Prompt 2: Racial Capitalism and how immigration policies were shaped by economic and racial intrerests

Thesis:

Racial Capitalism shaped early 20th century immigration policy by combining racialized exclusion to the exploitation of immigrant labor, ensuring that Asian and Latinx workers were both essential to the economy but still socially marginalized. 

Roadmap

This essay will examine the Chinese Exclusion Act and the Bracero Program to show how both economic demands and racial hierarchies shaped immigration policy and enforcement, and will also discuss examples of migrant resistance to highlight how immigrants challenged exploitation and discrimination.

Example 1: Chinese Exclusion Act

The Chinese Exclusion Act demonstrates how immigration laws combined economic motivations with racialized exclusion.

Economic Interests: Chinese Exclusion Act

Evidence: White workers and labor unions on the west coast argued that Chinese laborers brought down wages and threatened their jobs. Ultimately, this political pressure was one of the reasons why the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed, prohibiting the entry of Chinese contract laborers and denying them citizenship. 

Racial Interests: Chinese Exclusion Act 

The law explicitly barred Chinese laborers from entering, marking the first federal immigration restriction based on race and nationality. It reflected a broader belief that Asians were “unassimilable” and a threat to the racial makeup of the U.S.

Elaboration for Example 1; Chinese Exclusion Act

• CEA shows overlap of economic + racial interests.

• Economic side: White workers/unions → pushed to restrict Chinese labor → protect jobs & wages.

• Racial side: Law barred Chinese by race/nationality → seen as “unassimilable” & threat to U.S. identity.

• Result: Gov’t prioritized white economic security + racialized Chinese as outsiders.

• Big picture: Immigration policy = regulate labor + enforce racial hierarchy.

Example 2: Bracero Program

The Bracero Program illustrates how economic demands and racialized hierarchies worked together to control Mexican labor.

Economic Interests: Bracero Program

The U.S. needed to secure agricultural labor, especially during wartime shortages (WWII), so they created this program as a way to fulfill their economic needs. 

• U.S. needed farm labor → recruited Mexican workers.

Racial Interests: Bracero Program

The Program brought workers in as temporary and deportable, reinforcing the idea that Mexican labor was useful but Mexicans themselves were not meant to belong as full members of U.S. society. 

• Braceros = temporary, no path to citizenship → kept exploitable.

Elaboration for Example 2: Bracero Program

• Mexican workers were welcomed when useful → but denied belonging or rights.

• Economic goals + racial hierarchies intertwined → workers kept temporary, cheap, and disposable.

• Reinforced idea of Mexicans as “foreign” → even when their labor was essential.

• Institutionalized surveillance/deportability → tied labor control to racial control.

• TIE BACK TO RACIAL CAPITALISM: Demonstrates racial capitalism: profit from immigrant labor while maintaining white dominance.

Example of how migrants resisted or challenged racialized violence and discrimination:

1. Thind v. U.S. : Thind petitioned for U.S. citizenship, arguing that as a ‘Caucasian’ he should be considered a ‘free white person,’ but the Supreme Court denied his claim, ruling that ‘white person’ must be interpreted according to common knowledge rather than scientific classification

Elaboration:

• Thind’s legal challenge shows that migrants actively resisted racialized exclusion

• Even though the Court ruled against him, the case represents a form of resistance, as he used the legal system to contest the denial of rights based on race.

• Showed that race in law is not fixed, but made up.

• Even though he lost, it was resisting discrimination.

• Shows Asian immigrants used the legal system to challenge unfair rules.

2. Braceros Filed Complaints or resisted poor working conditions: Their actions resisted exploitation and challenged the system that treated them as disposable labor. Shows that Mexican workers had agency and pushed back against unfair treatment, even within a strict, racialized labor system.

Braceros = resisted bad conditions → challenged racialized labor control.

Conclusion/Connection back to thesis: 

Demonstrates that racial capitalism and gatekeeping were resisted by migrants, highlighting agency even within oppressive systems. 

• Migrants resisted racial and economic control, showing they had agency despite oppression