assignment for nyanya

ENGLISH 101 Yanrong Cao Ong, Wooi chin & N. Ramirez December 9, 2016 The Immigrant stories: The Chinese immigrants to America Three waves of migration marked Chinese immigration into the US. They migrated between the periods of 1849-1882, 1882-1965, and 1965 to the present. Each of these waves had its own propelling reason. [What were the specific reasons? You can identify these reasons and later elaborate on them. Maybe break down the various reasons for each of these periods of migration.] Chinese people were poor economically and during their period of migration, they were marked as being desperate to participate in any odd jobs including mining and building railways (Lee 150). The Chinese people migrated into China in steam ships and entered at San Francisco’s harbor which significantly was the first China town to be established in the US. The first immigrants from China were motivated to move to the US to improve their economic status, get exposure and have earned extra money through odd jobs that they would then send to their families in China. The first wave of migration was that of the 1848 “Golden Mountain” legacy. During this period it was heard that gold had been discovered in the golden mountains of California. Naturally many other people came in to bag the benefits that they could reap (Najia 100). The Chinese people were no exception. The Chinese male immigrants also significantly contributed to the construction of the great western railway. The other prime motivation for their migration between the period of 1882 – 1965 was the civil war and the consequent drought which made sustaining their livelihood in China an almost impossibility. During this period some laws were made to prohibit the migration of Chinese into the US. They included the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 which restricted the entry of the Chinese people into the US, and the law required that any offenders of Chinese origin were to be imprisoned or deported back to their country Furthermore American citizenship was denied to those Chinese who were already living in the US. Presently Chinese immigrants come in the form of adoptees. These are orphans [All of them? Give me a statistical breakdown.] that get adopted by American families. It is estimated that the Americans have adopted more than fifty-five thousand children from 1991 and issued six thousand five hundred visas to the new breed of Chinese immigrants. Challenges faced by the Chinese during their immigration periods The 1871 Massacre     According to Johnson (585), the 1871 Chinese massacre was the largest attack and massacre in the history of the United States against any group of immigrants. It was the torturing and killing of people of the Chinese descent. Before this incident, there had been an abduction of a Chinese woman. This triggered the Chinese to retaliate and thereby killing a Native American. In a payback attempt, the people at the rail road came together to fight against the Chinese immigrants. They were made of both the original Americans and people of the Hispanic descent with few African Americans who all worked at the railroad construction sites. The attack took the form of ransacking of all the Chinese immigrants at the site. Eighteen men were publicly beaten and then hang with a few of them being hanged naked. In history, this is viewed as among the worst show of hate that there ever is (Johnson 585). The massacre took place in Los Angeles streets formally known as Nigger Alley on 24th October of 1871. The attack was done by over five hundred white men against the Chinese race. In as much as the event was to settle the differences between the Chinese attackers and the death of the local rancher, it was publicly viewed as racially motivated and lasted for slightly over a decade long. It is further believed that the violence against the Chinese was motivated by the fact that they were a more preferred workforce than their counterparts who emphasized better pay with favorable working conditions for them to work on the transcontinental railroad. [You probably don’t want to break down your research into these kinds of sections. It seems more like you are summarizing various essays, information you had collected in your research. Also, you want to use the information to say something instead of just providing the information. The question is why is it so important for your readers to know this?] 1882 The Chinese Exclusion Act     This law was enacted by the 47th US Congress and was made effective on 6th May 1882. It is a special law as it was the first of its kind that restricted the foreign immigrants from coming into the USA (LeMay 2013). At that time the Chinese immigrants were limited as they were below one percent of the total immigrant population. The law, however, came about as an attempt by the government to maintain the racial purity of all whites’ population. The law was attributed to the poor working conditions that the Chinese made possible. With their willingness to work for so little and under pathetic conditions, the transcontinental railroad workers did not like them as they took up most of the workforce and thereby calling their relatives who were still in China to join them in work (Lee 2003). This brought about fear of the Chinese immigrants inflating the US and thus resulting in the law being enacted. The law demanded that the Chinese immigrants not be allowed into the US for a period of ten