Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America

The Chinese Exclusion Act prohibited the entry of Chinese laborers into the US. There were exceptions for merchants and a few others, but the law did not allow any Chinese immigrants to become US citizens. Its assumption of racial inferiority impacted all Chinese in the US, including those born in the country as citizens. Ngai cites this law as evidence of the presence of racial hierarchies in US immigration law.

Influential in the early 20th century, eugenicists were “strict biological determinists who believed that intelligence, morality, and other social characteristics were permanently fixed in race” (24). This type of thinking led to restrictive immigration policies and the denial of citizenship to Asian immigrants.

Globalization refers to the interconnectedness of the world. Ngai highlights that while products, currencies, and information freely cross borders, human migrants remain bound by territorial borders and are criminalized for seeking work in a global economy (xxi).