Describing how asian immigrants in california had more extensive background checks and longer Holding Times than european immigrants in new york. The class is about 90 minutes. Well, hello, guys. Welcome back. Im really excited to talk to you today for our session this afternoon because so many of us as americans, we grow up learning about the history of immigration through ellis island, right . This is what we talked about last week. It is the history of european immigrants coming to the new world under the shadow of the statue of liberty. It is often told as a very uplifting and romantic story where immigrants become americans, but not many of us know the history of immigration through angel island. This is the immigration station in San Francisco, and it is an important site not only for what happened back then in the early 20th century but also because it is so timely today. It is timely because when we pick up any newspaper we see headlines like this. This is just from last week. Reps slam obamas immigration town hall. Obama ill fight any attempt to reverse immigration action. Moving forward to fix our broken immigration system. House conservatives warn boehner, dont cave on immigration dispute. Does anyone know what some of these headlines are referring to last week . What was the big debate in congress . What was the proposed shutdown . Diego . They were fighting to shut down dhs funding because of obamas executive action referring to families. Right. So obamas executive action that would protect million also of undocumented immigrants, undocumented immigrants parents, undocumented immigrants who are parents of u. S. Citizens or legal residents, this would halt their deportation. We know that this is quite a controversial action right now. Governors of 26 states have sued the white house because they believe this executive action exceeds the president s authority. At the same time theres a judge in texas who halted the immigration order, and this has created grid lock in congress. Obama says hes going to continue to fight. He had a town hall in miami that was sponsored by a group where he was talking about his commitment to reforming Immigration Laws. We know because weve been studying immigration history for the past several weeks this is just the latest in our nations immigration debate, but it does seem like it is a contracted one. There doesnt seem to be an end in sight. So how do we consider this immigration debate with what weve been talking about most recently . Immigration through ellis island. That story of european immigrants coming to new york, passing through ellis island. Certainly there were examinations, there were physicals, there was some detention, but it was primarily pretty shortlived and most immigrants were admitted pretty easily into the country. Not only that, but this story has taken on a myth of its own. It is really the bedrock of this idea that the United States is a nation of immigrants, right . So how do we reconcile this great immigration debate thats going on today and then this idea that we are a nation of immigrants . I think one of the way also that we can think about this complicate it history of immigration is through looking at immigration through angel island. We know that not all immigrants were welcomed into the country, not all immigrants were able to achieve their american dreams, but rather we picked and sifted and chose which immigrants to let in and which immigrants to let out. To keep out. Many times this really was dependent upon an immigrants race, ethnicity, gender, class, this idea of who was fit to become a citizen and who was not. This is the history that is best exemplified through immigration through angel island. This is in the San Francisco bay. It is that other island, not alcatraz, but it is the other island in the San Francisco bay that is now california state park. So the immigration station on angel island was open from 1910 to 1940. You primarily think about it as an entry point for immigrants from china and japan, and twothirds of the immigrants who did come through angel island were from those two countries. As you can see, there are over 80 countries represented on the immigration screen that came through angel island. According to our research it ranged from places like denmark and luxembourg, to south africa, spain, switzerland, also folks who came south from canada and also north from south america. This is a photograph of the Administration Building on angel island. When immigrants would dock, they would land on a pier. They would go up this pier and this is the first sight they would see. There are three entrances here and racial segregation was the order of the day. There was an entrance for employees, an entrance for whites and an entrance for asians. Within that Administration Building there were separate waiting areas as well. At all times the different groups were separated from each other through this Administration Building. So when we compare it to ellis island, ellis island is primarily enforcing laws that relate to immigrants from europe, right . It is in new york and most of the immigrants