years. It was a major turning point for Americans as it marked transformation since initially it welcomed all immigrants into the land. The law was, however, specific and indicated only the Chinese immigrants. Anyone who opposed the law was either imprisoned or sent back to China (Morawska 140). The law also ensured that the Chinese were not capable of being citizens by naturalization. Naturalization is attaining citizenship after a prolonged stay in one country. The law was renewed in 1892 for another ten years, still targeting the Chinese. In 1902, however, the law was made permanent and it prohibited Chinese immigration. They were part of the undesirable groups in America. Such laws made it difficult for the Chinese immigrants to grow economically as they were naturally oppressed they further had limited rights and privileges as they were seen as illegal in all their actions. Following these laws against them, the Chinese immigrants rioted and formed opposition groups to resist and express their dissatisfaction at the laws against them. There were over ten thousand lawsuits brought by the Chinese immigrants to oppose the law (Wong 158). They argued that the law was contradicting itself and it should be more accommodative through the Fourteenth Amendment. The amendment stated that the Constitution protected every person living in America including foreigners and not only native Americans. The most significant rebellion and through a lawsuit were that of 1905 US v. Toy. 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Paper sons This is an important part of the Chinese immigration history as it marked the resistance of the immigration laws by the immigrants. In particular, the earthquake brought about power failure and fires which burned many things in the city including the documentation papers of the Chinese immigrants. Without their documentation, most of them claimed that they had been born in the US and thus were citizens by birth. With this claims, they were allowed to bring in their children as it was constitutional (Lee, Ramkrishman & Ramirez 2006). During this period many immigrants came into the US and the effort to limit the number or Chinese immigrants was cut short by the earthquake and fires. The incident gained its name from the many people who claimed to be of US origin. 1910-1940 Angel island     This was another attempt put forward by the government in a bid to deport as many Chinese immigrants as possible. The Angel Island was located in San Francisco and it housed both men and women. The activity that went on the island was that of interrogation. The Chinese immigrants were held up from several weeks to even numerous years. The motivation behind this detention was that the immigrants would be asked very complicated questions about their home country and by so doing they would fail to answer them. Failure to get the correct answers resulted into the detainees being deported or further imprisonment at the cells. News traveled to the Chinese who were in China of the unfavorable conditions and the interrogations at the island. They were made ready for the interrogation however the process realized reduced number of Chinese moving into the US. The conditions at the island were equally unfriendly as they were crowded and the detainees were not treated very well (Lee 2003). This part of history for the Chinese immigrants was a tough one to recall as this was part of the government initiative to reduce their numbers as were the previous laws. It is believed that this traumatizing part of the Chinese existence in the US primarily haunts and even affects the interaction of the Chinese people. 1943 Act to Repeal the Chinese Exclusion Acts and World War II The restrictive laws made against the Chinese immigrants saw to it that they did not support the USA during the world war. The Chinese people in and out of the US joined the Allied powers. President Franklin Roosevelt, as a result, signed into law an act that repealed the Chinese Exclusion Acts, it was known as the Magnuson Act of 1943. The Act lifted the restrictions on the naturalization of Chinese immigrants and thus allowed the immigrants to be considered as American citizens (Barkan 2013). The primary motivation behind this act was to gain Chinese support of the US during the world war. Furthermore, the law provided that one hundred visas be supplied to Chinese immigrants in the US which also controlled their welcome. Despite the Act being initiated to reduce the restrictions imposed on the Chinese immigrants, there was no significant change that was realized up until the Immigration Act of 1965. 1952 The Immigration and Nationality Act (or the McCarran-Walters Act) and the 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act     The first Act saw to it that the exclusions made against the Asians and especially the Chinese immigrants were lifted. It introduced a system that based immigration on family unification and skill sets. The second law allowed more immigrants of Chinese descent to move into the US. Unlike the previous quota system that valued western European immigrants, this law focused more on the work skills that would be valuable to the economic growth of the country. This law, in particular, brought about the biggest developmental changes among the Chinese immigrants. The one that stood out was that there was increased the number of immigrants making their way into the US. In that period alone, the number of immigrants