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JPerry.Dissertation.3.29.14.pdf (2.04 MB)

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The Chinese Question: California, British Columbia, and the Making of Transnational Immigration Policy, 1847-1885

PERRY, JAY MARTIN
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1394761542

Abstract Details

2014, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, History.
This work examines the nineteenth-century anti-Chinese movement in California and British Columbia and its effects on transnational immigration restrictions in the United States and Canada. Although not directly adjacent, California and British Columbia’s relatively isolated positions on the West Coast fostered economic and cultural ties that kept them closely connected. These connections included unified opposition to Chinese immigrants who challenged the era’s racial ideology of Anglo-American and Anglo-Canadian supremacy. By 1880, California was home to 71% of the Chinese in the United States while 99% of Canada’s Chinese lived in British Columbia. The American and Canadian governments largely ignored Chinese immigration but California and British Columbia implemented local, state, and provincial policies denying the Chinese political participation and equal treatment in the legal system. California and British Columbia embarked on a campaign to convince their federal governments to limit Chinese immigration – a campaign that included the sharp rhetoric of regional politicians and biased government reports painting the Chinese as incapable of grasping the nuances of American and Canadian citizenship. The transnational anti-Chinese effort finally caught the attention of federal lawmakers who reversed long-standing traditions of open immigration and enacted the first national immigration restrictions of either country by specifically targeting the Chinese. These acts ultimately embedded racial characteristics as prerequisites for entry into the laws of both nations.
Rebecca Mancuso (Advisor)
Scott Martin (Committee Member)
Vibha Bhalla (Committee Member)
Eber Dena (Committee Member)
276 p.
American History; Asian American Studies; Canadian History; Canadian Studies; History; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Public Policy
transnational history; immigration policy; Chinese Exclusion Act; Chinese Immigration Act; Chinese immigration; anti-Chinese movement; California; British Columbia; San Francisco, CA; Victoria, BC; Denis Kearney; Noah Shakespeare

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Citations

  • PERRY, J. M. (2014). The Chinese Question: California, British Columbia, and the Making of Transnational Immigration Policy, 1847-1885 [Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1394761542

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • PERRY, JAY. The Chinese Question: California, British Columbia, and the Making of Transnational Immigration Policy, 1847-1885. 2014. Bowling Green State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1394761542.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • PERRY, JAY. "The Chinese Question: California, British Columbia, and the Making of Transnational Immigration Policy, 1847-1885." Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1394761542

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1394761542
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© 2014, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.