The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and Hawaii

Abstract

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first piece of U.S. legislation to bar a specific ethnic group from immigrating to U.S. soil, thus demonstrating how regional agendas can and do turn into national policies. However, despite its impact and historical significance, the Chinese exclusion movement is often only vaguely referenced within general history texts. In this thesis, the author analyzes the experiences of Chinese immigrants in California and Hawaii and discusses how such experiences present a fuller understanding of the politics behind the Chinese Exclusion Act.