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Chinese American Immigration History Timeline
1848
First Chinese immigrants – two men and one woman – arrive in San Francisco on the American brig, Eagle
1849
Gold discovered at Sutter’s Mill, California. Chinese began the first mass immigration wave to the US.
1852
195 Chinese Contract Laborers land in Hawaii.
1854
People v. Hall rules that Chinese cannot give testimony in court.
1855
Gold rush in California faded.
1862
Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, the Chinese 6 Companies, formedCalifornia passes a “police tax” of $2.50 a month on every Chinese, the first time a tax was charged only on a specific ethnic group.
April 26, 1862， California passed an Act to “Protect Free White Labor Against Competition with Chinese Coolie Labor and to Discourage the Immigration of the Chinese into the State of California”.
Congress passed the Pacific Railroad Acts of 1862.
Anti-Coolie Law. Congress approved an act banned transportation of “coolies” in ships that were either owned or not owned by citizens of the United States of America.
1863
The construction of the Transcontinental Railroad started.
1865
Central Pacific Railroad Co. recruits Chinese workers for the first transcontinental railroad
1867
2,000 Chinese railroad workers stage a one week strike. They wanted equal pay and safer working conditions.
1868
Burlingame-Seward Treaty – United States and China agreed to trade, travel, and residence rights for each other’s citizens; still prohibited naturalization; additional articles to Sino-American treaty of 1858
1869
First transcontinental railroad completed. Many Chinese worker lost their jobs and started to migrate to other regions in the US.
1870
California passes a law against the importation of Chinese, Japanese, and “Mongolian” women for the purpose of prostitution.
1871
Los Angeles, CA: anti-Chinese violence.
1875
Page Law – While the stated purpose of the Page Law is to prevent Chinese prostitutes from entering the United States, it is instead used to exclude Chinese women; declared all earlier state laws regarding immigration unconstitutional.
1877
Chico, CA: anti-Chinese violence
1878
In re Ah Yup case, District of California Circuit Court rules Chinese ineligible for naturalized citizenship.
1880
US and China sign treaty giving the US the right to limit but “not absolutely prohibit” Chinese immigration.
California’s Civil Code passes anti-miscegenation law, that banned interracial marriage and sometimes sex between members of two different races.
1882
1882 Chinese Exclusion Act prohibited immigration of Chinese contract laborers for ten years; subsequently renewed; prohibited naturalization.
1884
Increased restrictions on Chinese in the US and those seeking reentry -wives barred; anti miscegenation laws.
1885
Rock Springs Wyoming Anti-Chinese Violence.
1886
Yick Wo v. Hopkins – the first case where the United States Supreme Court ruled that a law that is race-neutral on its face, but is administered in a prejudicial manner, is an infringement of the Equal Protection Clause in the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
1888
Scott Act, prohibited immigration of virtually all Chinese, including those who had gone back to China to visit.
1889
Chae Chan Ping v. United States – Supreme Court ruled that an entire race that the government deemed difficult to assimilate might be barred from entry regardless of prior treaty
1892
Geary Act; The law extended exclusion of Chinese laborers another ten, required all Chinese residents of the United States to carry a resident permit, a sort of internal passport. Failure to carry the permit at all times was punishable by deportation or a year at hard labor. In addition, Chinese were not allowed to bear witness in court, and could not receive bail in habeas corpus proceedings.
1893
Fong Yue Ting v. U.S. Supreme Court declared that the power of Congress to expel, like the power to exclude, aliens, or any specified class of aliens, from the country, may be exercised entirely through executive officers. Chinese community had raised money to bring this before the Court to test the Geary Act.
Congress amended the Geary Act to make it more difficult for Chinese businessmen to enter this country.
1894
Immigration officers authorized to ban the entry of certain aliens, including Chinese Gresham-Yang Treaty-China accepted total prohibition of immigration to the United States in return for readmission of those back in China on a visit. This showed the enforcement of the Scott Act of 1888.
1898
Congress excluded Chinese laborers from Hawaii; excluded Chinese in Hawaii from coming to the United States.
United States v. Wong Kim Ark; Supreme Court rules person born in the United States of Chinese parents is of American nationality by birth
1900
United States v. Mrs. Cue Lim -Supreme Court ruled wives and children of treaty merchants were entitled to come to the United States.
San Francisco Chinatown quarantined during bubonic plague scare.
1902
Chinese exclusion extended for another 10 years.
1904
Chinese exclusion made indefinite. All Chinese excluded from the United States, Washington, D.C., and all U.S. territories
1906
San Francisco earthquake and fire. Records of Citizens and visitors lost, which provided opportunities for the “paper sons” later.
1907
Congress legislates that a woman who marries is assigned the nationality of her husband, regardless of whether she is a native-born citizen of the U.S.
