A little story of Asian Immigration in the American West

Résumé du document

The story of the immigration of the Asian community to America is, like many other immigration stories. People do not casually leave an inherited way of life. Events must be extreme enough at home to compel them to go elsewhere. The history of Asian immigrants coming to settle in the New World is a history of diversity in spite of what one would tend to think. Although these immigrants were considered as part of one group, each community has its own background, its own traditions, its own underlying motives to leave everything behind and start anew in an unknown country and more than that, a white country. This essay will try to provide an overall view of this Asian immigration to the US, by first, identifying who these immigrants are, when they first came to settle, and where they settled. Then, we will move on and examine the motivations lying behind their choice for the New World as their Promised Land.

Extraits

[...] From the discrimination which flared up in the 19th century, it can be said that a great step has been taken since in spite of all. Bibliography Daniels, Roger (1988). Asian America: Chinese and Japanese in the United States since 1850. Seattle: University of Washington Press. Pido, A. J. A. (1985). [...]

[...] Confronted to this shortage, the British and the Spanish brought over slaves or “coolies” from China, India and the Philippines. This is the starting point of the Asian immigration. However, the first large scale immigration of Asians into the US did not happen until 1848 with a major American event: the Gold Rush Where they settled As it has been said earlier in the introduction, there is a great diversity between the different communities coming to settle in America. And this diversity can be found in the places they chose to settle. [...]

[...] This diversity was also at the origin of a thorough occupation of the US territory by the Asians. They were not concentrated in one region or in one city in particular but were to be found almost everywhere. For instance, Asian Indians settled largely in New York or elsewhere in the Eastern US while a vast majority of Filipinos settled in the West. The Chinese drifted to cities and towns across the US, riding the rails they once laid and the Japanese settled in the US colony of Hawaii Why usa If we are to summarize it in one sentence, we can fairly say that the main motive lying behind their immigration to the USA was because America promised them the opportunity of money which would solve many financial problems back in their mother country. [...]

[...] The Filipinos in America: Macro-Micro Dimensions of Immigration and Integration. Staten Island, N.Y.: Center for Migration Studies. Sung, Betty Lee (1967). Mountain of Gold. New York: Macmillan. Takaki, Ronald (1989). Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. [...]

[...] They built roads, levees and dams in the hinterlands (arrière-pays). The Filipinos were sought to fill demands for stoop agricultural work and other low-wage jobs. But the most dramatic example of Asian labour and more particularly of Chinese labour was the construction of the transcontinental railroad from 1865 to 1869. Between 10 and 12,000 Chinese carved tunnels and laid track across the Sierra Nevadas at the rhythm of ten miles a day. It was a remarkable pace. If we take it from a yearly viewpoint, it means that by kms of railroad had been built and by 1900, it reached kms. [...]