Chinese Immigration In Latin America

The Chinese migration to the Latin America/Caribbean region is an understudied dimension of the Asian American experience. There are three distinct periods in the history of this migration: the early colonial period (pre-19th century), when the profitable three-century trade connection between Manila and Acapulco led to the first Asian migrations to Mexico and Peru; the classic migration period (19th to early twentieth centuries), marked by the coolie trade known to Chinese diaspora studies; and the renewed immigration of the late 20th century to the present. Written by specialists on the Chinese in Latin America and the Caribbean, this book tells the story of Asian migration to the Americas and contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of the Chinese in this important part of the world.

This book provides an overview of some of the current issues related to the social and cultural relationship between Latin America and China. In particular, it discusses challenges connected to Chinese immigration to various Latin American countries, including Costa Rica, Argentina, and Mexico.

This book provides an overview of some of the current issues related to the social and cultural relationship between Latin America and China. In particular, it discusses challenges connected to Chinese immigration to various Latin American countries, including Costa Rica, Argentina, and Mexico.

An estimated 60,000 Chinese entered Mexico during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, constituting Mexico's second-largest foreign ethnic community at the time. The Chinese in Mexico provides a social history of Chinese immigration to and settlement in Mexico in the context of the global Chinese diaspora of the era. Robert Romero argues that Chinese immigrants turned to Mexico as a new land of economic opportunity after the passage of the U.S. Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. As a consequence of this legislation, Romero claims, Chinese immigrants journeyed to Mexico in order to gain illicit entry into the United States and in search of employment opportunities within Mexico's developing economy. Romero details the development, after 1882, of the "Chinese transnational commercial orbit," a network encompassing China, Latin America, Canada, and the Caribbean, shaped and traveled by entrepreneurial Chinese pursuing commercial opportunities in human smuggling, labor contracting, wholesale merchandising, and small-scale trade. Romero's study is based on a wide array of Mexican and U.S. archival sources. It draws from such quantitative and qualitative sources as oral histories, census records, consular reports, INS interviews, and legal documents. Two sources, used for the first time in this kind of study, provide a comprehensive sociological and historical window into the lives of Chinese immigrants in Mexico during these years: the Chinese Exclusion Act case files of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service and the 1930 Mexican municipal census manuscripts. From these documents, Romero crafts a vividly personal and compelling story of individual lives caught in an extensive network of early transnationalism.

Discusses the reasons Chinese people left their homeland to come to America, the experiences immigrants had in the new country, and the contributions this cultural group made to American society. Includes activities.

"This groundbreaking study examines the connection between what are arguably the two most distinguishing phenomena of the modern world: the unprecedented surges in global mobility and in the creation of politically bounded spaces and identities."--Jose C. Moya, author of Cousins and Strangers "An excellent collection of studies connecting transnational migration to the construction of national identities. Highly recommended."--Luis Roniger, author of Transnational Politics in Central America "The importance of this collection goes beyond the confines of one geographic region as it offers new insight into the role of migration in the definition and redefinition of nation states everywhere."--Fraser Ottanelli, coeditor of Letters from the Spanish Civil War "This volume has set the standard for future work to follow."--Daniel Masterson, author of The History of Peru Between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, an influx of Europeans, Asians, and Arabic speakers indelibly changed the face of Latin America. While many studies of this period focus on why the immigrants came to the region, this volume addresses how the newcomers helped construct national identities in the Caribbean, Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil. In these essays, some of the most respected scholars of migration history examine the range of responses--some welcoming, some xenophobic--to the newcomers. They also look at the lasting effects that Jewish, German, Chinese, Italian, and Syrian immigrants had on the economic, sociocultural, and political institutions. These explorations of assimilation, race formation, and transnationalism enrich our understanding not only of migration to Latin America but also of the impact of immigration on the construction of national identity throughout the world. Contributors: Jürgen Buchenau | Jeane DeLaney | Nicola Foote | Michael Goebel | Steven Hyland Jr. | Jeffrey Lesser | Kathleen López | Lara Putnam | Raanan Rein | Stefan Rinke | Frederik Schulze

In this sweeping work, Elliott Young traces the pivotal century of Chinese migration to the Americas, beginning with the 1840s at the start of the "coolie" trade and ending during World War II. The Chinese came as laborers, streaming across borders legally and illegally and working jobs few others wanted, from constructing railroads in California to harvesting sugar cane in Cuba. Though nations were built in part from their labor, Young argues that they were the first group of migrants to bear the stigma of being "alien." Being neither black nor white and existing outside of the nineteenth century Western norms of sexuality and gender, the Chinese were viewed as permanent outsiders, culturally and legally. It was their presence that hastened the creation of immigration bureaucracies charged with capture, imprisonment, and deportation. This book is the first transnational history of Chinese migration to the Americas. By focusing on the fluidity and complexity of border crossings throughout the Western Hemisphere, Young shows us how Chinese migrants constructed alternative communities and identities through these transnational pathways.