National Elites’ Opinions on Chinese Immigrants During the 19th Century (Pre-Recorded)

• In Event: Race, Ethnicity, and American Political Development

Abstract

National Elites’ Opinions on Chinese Immigrants During the 19th Century

This paper explores the nature and characteristics of national elites’ opinions on Chinese immigrants during the 19th century. Also, it examines the questions from a comparative perspective by looking at both national elites’ and local state elites’ opinions on Chinese immigrants during this time period.
The systematic exclusion of Chinese immigrants in American politics provides important lessons on the conditions under which Americans accept or reject immigrants in general. The existing studies provide various sources that played a role in accounting for the fate of immigrants in American politics: individual-level behaviors, including white citizens’ racial prejudice or concerns for increased competition for jobs, elites’ provocations of racial prejudice, and institutional (e.g., interest groups, including labor organizations or parties), legal, and social and economic factors. Among these sources, this study focuses on the issue of national political elites’ opinions on Chinese immigrants, as their attitudes and opinions on Chinese immigrants are the critical and direct sources in determining the fate of those immigrants during that time period. This is the case for two main reasons. First, their role in society is critical in shaping and making legal decisions, since the political leaders are responsible for making laws. Second, they can influence how the public thinks and views Chinese immigrants, as the existing literature on the relationship between elites and the public suggests that the public usually takes cues from elites. Given the central place of national elites in the legislative process and the public opinion formation process, it is critical to understand the nature and the characteristics of national elites’ opinions on Chinese immigrants to find out one of the important sources of anti-Chinese actions during this time period.
The specific questions that will be explored are as follows. What are the nature and characters of national elites’ opinions on Chinese immigrants during the 19th century? Particularly, what are the central motivations behind their support for stricter immigration laws? Will they justify their support for the anti-Chinese immigration laws using racial prejudice, economic arguments, or an appeal to cultural values? Do the national elites’ opinions on Chinese immigrants vary over time in relation to changing environments? Finally, how do their opinions differ from those of local elites’ and public opinion on Chinese immigrants?
To explore these questions, I will use relevant representatives’ debates in the Congress. These debates are available in text format from the Congressional Record. The representatives in the Senate and House debated during Congressional sessions that resulted in the passage of the following acts: the Page Act of 1875, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the Scott Act of 1888, and the Geary Act of 1892. The debates provide rich evidence of individual representatives’ opinions and the rationales behind their support of or opposition to the proposed bills. Text analysis will be used to examine representatives’ remarks using both traditional and automated text analysis.

Author

• Dukhong Kim, Florida Atlantic University