Читать книгу The Atlas of California - Suresh K. Lodha - Страница 25

Yearning for a better life, domestic and foreign migrants have poured into California throughout its history. They have come to search for gold, work as laborers, establish businesses, unify families, and escape poverty and persecution. They have been attracted to California for its jobs, openness, climate, and opportunities to realize one’s dreams. In 1848 the cry of gold drew fortune-seekers from the East Coast, Europe, Latin America, and China. Chinese and Irish came as laborers to build the transcontinental railroad and to work in agriculture and manufacturing. Germans, Scots, and Scandinavians came as skilled workers. By the 1900s, farmers were drawing on new sources from Japan, the Philippines, and India. During this period, California suffered serious outbreaks of anti-immigrant agitation: anti-Chinese in the 1870s, anti-Japanese in the 1900s, and anti-Mexican in the 1920s. These eruptions influenced national policies, such as the ban against Chinese entry in 1882, the restriction of Japanese immigration after 1908, and forced sterilization in the 1920s. Californians helped pass the Quota and Immigration Acts of 1921 and 1924 that resulted in a dramatic drop in immigration for the next 50 years. The explosive growth of Los Angeles from 1900 to 1930 lured millions of White Americans west, as well as tens of thousands of Mexicans and African-Americans. The Dust Bowl of the 1930s drove thousands of poor Whites, popularly known as “Okies”, to California, who moved to the cities in World War II along with large numbers of new migrants, White and Black, from the south. The postwar boom drew millions more domestic migrants, but when domestic sources ran dry immigrants took their place. From 1942 to1964, the “temporary” Bracero Program brought more than 4 million agricultural workers from Mexico into California. Then, with the lifting of quotas in 1965, millions of Mexicans, Central Americans, and many nationalities from Asia joined the rush to California.

Migration