WI: No Chinese Exclusion Act

Just wondering what the effects of the non-passing of the Chinese Exclusion Act would be. What would the West Coast look like today if it were not passed? Would anything change at all?
 
Sort of depends on the "how", since it may only end up delayed -- for example, if Garfield isn't shot, then vetoes the bill, it may come back in a more moderate form or resurface in the 1890's.
 
Sadly, I don't know how plausible it is. The act stemmed from pretty strong racist sentiment and I'm not sure what can be done to mitigate it. After all the Chinese did AFAIK do their best to work hard and be successful, yet were still outcasted.
 
Sadly, I don't know how plausible it is. The act stemmed from pretty strong racist sentiment and I'm not sure what can be done to mitigate it. After all the Chinese did AFAIK do their best to work hard and be successful, yet were still outcasted.

I was curious if the breakup of some of the labor unions would have hurt the bill's chances. I don't know as much about the bill as I wish, but from what I've read, the labor unions were the biggest proponents of the CEA.
 
I was curious if the breakup of some of the labor unions would have hurt the bill's chances. I don't know as much about the bill as I wish, but from what I've read, the labor unions were the biggest proponents of the CEA.
I'm afraid I don't know enough about the economic situation of the time (or any time) to give a good answer.
 
Sadly, I don't know how plausible it is. The act stemmed from pretty strong racist sentiment and I'm not sure what can be done to mitigate it. After all the Chinese did AFAIK do their best to work hard and be successful, yet were still outcasted.

They worked TOO hard and were too successful. So tthe white workers couldnt compete. Thats one of the reasons behind the act.
 
No act could lead to an increase in violence against Chinese immigrants.

Given the level of crisis in late nineteenth century China, I suspect there would still be significant immigration. We might end up with a distinctively West-Coast form of segregation, Johnny Chinaman laws in broad analogy to Jim Crow. I still suspect that life would be somewhat easier for the Chinese in a land still in the process of settlement and with plenty of jobs and natural resources, so the whiole thing would look different. Nobody is trying to limit the Chinese to the status of agricultural bond labour, after all. They are actually needed in services, manufacturing and construction.

Depending on how the race relationas play out, this could presage good or bad things for the USA down the road. Good, if the more respectable and wealthier Chinese make common cause with the black movement and gain greater political influence earlier. Bad if more Western politicians now have a stake in segregation and join the Dixiecrats. Imagine an early twentieth century USA where both major parties have a militantly racist wing whose political raison d'etre is maintaining their flavour of apartheid.
 
Something tells me it'd be closer to "bad" -- that'd be ironic, if stopping a really racist law ended up making the US a lot more racist than the law did otl. :(
 
I don't know. Wouldn't the Chinese fall closer to the normal pattern of immigrants if they continued flooding in a while longer? Which is to say, wouldn't familiarity gradually tend toward acceptance?

I suspect that the easiest thing would be to delay the act as much as possible. Even in just a decade, with the accelerating rate of immigration, the "damage" would largely be done. The larger the community gets, the more energy and expense it would take to prevent further growth.
 
I don't know. Wouldn't the Chinese fall closer to the normal pattern of immigrants if they continued flooding in a while longer? Which is to say, wouldn't familiarity gradually tend toward acceptance?

Very gradually, I suspect. Given that the desire to limit Chinese immigration would not just go away, though, I suspect the States will do what they can by passing their own laws. Once legislation is in place, it becomes very difficult to overcome the divide. Without such laws, the Chinese will eventually become accepted as part of society, but it is liable to take a long time. Generally speaking, US society assimilated everyone who could fit into its aspirational lifestyle and encapsulated everyone who could not. How similar to a Boston WASP does your average second-generation Chinese look dressed in a suit and tie?
 
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