Abstract
The closing of the United States to immigrants is arguably the most economically and socially significant policy shift in American history. The U.S. had virtually open borders until 1875, when the first of a series of federal laws prohibiting or limiting immigration of particular groups was passed. The first such group was Asian immigrants, mostly Chinese, who were excluded by a series of bills in the late nineteenth century. Using data from the U.S. Congressional record, I attempt to explain the policy shift in public choice terms: identifying voting patterns that can be explained by shifts in public and elite opinion, the incentives of policymakers, and changing economic conditions. Explanations of the policy shift from previous scholarship are evaluated in light of roll-call voting data and NOMINATE scores.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
Signed in 1868, this treaty established friendly relations, and open immigration, between China and the United States. In fact, Chinese immigration was specifically encouraged by the treaty. The policy was officially reversed when the treaty was renegotiated in 1880.
- 3.
An Act Supplementary to the Acts in Relation to Immigration. Sect. 141, 18 Stat. 477, 1873-March 1875.
- 4.
38th Congress, 2nd session.
- 5.
The word “coolie” has a contentious etymology, but is generally thought to mean “worker” or “peon,” usually used in a pejorative sense.
- 6.
In a message to Congress on December 4, 1871, he wrote “The number of immigrants, ignorant of our laws, habits, etc., coming into our country annually, has become so great, and the impositions practiced upon them so numerous and flagrant, that I suggest congressional action for their protection.”
- 7.
Arthur claimed the bill was a repudiation of treaty obligations to the Chinese Empire.
- 8.
It was finally repealed by the Magnuson Act of 1943.
- 9.
The expressed goal of the California Workingman’s Party was to “rid the Country of cheap Chinese labor” according to Kearney (1878), and their primary enemies were Chinese immigrants and the Central Pacific Railroad. Their party slogan was “The Chinese must go!”
- 10.
Kanazawa (2005) reports that in several years during the 1850 and 1860s, taxes on foreign miners represented over 15% of total state revenues.
- 11.
The Geary Act was ultimately upheld by the United States Supreme Court in an opinion by Justice Horace Gray, Fong Yue Ting v. United States, 149 U.S. 698, 13 S. Ct. 1016. 37 L.Ed. 905 (1893), Justices David Josiah Brewer, Stephen J. Field, and Chief Justice Melville Fuller dissenting. The majority opinion states that the U.S., as a sovereign nations, has the right to exclude any non-citizen for any reason.
- 12.
A small number of Congressional roll-call votes, especially in the pre-Civil-War period, have been lost.
- 13.
Macroeconomic conditions considered are real wage growth, growth in real GDP, unemployment, real wage effects, relative wages of unskilled to per capita GDP, trade openness, human capital content of immigrants, rate of immigration—all with lagged indicators. The authors do find that changes in real wages are a significant explanatory variable in accounting for the Congressional vote to override Wilson’s veto in 1917.
- 14.
Possibly with the exception of French, which was a major target nationality for the Alien and Sedition Acts.
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Acknowledgements
The author is grateful to Bryan Caplan, Keith Poole, Alex Nowrasteh, Samuel Wilson, Don Boudreaux, Peter Leeson, and Josh Hall for helpful comments and suggestions.
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Gochenour, Z. (2018). Asian Exclusion in American Immigration Policy. In: Hall, J., Witcher, M. (eds) Public Choice Analyses of American Economic History. Studies in Public Choice, vol 37. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95819-4_3
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