Chinese Exclusion Act Bans Immigration Through Racist Labor Scapegoating

President Chester A. Arthur signs the Chinese Exclusion Act, the first significant federal law restricting immigration into the United States based on race and nationality. The law prohibits all immigration of Chinese laborers—defined as “both skilled and unskilled laborers and Chinese employed in mining”—for 10 years, while making exceptions only for travelers and diplomats. The Act denies Chinese residents already in the United States the ability to become citizens and requires Chinese people traveling in or out of the country to carry certificates identifying their status or risk deportation.

The legislation emerges from a toxic combination of economic anxiety and racist scapegoating during the depression following the Panic of 1873. White labor unions and native-born workers blame Chinese immigrants for suppressing wages despite evidence that Chinese workers are not substitutes for but rather complementary to native workers, often performing manual labor that creates managerial positions for non-immigrant workers. Negative stereotypes portraying Chinese immigrants as “diseased heathens and perverts” combine with fears among West Coast residents about cultural change to fuel anti-Chinese sentiment that rapidly gains political ground after the Civil War.

The Act’s economic impact proves devastating to regions with high Chinese labor populations: manufacturing output in heavily-affected counties declines 62% relative to other counties after 1882, and the labor supply of White men drops 28%, contradicting the supposed justification that Chinese exclusion would benefit White workers. When the exclusion act expires in 1892, Congress extends it for 10 years through the Geary Act, adding requirements that each Chinese resident register and obtain a certificate of residence or face deportation. The law is made permanent in 1902 and remains in effect until 1943. The Chinese Exclusion Act establishes the template for race-based immigration restrictions and transforms the United States from a country that welcomed almost all immigrants to a “gatekeeping nation,” setting precedents later used against other immigrant groups including the Immigration Act of 1924’s national origins quotas.