Chinese Migrating to the United States of America | Teen Ink

Chinese Migrating to the United States of America

February 7, 2019
By Anonymous

Today, millions of migrants of all over the world are seeking to go to the US. Each migrant has a different reason for why they are living there country and going to another one. Focusing on Chinese immigrant migrating to the US. Chinese immigrants are the third-largest foreign-born group in the United States, after Mexicans and Indians. The United States is one of the top destinations for Chinese immigrants: 22% of the nearly 11 million Chinese are living in the US. Chinese migration to the United States started during the mid-19th century when male manual labourers arrived in the West Coast for agricultural, mining, railroad construction, and other low-skilled jobs. These days there are different reasons why Chinese immigrants are migrating to the United States. Three main reasons are to pursue economic opportunities, seek higher education and escape political unrest.


Chinese immigrants are mostly going to the US to pursue better economic opportunities. Many Chinese immigrants moved to the US in search of better economic opportunities than the ones they have back in China. Back to the California gold rush that began in 1848 was when the first wave of Chinese immigrants moved to America in search of a wealthier and better life. Also, Chinese immigrants were hired by the Central Pacific Railroad and California farmers. Between 1850 and 1882 about 322,000 Chinese moved to America in search of new opportunities and employment potential to pursue better economic opportunities. Economic development and racial exclusion, the patterns of settlement for Chinese Americans. Before the Chinese Exclusion Act, the patterns of settlement followed the patterns of economic development in the western states. Since mining and railway construction was dominated by the western economy, Chinese immigrants settled mostly in California. As these industries declined and anti-Chinese feelings intensified, the Chinese fled into small import-export businesses and service manufacturing industries in such cities as San Francisco, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Seattle. By the beginning of the twentieth century, approximately over eighty per cent of the Chinese population were found in Chinatowns in major cities in the United States. According to Jared Bernstein “Though the U.S. economy continues to grow steadily at moderate rates and the labour market closes in on full employment, many barriers to economic opportunity and mobility remain in place.”What this means is that since the United States economy has been growing there are labour market closing and many barriers to economic opportunities this matters because the Chinese that is migrating to the US are looking for better economic opportunities. Finally, one main reason that made Chinese immigrants go to the US is to seek better economic opportunities.


Moving on, another reason why Chinese migrants go to the US is that they are looking for a better education than the one they get in China.  According to statistics, Chinese students seeking higher education in the U.S. are more than 350,000 of 1 million international students enrolled in American colleges and universities. Since 2006 Chinese migrants going to the US for better education, has increased from 67,723 to 350,755. According to Kathleen Struck, "In the United States, our academic institutions are very open," said McGonigal. "There's a lot of research and development at major universities in the United States that a foreign government would look to exploit by sending students to study at these universities." What this is saying is that in the US the universities are open to international students and in the universities, there is a lot of research and development. This is important because China is really far from the US and for the Chinese to be migrating to get a better education in the US they must be getting a horrible education or even none.


Apart from that they are leaving to pursue economic opportunities, seek higher education, they are also going to the US to escape political unrest. Political unrest is a term describing widespread dissatisfaction with the current government. Political unrest is rising in China. According to Clements “In 1990, 26 per cent of China’s total population lived in urban areas. Conditions in many of China’s cities are substandard, with heavy traffic, people living in cramped spaces, a lack of socializing among residents, and even reports of cars parked on sidewalks. One factor in China is sub-cities and districts outside major cities. While these sub-cities have long been a part of China, construction has increased since the early 2000s, with sub-cities and districts being built on land that was once home to farms and small villages.” What this means is that in China many cities are substandard with a lot of traffic, people crowded, etc. This matters because if in China there is overpopulation Chinese want to move to a different place where it is calmer and where they will not have political unrest. Negative health consequences have resulted from poor nutrition and lifestyle habits, lack of healthcare access, poor vaccination, and accidents and injuries. Air quality and water pollution also have contributed to disease, and traffic accidents are an increasing concern as China’s cities use more motor vehicles. Moving on when a large group of people migrate to one relatively small area, conditions are ripe for political violence. As cities get too crowded with growing unemployment, it leads to high rates of crime and civil unrest. Riots and protests have erupted in South Africa, Greece, Spain and other countries with high unemployment rates while government corruption has given rise to political risks and election violence in the Philippines, Republic of Congo, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, and Mexico among other countries. Additionally, countries with the highest crime rates include South Africa, Honduras, Venezuela, Belize, and India.


These days many Chinese migrants are trying to migrate to the US to pursue better economic opportunities, seek higher education, and finally escape political unrest.  To conclude I hope that this essay answered the question, What are the main reasons Chinese migrate to the United States? The reasons are pursuing better economic opportunities, seek higher education, and escape political unrest. This issue matters because migration is happening all over the world even though we don't know. If we don't know about what's happening around the world we will never become open. minded, understanding, and empathetic, because again, we don't know what's happening. Empathy fits in all of this because we need to put ourselves in there position know how they feel, what they are passing throw etc. I believe that this issue matters because all Chinese migrant want is a better life, and as Ms Brandt who is citizen of the US said “No I would not  like to get rid of the Chinese immigrants I think the Chinese immigrants have the right to go to other countries freely as long as they follow the correct procedure.” what she is trying to say is that there is no reason why Chinese immigrants should not be able in the United States. Finally, we should all know what's happening around the world to be able to be more open-minded, understanding, and empathetic.



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