Back قانون استبعاد الصينيين Arabic Çinlilərin təcrid aktı Azerbaijani Chinese Exclusion Act (Estats Units d'Amèrica) Catalan Chinese Exclusion Act Danish Chinese Exclusion Act German Ley de Exclusión China Spanish قانون ممانعت ورود چینی‌ها Persian Chinese Exclusion Act Finnish Loi d'exclusion des Chinois French חוק הדרת הסינים HE

Chinese Exclusion Act

For Chinese Exclusion Act in Canada, see Chinese Immigration Act, 1923.
Not to be confused with Immigration Act of 1924.
Chinese Exclusion Act
Great Seal of the United States
NicknamesChinese Exclusion Act
Enacted bythe 47th United States Congress
EffectiveMay 6, 1882
Citations
Public lawPub. L. 47–126
Statutes at Large22 Stat. 58, Chap. 126
Legislative history
  • Introduced in the House as H.R. 5804 by Horace F. Page (R–CA) on April 12, 1882
  • Committee consideration by House Foreign Relations
  • Passed the House on April 17, 1882 Votes 88R 102D Not Voting 52 (202–37)
  • Passed the Senate on April 28, 1882 Votes 9R 22D Not Voting 29 (32–15) with amendment
  • House agreed to Senate amendment on May 3, 1882 (Agreed)
  • Signed into law by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882
First page of the Chinese Exclusion Act passed by Congress in 1882[1]

The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years. The law made exceptions for merchants, teachers, students, travelers, and diplomats.[2] The Chinese Exclusion Act was the first major US law ever implemented to prevent all members of a specific national group from immigrating to the United States, and therefore helped shape twentieth-century race-based immigration policy.[3][4]

Passage of the law was preceded by growing anti-Chinese sentiment and anti-Chinese violence, as well as various policies targeting Chinese migrants.[5] The act followed the Angell Treaty of 1880, a set of revisions to the US–China Burlingame Treaty of 1868 that allowed the US to suspend Chinese immigration. The act was initially intended to last for 10 years, but was renewed and strengthened in 1892 with the Geary Act and made permanent in 1902. These laws attempted to stop all Chinese immigration into the United States for ten years, with exceptions for diplomats, teachers, students, merchants, and travelers. The laws were widely evaded.[6]

In 1898, the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Wong Kim Ark that the law did not prevent the children of Chinese immigrants born in the United States from acquiring birthright citizenship.

The law remained in force until the passage of the Magnuson Act in 1943, which repealed the exclusion and allowed 105 Chinese immigrants to enter the United States each year. Chinese immigration later increased with the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which abolished direct racial barriers, and later by the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which abolished the National Origins Formula.[7]

  1. ^ Tracey, Liz (May 19, 2022). "The Chinese Exclusion Act: Annotated". JSTOR Daily. Retrieved April 24, 2024.
  2. ^ Lee 2002.
  3. ^ "Chinese Exclusion Act". Encyclopædia Britannica. July 21, 2023.
  4. ^ Ow, Jeffrey A. (October 2009). "Immigration at the Golden Gate: Passenger Ships, Exclusion, and Angel Island". Journal of American Ethnic History. 29 (1): 72–73. doi:10.2307/40543565. JSTOR 40543565. S2CID 254489490.
  5. ^ Lew-Williams, Beth (2018). The Chinese Must Go: Violence, Exclusion, and the Making of the Alien in America. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-97601-6.[page needed]
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Lee2003 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Wei, William. "The Chinese-American Experience: An Introduction". HarpWeek. Archived from the original on January 26, 2014. Retrieved February 5, 2014.

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