coming over are coming across the atlantic. Angel island is situated in San Francisco on the pacific ocean. It is primarily enforcing laws targeting asian immigrants and the laws are very different. While ellis island is mostly a processing center, angel island is a place of interrogations, Health Examinations and detention. This history is not as wellknown but it is important because it helped shape our modern immigration system. So lets take a look at who these asian immigrants were. When we think about this great era of immigration, theres two great eras of immigration. One is the one that were living in today and the other is around the turn of the century from 1830 to 1930. There are 35 Million Immigrants who come during this century of migration. The vast majority, 32 million, are from europe. So this is about a Million Immigrants from asia, and another Million Immigrants come from latin america. In the big picture, this is just a drop in the bucket, right . One million out of 35 million who are coming. It is pretty diverse. Theres about 450,000 chinese, theyre the largest group. Theres also 380,000 japanese, 150,000 filipinos, and then 7,000 to 8,000 to 9,000 each koreans and south asia. South asia is the term that was used to describe immigrants from india, pakistan and bangladesh. So it is a great diversity not only in ethnicity but also in terms of numbers. Remember, theres only a million of them. But asian immigration helps to ignite some of our most divisive immigration debates. Who were these immigrants . The chinese. They are like the european immigrants that we studied. Theyre mostly young, male laborers. They want to come to the United States, theyre thinking that their stay is temporary, that theyre going to make money, return home. Thats why they come alone. Even if theyre married they tend to leave their wives and children behind. But over the years they decide eventually that they would like to stay in the United States. So they start calling for their family members. Similarly, the japanese are also male laborers. So, remember, this is a time when immigrants are needed for their labor, right . It is for railroad building, it is for agricultural work, it is for light industry, it is for mining. So they want unskilled laborers to do that work. So japanese are also male laborers. They are generally more educated than some of the other asian immigrants because of compulsory education in japan. They also come thinking theyre going to stay only temporarily, but over time, again, like the chinese, they decide that the United States is worth settling down in and they start calling for their wives and fiances to come as well. So by world war ii, the japaneseamerican population is such that theres a really great proportion of u. S. Born children. This is very different than the other groups. The immigrants here are coming from south asia are really extremely diverse. Theres a mixture of hindus, muslim and mostly sikh. Theyre from the punjab area of pakistan. Theyre male laborers but increasingly a lot of students are coming over, too. One of the things that makes this group pretty unique is it is a period of intense indian nationalism, and the immigrants coming over at this time are very much a part of that nationalist movement. Koreans are a small group. Theyre a small group because japan has colonized korea by this time, and japan is very much controlling who goes in and who leaves the country. So only a small number of koreans are coming over to the United States, primarily to the west coast and to hawaii, and they also are coming for work, but more so than other groups they really see themselves as refugees, similarly to the russian jews that we were studying last week. They are fleeing japanese colonialism which was extremely harsh and restrictive. Korean language was banned, korean newspapers were banned, there was lots of surveillance. They see themselves as refugees fleeing their homeland and potentially staying away for a long time. So they come, a higher proportion come as families. One of the other things that makes them unique or different from other asian immigrant groups is theyre often christians because of the role of u. S. Missionaries, american missionaries in korea at this time. It is a really broad, Diverse Group of people who are coming. The last group are filipinos. They also are coming as male laborers but, again, what makes them unique is that they are coming as a totally different immigrant status, not even an immigrant status. The philippines has been colonized by the United States. So filipinos when they migrate, they migrate as what was called u. S. Nationals. This is a different legal category. Theyre not subjected to Immigration Laws, which is really important. So every other immigrant group is restricted. Filipinos can still come without restriction and without those interrogations and inspections. They also see themselves as american. Theyve grown up with american teachers. Theyve grown up with american culture. Theyve grown up believing about the glory and riches of america. So they believe that theyre coming to just another part of