"Little is more extraordinary that the decision to migrate, little more extraordinary than the accumulation of emotions and thoughts which finally leads a family to say farewell to a community where it has lived for centuries...Today, when mass communication tell one part of the world all about another it is relatively easy to understand how poverty or tyranny might compel people to exchange an old nation for a new one. But centuries ago migration was a leap into the unknown."
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19th Century: The 'Old' ImmigrantsA peaceful, industrious nation with land to settle, America was a haven for the subjects of Europe. These low-skilled immigrants were essential to the industrialization of urban America. Only two percent were turned away and the majority came from Northern and Western Europe.
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The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882ended all immigration from China. It scarred our nation's values.
"After the Gold Rush of 1849, the Chinese were drawn to the West Coast as a center of economic opportunity where, for example, they helped build the first transcontinental railroad by working on the Central Pacific from 1864 to 1869. The Chinese Exclusion Act foreshadowed the immigration-restriction acts of the 1920s, culminating in the National Origins Act of 1929, which capped overall immigration to the United States at 150,000 per year and barred Asian immigration.
The law was repealed by the Magnuson Act in 1943 during World War II, when China was an ally in the war against imperial Japan. Nevertheless, the 1943 act still allowed only 105 Chinese immigrants per year, reflecting persisting prejudice against the Chinese in American immigration policy. It was not until the Immigration Act of 1965, which eliminated previous national-origins policy, that large-scale Chinese immigration to the United States was allowed to begin again after a hiatus of over 80 years." - Harvard University, "Immigration to the United States" "A cartoon depicts anti-Chinese sentiment."
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"the following classes of aliens shall be excluded from
admission to the U.S... persons who are natives of islands not possessed by the
United States adjacent to the Continent of Asia, situated south of the 20th
parallel latitude north, west of the 160th meridian of longitude east from
Greenwich, and north of the 10th parallel of latitude south, or who are natives
of any country, province, or dependency situated on the Continent of Asia west
of the 110th meridian of longitude east from Greenwich and south of the 50th
parallel of latitude north..." ~ 1917 Immigration Act, 39 Stat., page 876
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