Asian Immigrants: A Case Study

The goal of the “American errand into the wilderness” was essentially to transform California’s wilderness into a mirror image, both physically and culturally, of the successful settlements on the east coast, which generally consisted of clearing land, building towns or homes, starting agriculture, and building mass transportation such as railroads and steamboats (Takaki 23). Understandably, this infrastructure required a massive amount of labor that couldn’t be provided solely by the American colonists. However, an influx of Asian immigrants entered California during the 1849 gold rush, and colonists looking to employ cheap labor quickly realized that the Asian immigrants were perfect for the job because of their willingness to work excruciatingly long and difficult hours with little to no complaints or …show more content…
Many Chinese wanted to come over to California after hearing about the abundance of opportunities available, but couldn’t afford the trip. As a result, they paid for the journey in one of two ways: as contract laborers or (more commonly) as free laborers using the credit-ticket system (Takaki 35). Contract laborers received free passage, but were contractually required to work for five years upon arrival (ibid.). The credit ticket system allowed immigrants to buy tickets to travel to the United States on credit from a broker, but they were required to pay back the loan plus a significant amount of interest as soon as possible (ibid.). Together, these two systems meant that the workers were essentially working for free upon arrival in California, massively reducing the costs of labor, which in turn increased the profits and productivity of factories and plantations. This dramatically accelerated the development of