There are many factors that made immigrants to move to America. One of the reasons as to why the immigrants moved to America is because of the gold discovery at the pacific (LeMay 7). This made a lot of Chinese people to move to America, since their country was at this time experiencing political turmoil and economic hardships (Zhou 5). The other reason as to why people decided to move to America is because of the high demand for cheap labor that was required in the process of railway expansion.
The characteristics of this immigrants was that majority of them were single males from China (Zhou 9). These men had an aim of earning their fortune from America. In this regard, they anticipated to create wealth in America that could enable them to marry as well as purchase land in their homeland (Zhou 13). The desires of these men to take home a lot of money is what made them to accept low wages. Apart from that, these men did not have any option but to accept the dangerous railroad work.
These immigrants faced incredible hardships after the works on the rail road and the gold mines were over. Those who decided to stay in America had no option but to fight for jobs with the white workers. In this regard, most Chinese men found themselves working as domestic servants for the wealthy women in America (Zhou 19). Last but not least, these immigrants also had some impact in the American cities. For instance, the Chinese decided to open their own settlements or rather “china towns” (LeMay 13), where there was the existence of the economic opportunities. The China towns turned out to be important to the immigrants, as they offered a sense of community among the immigrants in a foreign state (Zhou 21).
Work Cited
Zhou, Min. Contemporary Chinese America: Immigration, Ethnicity, and
Community Transformation. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2009. Print.
LeMay, Michael C. Transforming America: Perspectives on U.s. Immigration. Santa Barbara
, Calif: Praeger, 2013. Print.