the country, that theyre already american. But they are unequal in status. U. S. Nationals allows them to migrate, but theyre not citizens. They cannot vote. When they come, they often face a lot of, surprising to them, antiasian sentiment. So this is the broad diversity of asian immigrants who are coming to this country early 20th century. When they come they set in motion the reaction that americans have to them, sets in motion some of the most divisive immigration debates we have ever had in this country. This may be surprising to many people because today when we talk about asianamericans, we talk about the popular understandings that theyre on the rise, that theyre whats the stereotype of asianamericans . Theyre smart. What else . Theyre a particular type of minority. You guys remember the term . Yes . Theyre the model minority. Theyre the model minority. What does that mean . It means out of all marginalized groups they are somehow exemplary and they constitute a narrative that the rest of marginalized people should subscribe to. Right. So they can succeed, they can achieve economic success, academic success, and they do so on their own without government programs. Asianamericans are the model minority. Thats the stereotype of asianamericans today. It may be surprising in the early 20th century they were considered not only undesirable immigrants but also foreigners to such a degree that the United States wanted to not only reduce their numbers but exclude them all together. So historians teachings describes this, you know, power of antiasian sentiment with this quote. She says, the presence of asians on american soil highlighted fundamental cleavages in american society, meaning that they were the first noneuropean immigrant group to come in such great numbers, that they came at a time that there was craft tensions, changing race relations. This is post civil war, post reconstruction. These ideas about what does it mean to be an american, what does it mean to be free, what does it mean to be a worker, what rights do we have. And what is the role of the u. S. In the world . All of these things, late 19th, early 20th century are rive with all of these massive changes in american society. So some of the ways that antiasian sentiment plays out is through prejudice, bias, prejudgment, economic discrimination, barred from certain occupations, political disenfranchisement. Remember the 1790 naturalization act that said only free white persons can become citizens, right, and can vote. So already asian immigrants are barred from becoming naturalized citizens. Physical violence. Immigration exclusion, which is what were going to be talking about mostly today. Social segregation. They cant join certain clubs, live in certain areas, and during world war ii incarceration, the Mass Relocation and incarceration of japaneseamericans. So how did what did this look like in person . What did this look like in reality and on the ground . This is a cartoon from 1881 in San Francisco. It is from a magazine called the wasp. Im going to ask you to tell me what you see. What is this cartoon telling us about what americans think about chinese sim graduati chinese immigration at this time . Yes. Well, it appears to be a sort of a reaction to what is perceived as sort of this overwhelming of chinese immigrants and this this sort of it is a mockery of the statue of liberty. Right. But it is also this image of conquest because it is standing on a skull. It is clearly a chinese man due to the long braid which marks a lot of chinese in the fact that it is a chinese caricature, but it is definitely a mirror image of new york. Whats the title of the cartoon . A statue for our harbor. Right. A statue for our harbor, so in San Francisco as opposed to new york. In new york theyve got the statue of liberty that welcomes european immigrants. In San Francisco this is what our statue would be if we allow chinese immigration to come without restriction. So a couple of things that jeremy just mentioned. We can recognize this as a chinese male. Hes got this long queue. It was a hairstyle mandated by the ching empire, but in the United States it was seen as a sign of femininity, a foreignness, of sub humanness. Hes wearing robes that are very tattered. So it is not the classical greek figure. It has no dignity, right . He is standing on a skull, meaning that hes bringing ruin. Does anyone see what hes holding in his left hand . Joyce . An opium pipe. It is an opium pipe, yes. So another symbol of the vice of chinese immigration is bringing drugs and immorality. So theres rioting that is emanating from the waves around his head. Can anyone see that writing is . It is hard to see from the from the middle. The bottom right is filth. What else . Immorality. Immorality, good. Up on top . Disease . Disease. And then were going to go were reading right to left as the chinese would, right . This one says, ruin too. Can anyone point out the last two . Labor. Yes, ruin to white labor. Chinese immigration is bringing filth, immorality, disease, ruin to white labor. Catastrophic. Chinese immigration is catastrophic to San