doubled up (Lee et al. 2006). The other issue was that the type of immigrants also changed. There was evidence of more professionals moving into the US as opposed to the skilled workers from rural China. Most of the new arrivals also came from the more developed towns of Hong Kong and Taiwan as opposed to the rural folks from western Asia. As of the 1980s there has been increased number of Fujian Chinese immigration and they are a majority of the Chinese Americans in the Chinatowns in America. Human Rights Restoration Act of 1996 and the China’s family planning policy When the Republic of China passed a law that limited the number of children that urban families should have to two, many of the couples and partners of their persecuted wives sought asylum in the USA. This was, therefore, a new generation of Chinese immigrants into the country. Initially, before Congress revised the law, the US offered asylum to families who were persecuted for violating the policy about family planning. It further went ahead to protect those spouses who were either persecuted or were threatened with persecution for either not being willing to abort or were unwilling to follow the sentence through (Lee et al. 2006). Most of them were shielded by human rights commissions and groups based in the USA. This particular law was however revised and it limited the number of immigrants seeking Asylum. It established that the US does not automatically offer asylum to partners or spouses whose females have been persecuted for not obeying and adhering to the one child per family policy in China. It was ruled in July 2015 by the second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. These transitions are vital in understanding the processes through which the Chinese immigrants moved to the US. It is an important factor to establish the primary motives throughout the time of their relocation to the US from their home country. Significantly the Chinese immigrants came in during the earlier centuries for economic reasons which later evolved into social and finally political reasons. The setbacks that they faced during their immigration periods were also paramount in making of some of the current policies on immigrants in the US. Significant gender roles of the Chinese immigrants It should be noted that the Chinese immigrants during the immigration period took on duties that were viewed as unusual so as to continue in their sustenance. In the duration of the first immigration, the majority of immigrants were men as the conditions of the environment where they worked were unfavorable for the women immigrants. For that reason, the men took on odd jobs that were traditionally women’s work so that they could make money. They engaged in child rearing, laundry work, cooking and cleaning among the newly established frontier communities. By engaging and farming, they made significant financial contributions to the economy of the West. The few women who managed to make it to these frontiers also involved in odd jobs. Most of them engaged in prostitution ((Lee 2003). In the early 1900s, the Chinese immigrants ventured into regions beyond those around the railroad where they were numerous concentrated. In so doing the immigrants managed to transform the swamps of California into productive and profitable farm lands (Barkan 2013). Besides farming, they were the first people in that region to engage in the fishing industries. This they did at parts of the Californian swamp of the west. With this expansions and developments, the females soon joined their male counterparts and established small businesses in the areas where they settled. Their trade was seen to grow but was often hindered by the Immigration Acts that were often passed to curtail their presence in the US. In as much as the Chinese moved to America with the hope of making their lives better, the journey has been a tough one for them and their challenges can be dated back to their first round of immigration. The period around 1865 saw a majority of laborers constructing the transcontinental railroad to be Chinese immigrants more specifically, men. The Chinese were favorable as they provided cheap labor and agreed to work under very horrible conditions as compared to the other workers. When the railroad construction ended, the Chinese were left without direct jobs and they faced opposition from the other communities. This spiraled into the Anti-Chinese violence of 1871. They became a target for discrimination and violence in the western cities which they inhabited (Elliott 56). Other forms of discrimination and oppression were evident in the laws that were developed against them, for example, the 1892 Geary Act. This particular code was drawn up to prohibit Chinese persons from moving into and reentering the US once they got deported. For those who were already in the US, they were required to register and get certified as their proof of rightly being in the US. Violation of these penalties resulted in imprisonment and deportation. The Chinese migration into the US made a significant contribution to the economy of the US, then and now. During the transcontinental railroad era, the first group of Chinese restaurants was established which promoted cross-culturalism (Zhou & Kim 5). The Chinese men made food for the workers at the rails. Women were not typical in these sides due to the harsh climate and the working conditions. It is however noted that there were a smaller group of women who bravely