1909
The Boxer Rebellion Indemnity Scholarship Program (庚子赔款奖学金) was a scholarship program funded by Boxer Rebellion indemnity money paid to the US that provided for Chinese students to study in the U.S. Approximately 1,300 students were able to study through the program from 1909 to 1929. In 1929, after Tsinghua had become a true university itself, the Boxer Rebellion Indemnity Scholarship Program was opened to all candidates. A total of five groups of scholars were educated in the U.S. before the Japanese invasion of China in 1937.
1910
opens as an official immigration station.
1917
Asiatic Barred Zone Act passed in Congress; extends the Chinese Exclusion Act into “Asiatic Exclusion,” barring from admission anyone born in what Congress now calls the “Asiatic Barred Zone.” It includes most of the continent and the Pacific.
1921
National Origin System – Immigration Act (Johnson Act) – used the country of birth to determine whether an individual could enter as legal alien, the number of previous immigrants and their descendants used to set the quota of how many from a country could enter annually. It is the basis of immigration system till 1965.
1922
The Cable Act reforms the law that removes a woman’s U.S. citizenship upon marrying a foreign national, but because of America’s “Asiatic Exclusion” policy, this does not extend to women who marry Chinese nationals.
1923
Chinese student immigration ended because of strict requirements for having the funds necessary to return to China; U.S. Supreme Court upheld constitutionality of state Alien land Acts
Supreme Court decision, United States v. Bhagat Singh, third decision
1924
Immigration Act (Johnson-Reed Act) restricted all Asians from coming into the United States, creating national origins quotas that discriminate against immigrants from southern and eastern Europe and Africa.
1925
Chang Chan et al. v. John D. Nagle – Supreme Court ruled Chinese wives of American citizens not entitled to enter the United States.
Cheung Sumchee v. Nagle -Supreme Court ruled 1924 Immigration Act did not apply to treaty merchants’ wives or children.
1927
Weedin v. Chin Bow -Supreme Court ruled persons born to American parents(s) who never resided in the United States are not of American nationality, thus not eligible for entry.
1928
Lam Mow v. Nagle -Supreme Court ruled child born of Chinese parents on American vessels on high seas was not born in the United States, therefore not a citizen
1940
Nationality Act made it possible for Filipino immigrants to become naturalized citizens.
1943
Chinese Exclusion Repeal Act – also known as the Magnuson Act repealed the exclusion of Chinese immigration; token 105 Chinese immigrants allowed to enter the United States annually, selected by U.S. government.
1945
War Brides Act-Admission to the United States for spouses and children of U.S. armed forces members, included 722 Chinese
1946
Wives and children of Chinese American citizens allowed to apply as no quota immigrants.
1947
Anti-Communist McCarthyism started in the US. Many Chinese were then viewed as communist after 1949, when the P.R. China was established and ruled by the communist party.
1948
Displaced Person’s Act of 1948. 15,000 Chinese enabled to change their status in the United States; expired in 1954.
1951
Remittances to mainland China prohibited because People’s Republic entered Korean War in Oct. 1950.
1951- 1964
Admission of war brides and young children exempt from quotas.
1952
Immigration and Nationality Act (McCarran-Walter Act) passed to create one comprehensive statute out of the multiple previous laws, and revises the national origins quota system to be tied to the composition of the U.S. as recorded in the census of 1920. It also removed total ban of Chinese immigrants but upheld national origins quotas.
1953
Refugee Relief Act-2000 places allotted to Chinese out of total 205, 000 people to be admitted; law expired in 1956.
1957
Immigration and Nationality Act of 1957, which amended the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 to refine its definition and applicability to stepchildren, illegitimate children, etc.
Refugee Escapee Act extended unused allotments of 1953 act, benefiting over 2000 Chinese.
1962 -1965
Attorney General allowed 15,000 Chinese to enter as parolees due to refugee situation in Hong Kong.
1965
Immigration Act of 1965, also known as the Hart Cellar Act Signed by President Johnson. Immigration and Naturalization Act eliminated national origins quotas; 20,000 people per country allowed in (Taiwan and Mainland China were considered as one origin in this law); priority to those with skills and family in United States.
1979
US broke diplomatic relations with the Republic of China, while the Taiwan Relations Act gave Taiwan a separate immigration quota of 20,000 from that of mainland China.
Vietnam was at war with the P.R. China. Many ethnic Chinese living in Vietnam, who felt that the government’s policies directly targeted them, became “boat people.” Over a few years, United States had homed about 823,000 refugees from Vietnam.
1990
Immigration Act of 1990, which defined that Hong Kong would be considered as an independent area with 5000 immigration quota annually after the handover of Hong Kong to P.R. China.
1992
Congress passed the “Chinese student protection act of 1992”, a bill sponsored by U.S. Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) which granted permanent residency to all Chinese nationals who arrived in the United States on or before April 11, 1990. This bill benefited about 80,000 Chinese.
P.R. China officially started to allow Americans (and other foreigners) to adopt the abandoned babies, when China instituted its first Adoption Law. Most of the abandoned children are girls, victims of China’s “One Child Policy”. The immigration of a child adopted is considered as family re-union and is not subject to quota restrictions.
2009
California State issued a formal apology for past discriminations against Chinese.
