Chinese Americans
Chinese Americans are Americans of Chinese ancestry. They have ancestors from mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, as well as other regions of the Chinese diaspora, especially Southeast Asia. Chinese Americans include naturalized U.S. citizens as well as their natural-born descendants.
The Chinese American community is the largest Chinese community outside Asia and the third-largest community in the Chinese diaspora, behind the Chinese communities in Thailand and Malaysia. The 2022 American Community Survey of the U.S. Census estimated the population of Chinese Americans at 5,465,428, including 4,258,198 who were Chinese alone, and 1,207,230 who were part Chinese. The 2010 census numbered the Chinese American population at about 3.8 million. In 2010, half of the Chinese-born people in the United States lived in California and New York. About half of the Chinese people in the U.S. in the 1980s had roots in Taishan. Much of the Chinese population before the 1990s consisted of Cantonese or Taishanese-speaking people from Guangdong province. During the 1980s, more Mandarin-speaking immigrants from Northern China and Taiwan immigrated to the U.S. In the 1990s, Fujianese immigrants arrived, many illegally, particularly in the New York City area. In the 1800s and 1890s Chinese and Chinese Americans lived almost entirely in Western states, especially California and Nevada, as well as New York City.
History
First wave (1815–1949)
19th century background
Most early Chinese migrants were young men from villages of Toisan, as well as the eight districts in Guangdong Province. They were motivated to leave by floods and famine in the mid-nineteenth century, as well as mass political unrest such as the Red Turban unrest and the Punti-Hakka Clan Wars. The vast majority came from a small area of eight districts on the west side of the Pearl River Delta. The eight districts consist of three subgroups—the four districts of Sze Yup, the district of Chung Shan, and the three districts of Sam Yup—each subgroup speaking a distinct dialect of Cantonese. Immigrants from Sze Yup generally worked as laborers; those from Chung Shan specialized in agriculture; and those from Sam Yup became entrepreneurs.California gold rush and railroad construction
In the 1850s, Chinese workers migrated to work in the California gold rush, and also to do agricultural jobs and factory work, especially the garment industry. Some became entrepreneurs. Chinese often settled in ethnic neighborhoods called Chinatowns. In 1852, there were 25,000 Chinese migrants in America. After coming to the United States, these immigrants learned a lot of new knowledge about transportation, communications, architecture, medical care that they could not get in China. They also learned new Western culture, including new food, religion, life.In 1862, the Pacific Railroad Acts led the Central Pacific Railroad to recruit labor gangs to build on the transcontinental railroad, most of whom were Irish. Later, these workers were accused of being "unsteady men and unreliable." Only a few Chinese were hired, but the employers found them quick to learn, careful and frugal, and paid less than white workers. Construction Superintendent J.H. Strobridge and the acting chief engineer, Samuel S. Montague were impressed by the experience and efficiency of the Chinese workers. They reported that Chinese workers laid 10 miles and 56 feet of track in a single day on April 28, 1869.
However, Chinese workers had their own "community", with their own chefs and accountants. They arranged their own board, including imported Chinese staples, such as dried shellfish, fish, fruits, vegetables, and seaweed, as well as local products. Observers recount that these railroad workers bathed daily, changing into clean clothes after work, and preferred to build their own dugouts and stone shelters rather than use company-provided tents. The Chinese railroad workers, it is recounted, kept to themselves and, other than gambling, enjoyed few vices.
Chinese laborers built the majority of the difficult route through the Sierra Nevada mountains and across Nevada. Some died in the heat of Nevada's summers and cold winters. In June 1867, to make up for the progress lost in the winter weather, the management decided to increase working hours. Chinese workers organized a strike. Although they were spread out over several miles of the line in numerous camps, they communicated closely and coordinated a work stoppage. In the end, the company raised their wages, but only slightly.
The 1870 U.S. Census recorded 63,199 Chinese in the United States, and by 1890, the number had increased to 126,778. It was still difficult to obtain citizenship. In 1871, a white supremacist mob attacked Los Angeles' Chinatown and killed nineteen Chinese residents. Those lynched and shot likely included former railroad workers. The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act forced more Chinese to leave the United States.