ventured into the territories and took part in commercial sex work. Most of them remained in the cities where they practiced small trades. The other significant impact of the Chinese migration was their contribution to the construction of the railroad. With their cheap and unconditional labor, they managed to complete the construction faster than any historically build by human hands in the west of the US (Lee 80). There was a significant increase of trade activities among the Chinese traders which were the greatest contributing factors to the China towns all around the US. The current geographic distribution of the Chinese immigrants in the US In as much as there is the distribution of Chinese immigrants all over the US, there are specific places that are significant with the immigrants. During the immigration periods of the 1800s, most of the Chinese immigrants entered the US through San Francisco and settled in areas around there. Currently, most of the immigrants have settled in other cities with the highest concentration in California and New York. As of 2013, it is reported that these two States harbored the most number of immigrants totaling to about forty-six percent of their entire population in the US. In the 1800s the primary motivation of the distribution of the immigrants solely lied on the availability of work (Barkan 2013). As they came in most of them were involved in trade and the labor force including working in the railroad construction. Over time that has changed as the immigrants have diversified and they are now participating in a number of other activities as the other locals of the US. Despite their spread all over the United States of America, the Chinese do not acknowledge English as their first language. The professionals may speak English in public but most of the people of Chinese descent express themselves and acknowledge Chinese as their first language. This has greatly contributed to cohesion and common understanding despite being far off from their original homeland in China. Integration and transformation from slavery to a significant part of the US economy     It should be noted that the Chinese were the immigrants that were had the least prestigious jobs which were characterized by the least pay as well as the most unpleasant working conditions (LeMay 2013). This they did so that they could persevere the worse of conditions and have something to send to their families back at home in China. There has been a transformation from that situation to them holding among the most prestigious professions in the US as compared to all the other immigrants. Of all the immigrants of the US, the Chinese as well as the other Asian immigrants to the US have had the fastest and most significant transformation. They have contributed largely to the growing economy of the US. A study conducted by Pew Research Center (2016), established that the Asian Americans were the highest paid and the best-educated immigrants as compared to all the other immigrants. They were also the best educated too. They had high values that surpass even the Native Americans on important matters such as career success, parenthood, marriage and hard work. This is an extraordinary transformation from their times of slavery and being aliens in the 1800s. Back then they accepted jobs that were low paying and they did not mind the conditions under which they worked. In the current economy, they are recorded to be the highest paid as they are well educated and they are smart and what they do. It is approximated that they earn an annual average of sixty-six thousand dollars as compared to the ordinary American who makes a total of forty-nine thousand dollars annually on average. They may not be the largest number of Ph.D. holders but they are better educated than the average immigrants and the Americans. The study further indicated that this group of immigrants had contributed immensely to the economy in the technological sectors. An example is the Silicon Valley Company which has most of CEOs and managers being of Asian descent. The total number of managers of the Chinese descent running the firm was seventeen percent while the other Asian immigrants made up 7 percent of the overall management (Monroe 2012). The evidence shows that the company made more profit and annual returns when it was led by foreign-born lead technologists and Chief Executives. In 2005, the company generated a total of fifty million dollars and created over four hundred and fifty thousand jobs. The other significant transformation made by the Chinese immigrants is that of their prominence in the job market. Many employers in the technologically based companies have in the past decades had a deficiency of suitable employees. As of 2012, the Bureau of Labor and Statistics reported that more than three million jobs remained vacant. The reason for these figures is that the jobs required proficiency in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (SMET). Such have been limited to find however the gap is being slowly but sufficiently being filled by the Asian immigrant communities. It is said that without this particular group of people there would have been an evident crisis looming as most of the other population have not the specialty in the four fields (Bellows 2011). Counter argument The Chinese immigrants’ history migration to the US has been a tedious one full of various challenges and unresolved issues. Their problems and difficulties