Francisco, to california. The foundation of the statue is crumbling, the ship has are coming are capsizing, and the sun or the moon in the background has slanted eyes. This is the future of california. This is the future of the United States should chinese immigration become up restricted. This is not an out lialier. This is not a far right or far left or extreme example about this of this antiimmigrant sentiment. This is one of the most wellrespected, wellread illustrated magazines in the late 19th century. So what is the effect of some of this popular sentiment . One is through violence. There are countless episodes of the chinese being driven out, literally being with mobs driving them out of small towns like eureka, california as well as big cities like tacoma and seattle. This is an illustration of one of the wellknown incidents, the massacre of chinese at rock springs, wyoming in september of 1885. It happened around a mining incident. Some of the white workers and Chinese Workers were debating whether they wanted to go on strike. The white workers went on strike, the chinese decided not to, and the white workers drove them out after inflicting massive violence on this group. So theres about 28 who are killed, 15 wounded and hundreds are driven into the outlying areas. So this is some of the sentiment that is shaping chinese immigration, but one of the really fascinating aspects of this history is remember how diverse all of those asian immigrant groups were. Nevertheless, when this idea of chinese immigrants as being a threat to the United States, a class threat, a racial threat, an economic threat, it became attached to other asian immigrant groups as well. So that the newspapers would say, chinese excluded but now we have a japanese problem, or japanese excluded, now the hindus are coming or the filipinos. They kept on calling them another asiatic invasion. It kind of got a little ridiculous because there was the second asiatic invasion and then the third and it became a typology that was framing the threat of asian immigration. Again, it was had very real consequences. So on the left is a newspaper clipping from the New York Times in 1907 talking about, again, the driving out or the expulsion of south asian immigrants from a little town in marysville. This is more troubling i think. This is a private letter that was sent to a townsman in california, the town sheriff or the town mayor, and it was collected and archived at the uc berkley e berkley archives. This was from the 1930s. It was a threat to expel them or they would inflict violence on the ground. Japanese would provoke a broad scale or international concern. It was called the yellow peril. It had two elements. One was the familiar refrain that japanese immigrants were racially inferior, that they were taking away jobs, that they were mixing with whites. But then the second aspect was more unique to japan and japans rising power in the world. They are an empire. They defeated russia in 1904. They defeated china in 1894. Theyve colonized korea. So theres this idea of an asian empire, japans asian empire that is infusing that antijapanese sentiment with even greater force. That theyre even more of a danger because, who knows, those japanese immigrant farmers who are picking your strawberries may be the first advance guard from a colonizing japan. This was the rhetoric by the 1920s and 30s that japanese immigrants in california, hawaii, oregon and washington were actually soldiers in disguise and would be ready to do this. Anyone recognize the artist . Thats dr. Seuss. What does this say . What does this mean to you . 1942. So that date is significant. Yes . Theres an element of f malfeasance with the coming of the japanese. With the cartoon it implies they have a connection with the country of origin and theyre willing to act on the desires of that government should they be called to do so. How so . What are they going to do . Blow up something. The little boxes that theyre carrying say tnt. So it is assumed theyre going to do some sort of damage. And what about the ways in which theyre drawn, the number of them . There are a number of them in a variety of different they have different clothing but all of the faces are the same, and that perpetuates the stereotype that all asians look the same. It also, i think, speaks to a stereotype that the japanese act as a unit. Yeah. Theyre uniform, and that only contributes to this militarizing portrayal of japanese. Good. Okay. So one thing here t remember the statue for our harbor, what was the chinese guy wearing . Was he wearing like typical western dress . Yeah. He was wearing really tattered robes. Yeah, he was wearing robes. So, you know, either you could be seen it could be read as hes wearing you know, classical greek robes like the statue of liberty but they got tattered or chinese robes. Here these japanese immigrants are wearing western suits. So theyre assimilated to a degree. Theyre westernized to a degree, which makes them even more of a threat because you cant tell that theyre really the enemy within. You cant tell that theyre not loyal, but, in fact, deep