#asianhater but also #newrug
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The Chinese Exclusion Act and the Alien Contract Labor Law lead to the Immigration Act of 1917 which made it nearly impossible for Indians to enter the U.S.
The Chinese Exclusion Act "was the first significant law restricting immigration into the United States." This law required non-laborer immigrants who wished to come to America "to obtain certification from the Chinese government that they were qualified to immigrate." The Chinese Exclusion Act defined laborers as "skilled and unskilled laborers and Chinese employed in mining." So non-laborers found it difficult to prove that they in fact were not laborers.
The Alien Contract Labor Law of 1885, also known as the Foran Act, was established to prohibit any company/individual from bringing unskilled laborer immigrants to the U.S. unless they were doing contract work. This law was created in to stop corporations from sponsoring immigrants who wanted to stay in America permanently.
The Immigration Act of 1917, also known as the Asiatic Barred Zone Act, was enacted by the 64th U.S. Congress "aimed to restrict immigration by imposing literacy tests on immigrants, creating new categories of inadmissible persons, and barring immigration from the Asia–Pacific region." Beginning in the late 1800s, the idea that a literacy test for immigrants to be allowed into the country had been spreading across the U.S. Once enacted, this immigration law barred "all immigrants over the age of sixteen who were illiterate." Another part of this act was the "Asiatic Barred Zone" section, which did not allow people from most of Asia and the Pacific Islands to immigrate to the U.S. "The zone, defined through longitudinal and latitudinal coordinates, excluded immigrants from China, British India, Afghanistan, Arabia, Burma (Myanmar), Siam (Thailand), the Malay States, the Dutch East Indies, the Soviet Union east of the Ural Mountains, and most Polynesian islands." This act was modified by the Immigration Act of 1924, which added Japan to the Asiatic Barred Zone.
Americans found a deep sense of connection and attachment to Orientalist culture. Bald states that "For Americans of the era, “India” was presented as part of a mysterious and exotic 'Orient' that took in the entire swath of North Africa, the Middle East, India, and Ceylon. This 'Orient,' in turn, was a blur of images, stories, references, and fantasies, derived from the contexts of the British, French, and other European empires" (17). American women would purchase goods such as "embroidered fabrics, cushions, throws, and other small goods" from Indian and Bengali peddlers (19). Although Americans had an attachment to "exotic 'Orient' culture," there was still anxiety that the American cultural identity was being fractured by the "threat" of the American identity being supplanted by Asian culture. The Immigration Act of 1917 exemplifies this, Americans loved "Oriental" culture but could not accept their peoples and therefore made it almost impossible for Indians (and many other Asiatic peoples) to come to the U.S.
Information about Immigration Laws are from the following "sources":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_Act_of_1917
https://immigrationhistory.org/item/foran-act-of-1885-aka-alien-contract-labor-law/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_Contract_Labor_Law
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Exclusion_Act
https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/chinese-exclusion-act#:~:text=It was the first significant,immigrating to the United States