are however different in the current society as they are no longer immigrants. They have been given the liberty to become US citizens with less constricted processes as they were in the 1800s and 1900s. Most people will take such negativity and may not turn them into anything positive. An important lesson that can be learned from this group of immigrants is their determination to make it despite the challenges that they underwent. Most importantly, they knew why they came to the US which was for economic reasons and this made them open to do all that they could do to make it in their new country. Chinese immigration history reveals that the world may not accept you and that one may be exposed to different cultures. It is, however, important always to work to sustain essential elements of one’s culture despite the immense relationships. One particular study as mentioned above established that Chinese as well as other Asian communities have been acknowledged with their pride in their culture as well as their substantial value for the elements of their culture including their institution of marriage and family. The Chinese immigrants serve as an example of a group of people who value perseverance and the need to stay relevant and valued.  They are currently located in numerous towns where they have established businesses. The one thing that they are currently associated with is their culinary skills and their food. Chinese food is currently among the top most desired dishes by most Americans. They have moved from the famously know China towns and they are equally served in larger restaurants and competitive prices. Chinese immigrants are best emulated to come up with solutions to social problems and transition from hardship to stability. While history holds that most of the Chinese immigrants moved to the US for economic reasons, a good number of them came to do social status and to live the American dream. The immigration negatively implicates the immigrants, however, there is extensive evidence that the Chinese immigrants have positively affected the economy of the US and especially the education sector. According to statistics from the Department of Education (201), universities across the US awarded forty-nine percent of Asians (twenty-nine percent being of Chinese descent) with degrees. This was compared to twenty-eight percent of all Americans who completed college. Their primary focus was on the STEM subjects. The same statistics hold that forty-five percent of all degree holders in Science and Engineering courses were awarded to the Asian immigrants with twenty-one percent being of Chinese descent. Through their statistical cultural interactions the Chinese had written books and contributed to cultural dynamism. A typical example is the way that they have transformed their oppression and turned into positive factors other sinks into the depression of their ancestors into the American land (Zhou & Kim 12). The oppression that this group of immigrants felt in the period of their migration is the act opposite of what they are currently facing. Finally, they have successfully made a transition from their oppression and hardship in the earlier centuries and contributed intellectually, socially and economically to the United States of America. Work cited Aarim-Heriot, Najia. Chinese Immigrants, African Americans, and Racial Anxiety in the United States: 1848 - 1882. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2003. Print. Barkan, Elliott R. Immigrants in American History: Arrival, Adaptation, and Integration. Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO, 2013. Print. Bellows, John. The Many Contributions of Immigrants to the American Economy. U.S. Department of the Treasury. June 2011. Retrieved from:  https://www.treasury.gov/connect/blog/Pages/The-Many-Contributions-of-Immigrants-to-the-American-Economy.aspx Johnson, Kevin R. "Race, the Immigration Laws, and Domestic Race Relations: A Magic Mirror into the Heart of Darkness." Immigr. & Nat'lity L. Rev. 19 (1998): 585. Lee, Erika. At America: Chinese Immigration During the Exclusion Era, 1882-1943. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003. Internet resource. Lee, Taeku, S K. Ramakrishnan, and Ricardo Rami´rez. Transforming Politics, Transforming America: The Political and Civic Incorporation of Immigrants in the United States. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2006. Internet resource. LeMay, Michael C. Transforming America: Perspectives on U.s. Immigration. Santa Barbara, Calif: Praeger, 2013. Print. MIN ZHOU and SUSAN KIM Community Forces, Social Capital, and Educational Achievement: The Case of Supplementary Education in the Chinese and Korean Immigrant Communities. Harvard Educational Review: April 2006, Vol. 76, No. 1, pp. 1-29. doi:  http://dx.doi.org/10.17763/haer.76.1.u08t548554882477 Morawska, Ewa. "Immigrant transnationalism and assimilation: a variety of combinations and the analytic strategy it suggests." Toward assimilation and citizenship: Immigrants in liberal nation-states. Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2014. 133-176 . Monroe, Tapan. “Contributions of the Asian Americans to the Economy” July 2012. Retrieved from: https://tmunroe.wordpress.com/2012/07/02/contribution-of-asian-americans-to-the-economy/ Wong, Morrison G. "The Chinese American family." The New Immigrant and the American Family: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the New Immigration4 (2014): 158