down inside theyre just waiting for the signal from home. So theyre all up and down the pacific coast, that idea of this yellow peril. The thing that was almost like a homing beacon, right, the signal from home is coming. This one guy is looking across the pacific, waiting for it. It has come, pearl harbor has come, now it is time to wreak even more damage from within. Theres various and different types of antiasian symptom, but all at its root describe asian immigrants as not american, always asian. Immigrants that are dangerous cannot be assimilated, dangerous for several different reasons, but by the 1930s for japanese it is about national security. Then we know by 1942, summer of 1942 that japanese americans up and down the west coast are forcibly removed. There are Exclusion Orders posted at every Street Corner in the cities, ordering anyone with japanese ancestry to remove themselves also. So theyre barred from living in those areas, and to assemble at various Different Assembly centers where then they will be incarcerated for the duration of the war at several camps throughout the United States. This is one of the ways in which this asian immigration story ends. Before we get to that we want to consider the other aspect, the other path, and that path was barring new immigrants from coming over. You have been reading a lot about chinese exclusion, the first act passed in 1882. What are some of the things that this act does . The name kind of says it all, but not everything, not every chinese is excluded. Who is excluded . All chinese immigrants aside from anyone who is a merchant or the children of a nativeborn citizen. Okay, good. So some are excluded, but then there are certain class provisions. So the main group thats excluded are chinese laborers. The chinese laborers are excluded. At the very beginning the exclusion act just says, for ten years. So it is sort of like an incremental step. Chinese laborers are excluded, but like you were saying there are exempt classes. Teachers, students, travelers, merchants and diplomats. So it is not only racially based, it is class based. It is those who want to learn about the United States. It is those who want to visit the United States and spend money here. It is those who are engaged in International Trade so, again, u. S. china relationships and economic trades, and of course diplomats. But those who are the bulk, the vast majority of chinese at this time, laborers, are barred. It is important because this is the first time in u. S. History that we bar a Group Wholesale based on race. Remember when we were talking about the irish immigration, the anticatholic movement and how even the know Nothing Party who had a national platform, they never went so far to advocate for restriction. They wanted longer times for naturalization, but they never said were going to close the gates. It gets renewed in 1902 and made permanent in 1904. It is not until 50 years ago that we ban this discrimination in Immigration Law. So it lasts a long time and it has lots of repercussions. So the chinese exclusion act is just that First Step Towards closing the gates to asian immigration. But it would not be the last. So after this is the irony of chinese exclusion. Chinese laborers are barred, but this is a time period when 32 million europeans are still coming over and labor is still needed. So as soon as chinese exclusion is passed, japanese immigration increases because theyre still needed in the farms, especially in the plantations of hawaii. But, again, that familiar pattern of antiasian sentiment kicks into gear, and by 1908 we also prohibit japanese laborers. We do not dare call this a japanese exclusion act because we dont want to bother japan. We dont want to insult japan. Japan we think of as an equal nation and so we pressure through diplomatic channels to have a diplomatic agreement be reached, and we call it a gentlemens agreement as if it was mutually agreed upon by two equal nations. Japanese laborers are prohibited by 1908. Again, you bar japanese laborers. The immigration from south asia starts to increase. The United States feels like it has another Immigration Crisis on hand, so the 1917 immigration act decides the take a little more drastic approach and basically draws an entire red line throughout all of asia and call also it the asiatic barred zone. Its primary aim is at prohibiting south asians. There were only 8,000 coming, but, still, this law institutes these new restrictions. The 1924 immigration act also has a blanket exclusion. The one group that is not covered under the asiatic bar zone is japan. Even though laborers were barred, others were not. So students were coming over, but especially women, and forming those japaneseamerican communities. The 1924 immigration act, its two primary aims are to close the loopholes on japanese immigration, but also to restrict southern and Eastern European immigration as well. So then the last group left are filipinos. And the only way to bar filipinos from coming to the country is ironically by granting the philippines independence because the philippines is a colony. You cannot ban a