Draft:The Life of Immigrants in California

Immigration to California
In the early 1900s, immigration became more and more popular. People from all over the world started to travel to foreign countries for many reasons. Reasons for why immigrants chose to immigrate include: economic issues, higher pay, more employment, seeking a better living, and more educational opportunities. Though, many of the immigrants that immigrated to the states all came searching for a better living. One of the main reasons for why immigrants started to migrate towards California was due to the Gold Rush. Immigrants thought that leaving their home town and migrating towards California would make their lives much better. The immigrants wanted to escape the harsh living conditions that they had in their hometown and potentially start a whole brand new life in California. During the 1870s and 1880s, the vast majority of these people were from Germany, Ireland, and England - the principal sources of immigration before the Civil War. . Even so, a relatively large group of Chinese immigrated to the United States between the start of the California gold rush in 1849 and 1882, when federal law stopped their immigration. .

The Immigration Act of 1882
Many immigrants were entering California to the point where the federal government saw a sky rocket in the population of Americans. The federal government needed to regulate the number of people that entered the States, so in response the federal government created The Immigration Act of 1882. . Americans began to associate many of the societal ills related to urbanization—such as overcrowding, the spread of disease, and lack of jobs—with incoming immigrants. . As more and more immigrants entered the States, there were an increase in the number of accusations against the incoming immigrants. The Americans started to blame the immigrants for many societal ills. So in response to these "societal ills" the federal government created the Immigration Act of 1882. This would allow them to "block undesirable people from entering the United States." . However, the immigrants were allowed to be tested if they were able to financially support themselves in the United States, but if the immigrants were unable to pass this test then they were were sent back to their homeland.

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882
Mainly most of the immigrants that entered the United States were Chinese. Due to societal ills and that most of the immigrants were Chinese, Congress developed a sort of hatred towards the Chinese. In response, Congress created the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. . This directive banned the immigration of all Chinese peoples into the United States and called for a one-year prison sentence and $500 fine for any person attempting to smuggle Chinese laborers into the country. . There was a lot of racial motivation against the Chinese and no one can really tell why. Senator John P. Jones of Nevada said "final conclusion was that the Chinese race is as obnoxious to us and as impossible for us to assimilate with as was the negro race. His race has outlived every other because it is homogeneous, and for that reason alone it has imposed its religion and peculiarities upon its conquerors and still lived. If immigration is not checked now, when it is within manageable limits, it will be too late to check it." . There was a lot of racial intent behind this act that it affected how the Chinese were treated. As a result, the way the Chinese and other immigrants were treated was very harsh and cruel.

Immigrants Used as Scapegoats
The fantasy life that the immigrants envisioned, did not come true as they wish for. The immigrants were racially discriminated as more and more immigrants entered the United States. As social problems started to develop, the immigrants were used as the reason for why the social problems occurred. The main target for scapegoating in California were the Chinese. The Chinese were initially admired by Americans due their hard work and how the Chinese contributed to California in the 1850s; however, in the 1860s the admiration vanished. In the 1860s, the Chinese were considered to be "an inferior race" and a "degraded" people.[2] By the 1870s, the racist argument had broadened in scope, and the Chinese were viewed as "a social, moral and political curse to the community." The main arguments on why the Chinese were considered an inferior race:1) the economic argument, as advocated by nativist and workingmen's groups, that cheap Chinese labor undermined wage rates and adversely affected employment practices on the West Coast; 2) the cultural argument, that the once enlightened Chinese civilization was corrupt and backward and that Chinese immigrants represented the lowest classes in China;[4]

3) the assimilationist argument, that the Chinese did not desire to merge into the American mainstream and, with their "abounding vices" (prostitution, gambling, opium-smoking), were impervious to the "loftier ideals" of Western civilization;[5]

4) the racist argument, that America should maintain a homogenous population and that national degeneration would ultimately result from permitting an inferior race (the Chinese) to mingle with a superior race (the Caucasian);[6]

5) the biological argument, that the Chinese were "inferior in organic structure, in vital force, and in the constitutional conditions of full development";[7] and, finally,

6) the medical argument, that the Chinese, ignoring all laws of hygiene and sanitation, bred and disseminated disease, thereby endangering the welfare of the state and of the nation. . The Californians primarily saw the Chinese as a major problem to their socials ills. To the Californian eye, the Chinese seemed to keep taking their labor work and stealing their jobs. Cultural wise, the perception of the Chinese cultural seemed to be "dirty, low class, and corrupt." Due to the fact that the Chinese were perceived so poorly, the Californians used this perception to link newly born diseases towards the Chinese. As more and more immigrants entered the United States, there was an uprise in diseases. Most of the people believed that the immigrants were usually lower class individuals so they thought this meant that they were dirty. With the fact of being dirty, comes bacteria and diseases. The Americans did not want to take the blame so they had to blame someone for this uprising. This uprising ended up being pointed towards the Chinese. Many believe this connection comes from how the Chinese brought their hometown living conditions to the United States. The Chinese tended to have a major hygiene problem and ignored the laws of sanitation.

