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At America's Gates: Chinese Immigration during the Exclusion Era, 1882-1943 (Paperback)

~ (Author) "IN 1876, H. N. CLEMENT, a San Francisco lawyer, stood before a California State Senate Committee and sounded the alarm: "The Chinese are upon us..." (more)
Key Phrases: gatekeeping nation, illegal immigration business, exclusion era, San Francisco, Angel Island, Bureau of Immigration (more...)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Lee addresses a multiplicity of issues and deftly weaves together several themes that, in the past, had been treated separately." - Sucheng Chan, University of California, Santa Barbara

Review

With the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, Chinese laborers became the first group in American history to be excluded from the United States on the basis of their race and class. This landmark law changed the course of U.S. immigration history, but we know little about its consequences for the Chinese in America or for the United States as a nation of immigrants.

At America's Gates is the first book devoted entirely to both Chinese immigrants and the American immigration officials who sought to keep them out. Erika Lee explores how Chinese exclusion laws not only transformed Chinese American lives, immigration patterns, identities, and families but also recast the United States into a "gatekeeping nation." Immigrant identification, border enforcement, surveillance, and deportation policies were extended far beyond any controls that had existed in the United States before.

Drawing on a rich trove of historical sources--including recently released immigration records, oral histories, interviews, and letters--Lee brings alive the forgotten journeys, secrets, hardships, and triumphs of Chinese immigrants. Her timely book exposes the legacy of Chinese exclusion in current American immigration control and race relations.

"Lee has authored a masterful book, well written and based on extensive research in both English and Chinese sources."
— American Historical Review

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Product Details

  • Paperback: 352 pages
  • Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press (January 17, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0807854484
  • ISBN-13: 978-0807854488
  • Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.4 x 0.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #71,274 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

    #7 in  Books > Professional & Technical > Law > Administrative Law > Emigration & Immigration
    #10 in  Books > History > United States > 19th Century > Turn of the Century
    #63 in  Books > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Emigration & Immigration

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More About the Author

Erika Lee
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
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First Sentence:
IN 1876, H. N. CLEMENT, a San Francisco lawyer, stood before a California State Senate Committee and sounded the alarm: "The Chinese are upon us. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
gatekeeping nation, illegal immigration business, exclusion era, immigrant inspectors, general immigration laws, exclusion enforcement, returning laborers, exclusion laws, arrival files, border diplomacy, federal immigration officials, immigration raids, returning merchants, exempt classes, fraudulent papers, immigration station, border enforcement, returning citizens, returning residents, immigration service, birthright citizenship, claiming citizenship, white witnesses, documentary requirements, exclusion act
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
San Francisco, Angel Island, Bureau of Immigration, Chinese American, New York, Treasury Department, Chinese Bureau, Sari Francisco, African Americans, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Pacific Coast, Supreme Court, Closing the Gates, Courtesy of the National Archives, Geary Act, Pacific Mail Steamship Company, Wong Kim Ark, Department of Labor, Foo Ning, Hart Hyatt North, Lee Kan, Lew Git, Chinese Chamber of Commerce, Chinese Six Companies
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Chinese immigration West Coast of United States, March 12, 2009
This is a wonderful book which tells the story of the west coast immigration journey which involved a controversial path. The Chinese Exclusion Act that was enacted in 1882 and updated periodically until 1943 was passed to restrict Chinese immigration into the United States. That legislation limited immigration on the basis of nationality or race for the first time. During the twentieth century, various other Asian ethnic groups were added to the excluded list to limit immigration from different parts of the Far East.

The Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed by the 1943 Magnuson Act which permitted Chinese nationals already residing in the country to become naturalized citizens. It also allowed a federal quota of 105 Chinese immigrants per year, although significant Chinese immigration did not occur until the passage of the Immigration Act of 1965. I suggest you read further at http://www.sunglaw.com
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9 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars diatribe, December 5, 2005
By A. E. Poe (Alexandria, VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Erika Lee is a very angry woman. Her diatribe on American immigration policy equates anyone who is concerned about porous borders , the enforcement of laws in a nation of laws, and containment of disease as being a racist. It's hardly fair. And it detracts from her history of immigration legislation and enforcement. Yes, the Chinese Exclusion Act was reprehensible. Yes, we were and are a nation filled with racial prejudices and hatreds.
Immigration restrictions on other ethnic groups, according to Lee, were reflections of a racist policy towards Asians. She admits that the numbers of Asian immigrants was historically small and generally confined to the west coast. She then invests California, and San Francisco in particular, with an enormous amount of political power which was used to restrict immigration throughout the country. Lee is not convincing in her contention that the immigration issue was driven purely by an irrational racist beliefs and concerns over invading Asian hordes. She did not fully explain how the United States Congress, 3,000 miles distant, and generally unaffected by Asian immigration would develop a policy arising out of racism towards a group of which they were barely aware.
Exclusion based upon race is wrong. Looking different, having different cultural traditions, and not speaking the dominant language of English were and are roadblocks for all immigrants, not just the Chinese. Lee is a constant apologist for behaving as an outsider while expecting to be treated as an insider. Blaming national policy decisions on racial attitudes is too simplistic. Lee could have made an argument which addressed the nativistic xenophobia that was prevalent in the Gilded Age which was partly due to the arrival of masses of southern and eastern European immigrants. She could have argued that the closing and consequent filling of the frontier caused concerns about immigration in general. She contends that Angel Island was more racist than Ellis Island. She is too quick to condemn.
Chapter Four does provide valuable information on Chinese coming to the United States as sojourners. She explains that the immigrants are not unskilled laborers, but rather people who could improve the nation. She provides a good comparison between unskilled Mexican and Asian immigrants who come to this country in order to provide for their families back in the home country. Although she describes how employers needed these laborers, she doesn't investigate the economic impact of taking earnings out of the country rather than investing them in the country. She also provides a good description of how the Chinese with the help of immigration attorneys sought to and often did circumvent the law. She seems to imply that if some people can find loopholes in laws, then the laws should be repealed, or that people who manage to arrive in this country illegally should be rewarded for their tenacity by receiving amnesty.
Lee has researched her subject thoroughly. Her list of oral and written primary documents is impressive. However, Lee's book graphically demonstrates the difficulty that the United States now has in reforming its immigration policies and enforcing its borders (what Lee refers to as gatekeepers). To paraphrase Robert Frost, good fences make good neighbors. It appears that a concern for national security will generate an automatic response that such concerns are racist rather than a practical solution to security issues.
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