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The First Asian Immigrants

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The first Asian immigrants are traced as far back as 1850 with the Chinese working in California in the gold mine and on railroads. There was controversy over a murder of a Chinese man, but because they were not white they were not considered citizens and they freed the man. Immigration was encouraged at this time but naturalization was out the question. In the late 1870’s the Naturalization Act controlled the number of immigrants from receiving their citizenship, and in 1882 they passed Chinese Exclusion Act and this banned Chinese migration for ten years (Asian American History TImeline,

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