美国1882年排华法的前奏:1875年《佩奇法》实施的背景及影响

论文探讨了1875年《佩奇法》出台背景及其影响。在种族偏见、文化差异以及政治机会主义等因素的共同作用下,美国国会议员绕开中美之间自由移民的法律,将限制华人女性入境的立法解释成为一场维护美国传统家庭和婚姻道德的保卫之战。以加州联邦众议员佩奇名字命名的《佩奇法》,在美国国会开创了针对特定群体立法进行移民限制的先例。从法律出台到1882年《排华法案》之间的七年间,移民美国的华人超过了之前的任何一个以七年划分的时间段,《佩奇法》虽没有达到阻止苦力华工赴美目的,但在阻止华人女性移民美国方面相当成功,基本切断了华人女性赴美的渠道,也为七年后的美国全面排华铺平了道路。

Prelude to the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act: the Background and Impacts of the 1875 Page Act

In 1875 the American Congress introduced the Page Act—in the name of the Californian Representative Horace F.Page—to ban the arrival of Chinese coolie labourers and Chinese women.The motivation of excluding Chinese women was attributed to various factors including racial prejudice,cultural difference on family and marriage between America and China,and political opportunism among the Californian Congressmen.The American Congress bypassed the provision of“free immigration”between America and China in existing laws in act at the time,couching this Act in language of protecting integrity and morality of American families and marriages.The Page Act set a precedent for excluding a particular group of unwanted immigrants to the United States and paved the way for a complete ban on all Chinese coming to America seven years later.