How Life Back Home Affected Immigrants
As many immigrants made their way to the United States, they wanted to make their new home feel like their old home. Many immigrants brought their hometown cultures to the United States and their way of living was very different compared to the way the Californians lived. At first, the Californians admired the immigrants for their differences and what they brought to their community. However, as time went by this perception changed. As the population of immigrants increased, the Californians started to get agitated. This is when the perception of the immigrants began to change. At the same time, there was an increase in the number of diseases that began to develop. The Californians did not know the cause for many of these developments of diseases so they had to resort to scapegoating. They used the immigrants as scapegoats for the reason behind the developments of these diseases. They primarily blamed for the way how the immigrants brought their own living conditions to the California. To the sanitarians of the 1870s, Chinatown was more than a slum. It was "a laboratory of infection," peopled by "lying and treacherous" aliens who had minimal regard for the health of the American people. . The way that sanitarians perceived the Chinese living conditions was that they saw them worse than a "slum." Most of the Chinese that entered the United States, went to San Francisco and had a part of San Francisco called Chinatown. his central location brought the Chinese into daily contact with the Caucasian population of the city and was a constant source of irritation to many San Franciscans. To one city health officer, Chinatown was "the moral purgatory" through which all who pass come out nauseated and disgusted, and perchance defiled by Mongolian filth or disease. The way that the Chinese were living was not optimal for those who lived in San Francisco originally. Due to the lack of sanitation, many diseases started to develop. As for the amount of immigrants that were being imported to California, the immigrants brought the bubonic plague. This caused a quarantine to happen in San Francisco. Chaos started to break and fingers were pointed more towards the Chinese. . Bringing back their hometown life conditions brought atrocity towards the Chinese. The perception of the Chinese went down drastically for nearly a century. The new life of immigrants that they envisioned did not end up the way they thought it would.

Agriculture In California
Early 1900 brought scores of people into California for labor. What California had to offer was new landscape and climate for farmers to grow new crops. This agricultural boom brought in immigrants from all over to work. "California's booming agricultural economy created an endless need for farm labor. Although family farming was typical in the Midwest, California agriculture was dominated by large-scale industrial farming, and huge numbers of migratory workers were hired and fired each year. A succession of ethnic groups provided this labor, beginning with Native Americans in the 1850s and 1860s, followed by Chinese, Japanese, Hindustanis, Filipinos, and Mexicans." . While this huge boom in agricultural businesses was great for California, the system was not perfect.

Labor Conditions For Immigrants
As immigrants continued to travel to the fields of California for a chance to work, the working conditions seemed to worsen. People who worked in the fields would work long hard days with little to no pay. Just to add on, the living conditions were very poor and caused serious health implications. "Migrants who found employment soon learned that this surfeit of workers caused a significant reduction in the going wage rate. Even with an entire family working, migrants could not support themselves on these low wages. Many set up camps along irrigation ditches in the farmers' fields. These "ditchbank" camps fostered poor sanitary conditions and created a public health problem." . Immigrants working also suffered against discrimination from people who had lived in California. People who owned the farms that immigrants would work on would often treat the workers poorly with working hours and living conditions. "Despite the protections set forth by the program, racial discrimination prevailed, and farmworkers continued to work under poor working conditions while growers benefited from the cheap foreign labor." . Immigrant workers put forth so much effort for so little due to the discrimination that they faced. What made things only worse was that the poor labor conditions that immigrants worked and lived in brought disease.

Disease in Immigrant Labor
The other huge problem that immigrants faced while the worked was the spread of disease. This was especially in the early boom of agriculture in California during the early 1900s when medicine was not readily available for everyone, especially immigrants. This was also at a time where disease could seriously impact your livelihood because people's immune systems had not yet been exposed to certain diseases leaving people very exposed. Plus immigrant workers were working and living in very poor conditions making the spread of disease devastating. "Few observers appreciate how vitally important federal government animal-health policies were in the development of California’s livestock industry. The state faced many severe disease outbreaks that farmers, state and local officials, and private veterinarians were incapable of combating effectively." . "This same class of problems also impaired to the state’s fight against BTB. By the 1930s, California dairy cattle had become the talk of the nation because of the high incidence of BTB, a disease easily transmitted from cattle to other livestock and from livestock to humans, either by direct contact or through animal products. The most likely path of transmission was in cows’ milk and milk products." . This easy ability to spread disease among the workers in California was a serious problem that is still trying to be solved today.