Chinese Exclusion Acts
The Burlingame–Seward Treaty of 1868 between the United States and Qing China specified the rights of Chinese to immigrate, but the Page Law of 1875 banned female Chinese migrants from entering the country. Upon arrival Chinese men and women were separated, often for weeks, as they awaited hearings on their immigration status. The women were subjected to detailed questioning on their family life and origins and their responses were compared with others from their village. Discrepancies were used to justify denial of entry. The stress and delay caused many women to fall ill, even to commit suicide. Once they were allowed into the country, women migrants faced additional challenges. Many were coerced into prostitution; in 1878 over 60% of the adult Chinese women in California in 1870 worked in the sex trade. Some had been lured by the promise of marriage only to become sex slaves, while others came to reunite with their families. Ninety percent of the Chinese women who immigrated between 1898 and 1908 did so to join a husband or father. By 1900, only 4,522 of the 89,837 Chinese migrants were women.In 1880, the diplomat James B. Angell negotiated a new treaty with Qing China. The Angell Treaty of 1880 restricted Chinese immigration and banned the naturalization of Chinese migrants, then the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 prohibited all Chinese from immigrating for 10 years and required all Chinese to carry identification. This was the first act in American history to restrict immigration. Then, six years later, the Scott Act of 1888 illegalized reentry to the United States after a visit to China, even for long-term legal residents.
In 1892, the Geary Act extended provisons in the Chinese Exclusion Act, and in 1902, the prohibition was expanded to cover Hawaii and the Philippines, despite the strong objections from the Chinese government and people. TheChinese community, however, turned to the courts for redress. In 1898, the United States v. Wong Kim Ark was argued before the Supreme Court, and the decision was that ethnic Chinese born in the United States were American citizens.
The Chinese Exclusion Acts remained part of the law until 1943. With relations already complicated by the Treaties of Wangxia and Tianjian, the increasingly harsh restrictions on Chinese immigration combined with the rising discrimination against Chinese living in the United States in the 1870s-early 1900s.
Second wave (1949–1980)
The Chinese Exclusion Repeal Act, passed in 1943, allowed Chinese immigration at the rate set by the Immigration Act of 1924, which was 2% of the Chinese American population in 1890. In 1949 the Chinese Communist Party won the Chinese Civil War and refugees from the conflict came to settle. The 1924 Immigration Act's quota system for was repealed when Lyndon B Johnsen signed the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, which increased the cap for Chinese immigrants. Since the United States did not formally recognize the People's Republic of China, Chinese Refugees in the 1960s and 1970s had come almost exclusively from Hong Kong and Taiwan. Richard Nixon's visit to China in 1972 led to formalization of relations in 1979, allowing travel to resume. The Taiwan Relations Act of 1979 further separated Taiwan and Chinese immigration quotas as well as formalizing relations.The Second Wave of Chinese Immigrants consisted mostly of Hong Kong and Taiwanese nationals as well as students and professionals. The Aid Refugee Chinese Intellectuals initiative in 1952 helped Chinese refugees with more than two years of college move into America. Additionally thousands of Chinese students after the Chinese Civil War were unable to return to mainland China.
Third wave (1980s–present)
In the 1980s and 1990s Chinese immigration continued to increase, with the number of Chinese Americans breaking 1 million by the 2000s. New Chinatowns emerged in Flushing and 8th Avenue in New York City and Richmond in San Francisco and existing Chinatowns expanded to accommodate the influx of Chinese immigrants.Economic growth in the People's Republic of China has given mainland Chinese more opportunities to emigrate. A 2011 survey showed that 60% of Chinese millionaires were planning to emigrate, with 40% of Chinese millionaires selecting the United States as the top destination for immigration.
Under the EB-5 program, applicants, together with their spouses and unmarried children under 21 years old will be eligible to apply for U.S. permanent residency as a group. Because the EB-5 program allows applicants to apply as a family, it has been reported to be a significant method for Chinese students to obtain authorization to work in the United States. Chinese multimillionaires benefited most from the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program in the U.S. in 2021, as long as one has at least US$500,000 to invest in projects listed by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, where it is possible to get an EB-5 green card that comes with permanent U.S. residency rights, but only in states specified by the pilot project. The H-1B visa is also becoming one of the main immigration pathways for the Chinese with 9% of the approved petitions in 2016.