Was it hard for Chinese immigrants to get jobs in America?

Answer 1

I wish I knew your year level and how much research you have done for this topic. Search 'Railroad history & Chinese'. That should give some good leads. These webs will tell you that most workers on the railroad were Chinese in the Western half of the States, because they could immigrate in and take jobs cheaply.

They usually sent all the money home, and then returned to the Motherland (China)when finished. Why wouldn't they want to immigrate permanently? America was the 'Wild West' in those days, and most Chinese would rather have their world-renowned medicines, foods, and culture. Pretty simple really. They went back to the land of their ancestors to live and die. Euro-type (white) people don't have the same level of loyalties. Once in America, they adopted the mainstream culture. Chinese always stayed Chinese in language, customs, culture, etc. They felt comfortable with that, and

of course they lived much longer that way. It was a very moral society in those days.

That's why China was called 'God's country.' They knew about Noah and the Ark, the temptation in the Garden, etc (if you search 'God in Ancient China').

Of course rascism can always be blamed where anyone is a minority. However, if we look at the total picture, it all becomes clearer as to why uneducated Chinese (or any Chinese) would not want to come to live and remain in a land with few if any Chinese cultural things in it. Remember that for centuries, China remained closed to the outside world because they felt that the rest of the world had nothing to offer, except perhaps some extra cash for dirt-poor farmers (of which China has hundreds of millions).

Nowadays, the world has a little of everything for everyone. Even small towns all have a Chinese restaurant. So we are all getting a taste of China's culture no matter how Americanized it becomes when we eat it. The food, firecrackers, etc, all have their roots in quite possibly the oldest continuous culture in the world.