China to escape ongoing rebellions in their country. As a result, Chinese immigrants began filling up jobs lacking manpower and skilled workers.
During the economic crash/crisis in the 1870s, wages tanked, and many Americans lost their jobs. Chinese immigrants were willing to work for lower salaries, so white workers found themselves competing for jobs. As you can imagine, this caused the white workers to become upset. In addition, political figures began to blame the Chinese immigrants for the decline in wages and the unemployment rates. We can see this still happens today where presidents such as Donald Trump blame immigrants for "stealing American jobs."
As a result, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in 1882. This Act restricted the travel of any Chinese workers from traveling to the United States for ten years. It also prevented any Chinese immigrants already in the United States from becoming citizens for ten years as well. This Act was the first race-based immigration restriction put in place by the US congress. During the Trump Administration, we saw another race/region-based immigration restriction barring anyone from Middle Eastern countries from traveling to the United States.
