Timelines

Migration ist eine globale Realität und seit jeher Teil der Menschheitsgeschichte. Dennoch gehört sie bis heute zu den am stärksten umkämpften öffentlichen Themen. 

Sowohl Menschen als auch Grenzen sind ständig in Bewegung. Wer sich bewegen darf und wem Rechte zugesprochen werden, zeigt, wer als Teil der Nation angesehen wird. In Deutschland wie in den Vereinigten Staaten sind diese Debatten — und die damit verbundenen politischen und gesellschaftlichen Praktiken — eng mit sich wandelnden Vorstellungen von „Rasse“, Kultur und Sprache verbunden. 

Diese Zeitleisten zeigen, wie Rechte und Zugehörigkeit durch Gesetze, migrantische Bewegungen und Kämpfe, globale Ereignisse und kulturelle Werke ausgehandelt, infrage gestellt und neu definiert wurden — und wie diese Geschichten bis heute nachwirken. 

Entstanden sind die Zeitleisten in einem community-basierten Prozess gemeinsam mit Partner*innen aus migrantischen Selbstorganisationen, Bildungsinstitutionen und Wissenschaft sowie mit Unterstützung vieler weiterer Beteiligter und Ehrenamtlicher.

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1910
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1940
Angel Island Immigration Station established

The West Coast equivalent of Ellis Island, the U.S. Immigration Station at Angel Island, opened in San Francisco Bay and operated from 1910 to 1940. With the exception of first-class passengers, nearly all trans-Pacific arrivals were transported from their ships directly to the island and subjected to immigration interrogation and medical inspection. Some migrants, particularly those of Chinese-descent, were detained in the facility for more than two years while immigration officials investigated their right to enter. This detainment was in part attributed to the fact that in 1906, Chinese immigrants were suspected of fraudulent claims of derivative citizenship after a large fire resulting from an earthquake destroyed nearly all of San Francisco’s birth records. The destruction of the birth records allowed many Chinese immigrant men to claim U.S. citizenship for themselves and for their sons in China, working around exclusionary laws that prohibited Chinese immigration (see also: Chinese immigrants face exclusion, 1875-1882). Chinese men who entered the country after the earthquake became known as “Paper Sons.” The “Paper Sons” phenomenon prompted, in part, the establishment of the immigration station on Angel Island. At Angel Island, immigrants were cut off from the world. Many detainees recorded their experiences on the wooden walls of the detention barracks; some committed suicide.
1LightMedia
Angel Island - Chinese Immigration
A short documentary featuring interviews with Li Keng Wong, a former resident of Angel Island, and Ed Chun, whose father and grandfather came from China as “paper sons.”
United States
Sources
  1. Detained on Angel Island: Historical Essay. Date accessed: March 28, 2015.
  2. Life on Angel Island. Date accessed: June 16, 2015.
  3. Thomas J. Scharf. The Farce of the Chinese Exclusion Laws. Digital History. Date accessed: June 16, 2015.
  4. Karen Manners Smith. Angel Island Immigration Station. Immigration in America. May 30, 2011. Date accessed: June 16, 2015.
Additional Resources
  1. The “Ellis Island” of the West. Date accessed: June 16, 2015.
  2. Immigrant-Journeys of Chinese-Americans. Date accessed: June 16, 2015.
  3. Hansi Lo Wang. Chinese-American Descendants Uncover Forged Family Histories. NPR. 17/12/2013. Date accessed: June 16, 2015.
  4. Chinese American Exclusion/Inclusion: Videos. Date accessed: June 16, 2015.
  5. Marlon K. Hom. Songs of Gold Mountain Cantonese Rhymes from San Francisco Chinatown. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press.
  6. Sucheng Chan. Entry Denied: Exclusion and the Chinese Community in America, 1882-1943. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
  7. Erika Lee. At America’s Gates: Chinese Immigration during the Exclusion Era, 1882-1943. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
  8. Angel Island – Chinese Immigration.
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