The history of China's immigration to the United States

1840 before the opium war, a small number of China people went to the United States for trade reasons and exchanged porcelain and silk for Mexican silver.

■ 1849 After the discovery of "Golden Mountain" in the western United States, a large number of China people lived in San Francisco for gold. Later, the United States developed the western region to build the Central Pacific Railway, and Chinese workers became the main force of road construction. Many people gave their precious lives in arduous labor. By the 1970s and 1980s of 19, there were 65,438+million overseas Chinese in the United States, most of whom were from Guangdong.

■ 1882, the American congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act for the first time, including the provisions of 15, such as stopping the entry of Chinese workers and prohibiting overseas Chinese from becoming naturalized (the bill became a permanent bill in 1904). Few people are allowed to immigrate from China to the United States.

■ After the Pearl Harbor incident, the United States participated in the world anti-fascist war, tens of thousands of overseas Chinese living in the United States joined the army, and overseas Chinese women also entered the factory. In view of the outstanding performance of overseas Chinese and the importance of Sino-US relations in wartime, President Roosevelt abolished the Chinese Exclusion Act and symbolically allowed/kloc-0.05 Chinese from all over the world to immigrate to the United States every year.

After ■ 1965, the United States promulgated a new immigration policy, granting 20,000 immigrant places to all countries, including China. 1979 After the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States, 1997 Before the return of Hong Kong, the number of overseas Chinese in the United States increased greatly, reaching 2.5 million in 2002, of which the first generation exceeded 70%. The structure of cultural knowledge has also undergone great changes. According to statistics, more than one-third of about 3 million overseas Chinese in the United States have college education or above. In some areas, the proportion of overseas Chinese with higher education even exceeds that of other ethnic groups.