Chinese Head-Tax: a Discriminatory Piece of Legislation

Canada is a country built on immigration, mainly British at first, but from all over the world afterwards. Chinese immigration to Canada dates back to the period of the gold rush when they were recruited to mine. In the 1880s, the Chinese population increased after Canada joined the alinement and extra labour was required to build a cross country railway. Due to the poor economy in China, many Chinese were willing to migrate and work for low wages. The Canadian regimen seized this opportunity and allowed the companies working on the Canadian Pacific railroad line (CPR) to import Chinese immigrants. With a drive for completion a significant number of Chinese were recruited. In order to statement this increase in immigration, the Canadian government implemented a policy imposing a head-tax on Chinese immigrants go in Canada. The head-tax was a discriminatory piece of legislation, which was enacted by the government imputable to public pressure, and which led to severe discrimination of the Chinese people, hence violating present day human rights codes. During the 1880s, an immense number of Chinese entered the country to work on the Canadian Pacific Railway, and due to economic and geographic reasons, most settled in British Columbia (Anderson ,21).

As a result, in order to bind this immigration, the government of Canada enacted the 1885 Immigration Act. Embedded in the Act, was a $50 head-tax that would be imposed on Chinese migrants before they could be landed (Anderson ,22). Although the government tried to justify the reason for the head-tax to be one of generating revenue, it was clearly used to restrict the entry of Chinese migrants (Anderson ,25). If it in fact was a method for generating revenue, the government should overhear employ the policy to all people migrating to Canada, however, they only applied it to the Chinese. The number of Chinese immigrants entering the country in the historic period that the head-tax was in effect significantly decreased,... If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: Orderessay

Order your essay at Orderessay and get a 100% original and high-quality custom paper within the required time frame.