History of Chinese Immigration

The Chinese immigration to Canada and the US in the 19th century was prompted by the push and pull forces experienced in China. The push factor was the revolution in China that destabilized the Chinese economy greatly, while the pull factor was the demand for cheap labor to enhance the construction of railways in both countries.

There was an influx of the Chinese people during this period to the labor market of the railway construction. After the construction work of the railways was completed, competition resulted in the labor market where Chinese labor became competitive due to the acceptance of a fraction of what was paid to a white laborer. This prompted the loss of job for white people to the Chinese thus lowering the wages and negatively impacting the economy of the countries. Both governments enacted law that banned immigration of Chinese to their countries due to the negative effects experienced with the influx of Chinese immigrants. The ban on immigration has been in effect until the late 20th century when it was ratified. There had been discrimination regarding the immigrants of Chinese origin over a long period of time (Holland, 2007).

There has been a shift in the immigration of Chinese people to North America which led to the development and implementation of immigration policies that would cater for the increased immigrants. The policy helped to stem out the unskilled worker to migrate to North America targeting the economic immigrants who were perceived rich in human capital. The policy implication in this study is that the selection used while screening of the independent Chinese immigrants has been successful for immigrants with substantial human capital. The study has shown the shifts of the Chinese immigration to North America form the railroad construction that faced the ban of Chinese immigration to North America and the discrimination of the Chinese immigrants, which is contrary to the current trend of courting business people and students of Chinese origin to migrate to North America (Holland, 2007).