Summer 2022
Pacific Islanders are classified as, “A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands .” There are 22.9 million Asian Americans in the United States of America and 1.6 million Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders in the United States of America according to the 2019 census. AANHPI are one of the fastest growing population groups in the United States of America in the present day. The AANHPI community in the United States is very diverse with people tracing their roots to more than twenty countries, each with unique histories, languages, cultural behaviors, dressing patterns, and cuisines. AANHPI heritage month gives educators a good opportunity to learn more about the people belonging to this group, their history in the United States of America, and the bias and discrimination that they face even today in the United States of America.
Chinese Exclusion Acts
skilled and unskilled laborers was expanded to further include Hawaii and Philippines. After this, the Chinese Exclusion Act was indefinitely extended by Congress until it was repealed in 1943. The Chinese Exclusion Act marks one of the first immigration restrictions put into place against a specific nationality. This act would go down in history as the precedent used by the United States government to restrict the migration of specific ethnicities and nationalities in the future. In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge signed the Immigration Act of 1924 which was one of the most stringent U.S. immigration policies to have been drawn until that time. This act restricted immigration of “undesirable” groups such as Middle Easterners, Hindus, East Indians, and Japanese to the United States of America.
As the number of Chinese immigrants in the United States rose, they went on to become entrepreneurs. At this point, people began to be concerned about maintaining the white “racial purity” in America and demanded that the Chinese not be allowed to enter the United States of America despite only being .002% of the nation’s population at that time. This led to an anti-Chinese sentiment that grew across the United States of America. The result was a passing of a series of legislations that sought to curb immigration of the Chinese to the United States of America which came to be known as the Chinese Exclusion Acts. In 1879, a legislation was passed in Congress that limited the number of Chinese people who arrived in America to fifteen people per ship. In 1880, a new treaty was negotiated with China that restricted Chinese immigration to the United States of America. Finally, in 1882, President Chester A. Arthur passed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 which suspended the immigration of any skilled or unskilled Chinese laborers for a period of 10 years. Any Chinese person who entered the United States of America had to carry a certificate that identified their status. In 1888, the Scott act was passed which prevented Chinese immigrants from reentering America if they visited China. The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act was renewed in 1892 and the prohibition of the entry of
Content Creator and Researcher Dr. Gauri A. Pitale Contact her at gpitale@bridgewater.edu if you have any questions. Designer Martha Ray Library Liaisons Taylor Baugher & Vickie Montigaud-Green
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