According to the Migration Policy Institute:
This six-minute video from AJ+ describes the push factors that influenced people in China to emigrate to the United States in four different waves. Chinese immigrants first came to the United States in the mid-19th century and continue to arrive well into the 21st century. While each family’s story is unique, the narrator explains that over time that Chinese people have left China for different reasons in different times including searching for economic opportunity, hopes a better life for their children, fleeing the impact of war, political persecution, and more recently in search of clean air and water.
Reflection Questions
- Use the Project Zero Connect Extend Challenge Thinking Routine and consider how this short film connects to walk you already know about immigration to the US, how does it extend your understanding, how might it challenge what you know or think you know?
- What does do the producers of the short film want viewers to know about the history of Chinese immigration to the United States?
- What role, if any, should the identities of immigrants and their motivations for coming to the U.S., impact the way they are treated when they arrive?
- Research the history of other immigrant groups to the United States and consider how their experiences are similar and different than the Chinese. How do you explain the similarities? How do you explain the differences?
Learn more about Chinese Immigration to the U.S. with these additional resources:
- The Immigrant History Initiative
- Chinese Immigrants in the United States from the Migration Policy Institute
- Our Chinese American Immigration Collection
Related Resources from Re-Imagining Migration