While most Americans know about the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, many are unaware of America's overt exclusion of Chinese immigrants, a policy that lasted more than 60 years. University of Minnesota history professor Erika Lee studies Asian immigration history in the Americas, including the Chinese Exclusion Act, which made America the first country to exclude immigrants on the basis of race. Lee looks into the consequences of immigration restriction and whether the United States is a nation of immigrants or a gatekeeping country.
For more information on Lee's research, go to http://www.hist.umn.edu/~erikalee/profile.html.
RSS