Anti Chinese Immigration Dbq

Secondly, in the United States, foreign policies are not created to uphold morality because although some laws were enforced with the purpose to protect America’s economic interests, they instead promoted white supremacy. The Chinese Exclusion Act was immoral because it was enacted due to the accusation of Chinese labor immigrants causing economic hardships, and was the first time the United States restricted immigration explicitly on the basis of race. With political instability and declining economic opportunities in China, Chinese laborers began to immigrate to America during the mid-1800s for economic opportunities during the Gold Rush and the building of the transcontinental railroad. Anti-Chinese sentiment grew as many white laborers

Although the Chinese only took undesirable jobs with low wages that the “whites shunned,” Americans labeled the Chinese as “unfair labor competition” and a threat to their economic stability. Racism and economic hardships due to a loss of jobs, was “a major reason why the dominant white population wanted to exclude” the Chinese. Due to societal pressures and discrimination, Chinese Americans were denied “basic civil rights...equal protection under law...nationalization…[and] immigration to the U.S.,” as their basic liberties were taken away with racism. Although the Chinese Exclusion Act was created to improve economic conditions, it included anti-Chinese sentiments that the Chinese were a threat to white labor and the purity of the white race in America, causing much conflict and violence to occur between white Americans and the Chinese. The Chinese were also prohibited from reuniting with their families back in America, provoking an incentive to create enclaves, or Chinatowns, for protection and support of people with the same culture and background. Chinatowns were created as a product of racial discrimination within society as well as government-mandated racism that outlawed assimilation with the white American

Also known as the “Save Our State Initiative,” Proposition 187 was implemented due to a faltering economy as Californians were recovering from the recession of the early 1990s and were looking for ways to cut their state budget. Because the Latino, Hispanic, and Asian population increased dramatically, many blamed the immigrants and their use of state services for the economic turmoil. As a result, Californians established Proposition 187, which required all state and local officials to report the immigration status of people in the country illegally and “bars illegal aliens from the state's public education systems from kindergarten through university, and requires public educational institutions to begin verifying the legal status of both students and their parents...Public education is the most costly service used by illegal aliens in California--providing education for the estimated 300,000 to 400,000 illegal alien children in California schools accounts for about half of the estimated $3 billion annual costs of services provided to the estimated 1.7 million illegal aliens in California” (MN, par. 9). Proposition 187 caused undocumented immigrants to be ineligible for basic public benefits such as education, health, and social