The Chinese Exclusion Act had a ripple effect on some surrounding countries. After its passage in 1882, the U.S. government pressured the Canada government to pass similar legislation either penalizing or limiting Chinese immigration (e.g. Chinese Immigration Act of 1885 and the Chinese Immigration Act of 1923) so that the U.S. - Canada border was secure from illegal immigration. However, Mexico refused because it wanted to lessen U.S. interference in Mexican politics and it benefited from the supply of cheap labor.
The Chinese Exclusion Act also had serious consequences for the population of Chinese Americans who immigrated before the passage of the act, encouraged illegal practices such as commercial human smuggling, and paved the path for later movements that sought to place immigration restrictions against other "undesirable" groups such as Middle Easterners, Hindu and East Indians, and the Japanese.
The federal government passed the Immigration Act of 1924 (which included the Asian Exclusion Act and the National Origins Act), a set of legislation which restricted immigration, especially by East Asians, even further. The Act effectively banned immigration from Asia, set quotas on the number of immigrants from the Eastern Hemisphere (a total of 165,000, which was an 80% reduction from the pre-WWI average), and provided increased funding to carry out the enforcement of previous bans on immigration.
It wasn't until 1943 when Chinese Americans finally became eligible for citizenship.
Comments