colonial subject from going from one part of the empire to another. So we have this really odd coalition of bedfellows, philippine nationalists who are eager for independence for the philippines and antiasian exclusionives. They come together and decide this is how we can achieve our goals. We will grant nominal independence to the philippines. By doing that theyre no longer going to be u. S. Nationals, but instead they will be aliens. They will be foreigners. They will be immigrants and theyll be then subjected to Immigration Laws. So you go from really large scale immigration from the philippines, 150,000, to a quota that only gives them 50 slots per year. So these are the laws. So the United States has a problem. As soon as we pass these Immigration Laws this is again, these are transformative. Weve never done this before. Were not really sure how to enforce Immigration Laws. So, for example, with the 1882 chinese exclusion act, we passed this law in may. Ships of chinese immigrants are coming to San Francisco, and the immigration officials who are really Customs Officials who have just been told, oh, by the way, in addition to counting the bales of cotton coming on that ship youre littalso spoeluppos enforce these new laws. Custom officials are throwing their hands up and saying what are these laws and what do you want tous us to do with them. Take the case of chinese merchants can still come. So a ship load of chinese immigrants come into the San Francisco bay. The custom officials goes to the ship, which are laborers, who is a merchant . How will they determine who is the laborer and a merchant . This is the beginning of immigration documents and interrogation. What happens if the case is really complicate . The merchant, for example, needs two white witnesses to clarify their claims. Those two white witnesses are probably not waiting at the peer. Y pier. So you have to send someone to get them and takes time. Very soon after the laws are passed the u. S. Government realizes we dont know what were doing just yet. We have these immigrants, these examinations are taking longer than we thought. We have nowhere to put them. At the very beginning they just kept them on the ship. The ships captain would say, it is all well and good that youre using my ship as a detention center, but i have to go back, im on schedule to go back across the pacific to pick up some more passengers. So then they would move those detainees to another ship, and observers in the 1890s talk about San Francisco bay having, you know, these ships moored out in the bay that are basically immigrant detention centers. So to solve this problem theres a small detention shed that gets built in the 1890s. It is crowded, it is a fire trap. It is also not escape proof. The u. S. Governmental locates money in 1903 to build the angel island immigration station on an island, escape proof, hard to get to, hard to leave, and calls it the ellis island of the west. Some of the newspapers from that time are talking about how it is a beautiful resort and immigrants will be so lucky to spend balmy days under palm trees at the immigration station, but we know that that didnt necessarily turn out to be the case. Here is another ire ronnony of time period. We passed Immigration Law but immigrants still keep coming. This is not unlike what explains our contemporary immigration patterns. This is why we have an undocumented immigrant situation, even though the laws and the walls and gates have been built, immigrants still want to come to the United States. So theres several different reasons. We have to understand that during this time period theres a lot of stuff going on in china, those push factors we often talk about with immigration. Theres civil unrest, theres famine, theres growing number also of people, population explosion just like we were talking about with southern and eastern europe, and especially european and american powers are in china at this time. Theyre instituting unequal economic treaties, theyre trying to gain more power, especially in this region thats just north of hong kong. By this time so by the time angel island opens up it is 1910. Chinese have been coming since the gold rush, thats 60 years, so chinese families have been dependent on migration as a form of economic survival. Even though the laws are passed, theyre still dependent on migration to the United States. How do they get around the laws is the question for them. And theres this revolution in transportation. So the staem ships are getting faster, theyre bigger and fares are cheaper. At the same time the laws are passed, you have steam ship agents going into the countryside saying, i can get you there for this much, and the business is still being drummed up. Es. And is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. Patricia limerick of the university of colorado boulder teaches a class of westward expansion and the closing of the American West in the 20th century. She talks about how the west has been portrayed as pastoral and wild and switched from ow the government to preserving it under the umbrella of different federal departments