Immigration Stories
A recent New York Times article by Nina Bernstein titled “Immigration Stories, From Shadows to Spotlight” looks at the Chinese immigration experience over the past 120 years. Bernstein begins the article by looking at the story of Tun Funn Hom, whose immigration experience is now part of a permanent display at the newly reopened Museum of Chinese in America. Hom entered the United States as a “paper son”—a term for young Chinese males who attempted to use false identity papers claiming their father was an American citizen. Hom could not enter legally because of the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882-1943), which barred the Chinese from naturalizing. No other law in American History has prohibited a specific immigrating group from entering or becoming a citizen of the United States. This article provides a great foundation for looking at history to inform today’s conversations about immigration.
- Bernstein writes that “for years, it was a shameful family secret” that Hom had entered the United States with false identity papers. Why do you think Hom felt ashamed?
- Hom wrote that “ ‘to get into the U.S. under the laws back then, I had to pretend to be another
person.’ ” How might immigrating to a new country effect a person’s identity? What does it mean to be “from” a place? - The Chinese Exclusion Act barring Chinese from immigrating to the United States was passed in 1882 “after years of escalating anti-Chinese violence in the West spurred by recessions, labor strife and a culture of white supremacy.” How might recessions, labor strife, and a culture of white supremacy have led to the government’s ruling? Do you think the current recession is impacting feelings towards immigrants, legal or illegal?
- With regard to the Chinese Exclusion Act, one senator “asserted that the government had the right ‘to set apart for them, as we have for the Indians, a territory or reservation, where they should not break out to contaminate our people.’ ” What does this statement imply about the senator’s view of Chinese immigrants? What does he mean by “contaminate”? What do you think is his main concern?
- A 1983 ruling asserted that “the government’s power to deport foreigners, whether here legally or not, was as ‘absolute and unqualified’ as the power to exclude them.” What do you make of this ruling? Even after Congress repealed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1943, the government’s “power over noncitizens was deployed in raids against immigrants of various ethnic groups whose politics were considered suspect.” Do you think government should have the right to deport legal and illegal immigrants?
- Bernstein writes that today, “debates about immigration often include the claim that ‘my relatives came the legal way.’ ” Hom’s daughter, Dorothy, responded that “ ‘one’s status being legal or illegal, it’s two seconds apart at any point.’ ” What does Dorothy mean by this?
- How does this story influence the way you think about debates on immigration today?
Our resource book “Race and Membership in American History: The Eugenics Movement” has a reading titled “Rumors and Fears” (pp. 129-132) about the Chinese Exclusion Act and how the Chinese were blamed for various epidemics. In 1900 they were suspected of spreading the plague in San Francisco.
