Asian Literature

Paper son which is an illegal practice was established by the Chinese after the   first law on Chinese exclusion was passed by congress in 1882.The main aim of the law was to limit the number of the Chinese who were gaining entry into the United States (Madeline Hsu 45).  The law was however, unfair because exclusion based on peoples race, language and color shows the segregation and mistreatment that a certain people is entitled to incase the law is bridged. Such an act is not fair and it can pose a country to be jeopardized in various ways. The country is bound to face resistance from the people being excluded for instance when the Chinese worked towards offsetting the exclusion act, by capitalized on the loophole in the legal system to migrate in to the US thus resulting to the development of the paper son system. The loophole was created during the framing of the Chinese exclusion law and subsequent supplementary acts which came in the subsequent years. Any person who has been banned from going to any country and wishes to go to the same country that has banned him, will work tirelessly to identify a means through which he can use to get to that country irrespective of whether he is putting his life at risk or not. That is why the Chinese capitalized on the loophole created during the passing of the 14th amendment by congress to come up with an illegal practice to help them migrate to US. The ambiguity identified was the fact that the 14th amendment was designed to allow for citizenship for people of African origin who were born in the US. Congress  also failed to put in mind the fact that the 14th amendment also allowed citizenship to anyone born in US, in spite of their being white, Mongolian African American or Chinese (Madeline Hsu 47).The ambiguities in the 14th amendment were good enough  to reinforce the paper son system. The Chinese needed only to work out on how to proof that they were either born in US or had relatives who were born in the US.  Thus the Chinese who provided enough evidence of having been born in the US were allowed to enter the United States. These Chinese were also eligible for the citizenship on the children who were foreign born. Congress thought that by providing strict limitation and   defining the various groups of Chinese who were eligible to enter the US, they could stop the Chinese laborers from entering US because this was the most feared group of people (Madeline Hsu 48). Immigration service hoped that by insisting on concrete evidence on the identity and status from the people of China, they could curb against the dangerous laborers and ineligible Chinese form entering US under falsehood. This however proofed both immigration bureau and the congress to be wrong. The Chinese went a head migrating in large numbers to US using the paper son system.

The Chinese have kept on migrating to US in enormous numbers through the illegal system which was initiated as a result of the direct transfer of citizenship rights along the family lineage. The system was so effective and sophisticated that it barred the efficiency of the exclusion laws from stopping Chinese immigration to US. The system also guaranteed that those who were able to migrate were organized and entirely depended on their Chinese counter parts.  The Chinese exclusion laws forced them to work in close associations so that they could escape through the loophole identified in the legal structure (Madeline Hsu 27).The Chinese managed to overcome the thorough scrutiny of the authorities in the immigration department in that the immigrants produced   paper slots or identities of those eligible to travel to US in addition to the supporting documents of evidence. This was convincing enough to the immigration service that it allowed the Chinese to enter the US based on the evidence produced which off cause was false evidence. 

Another escape root identified by the Chinese was the fact that the immigration and congress found it difficult to correlate the legislating borders to law enforcement. This posed a major problem to the immigration service because the Chinese refused to recognize the terms and conditions of exclusion laws and insisted on going to the US. This was aided by lack of documentary evidence to confirm practices such as marriages and births. Immigration service demanded that students, diplomats and merchants obtain documents showing their status from Hong Kong or Guangzhou, or from the schools in which they intended to attend or the Chinese government. (Madeline Hsu 48). The paper evidences were not easily located and this forced the immigration service to base on the testimonials of the supporting witness who were off cause the Chinese. The Chinese were able to provide the evidence needed by the immigration service thus proofing the authenticity of their testimonials and beating the immigration service at their own game by playing by the regulations set by the bureau itself (Madeline Hsu 53). This is the fault on the US side because relying on verbal testimony can be very misleading. Any body can be hired to give a testimony however false it is. 

The Chinese exclusion had a great effect on the Chinese immigration to the US. First of all it led to the freezing of the Chinese society which was in place by 1882 thus inhibiting it from growing. The society was forcefully assimilated in to US community like the European immigrant communities did. Secondly, after the earthquake that destroyed the city hall records and the city hall at large most of the immigrants who were paper sons asserted to be related to the Chinese American residents (Madeline Hsu 54). Thirdly, this act also gave rise to commercial smuggling of human beings. This activity spread later on to other ethnic groups and nations. Fourthly, the 1924 immigration act led to restriction of all groups of the Chinese immigrants and also other Immigrants from Asian groups. This caused the Chinese to live a very hard life and came up with a society in which they hurstled out their way of living. The Chinese immigrants were also grouped with other people like the Indians, blacks and the Negro and were therefore not permitted to testify on the whites in a court of law (Madeline Hsu 140). On the other hand, the act did not cater for the issues facing the whites. The Japanese came in eagerly to replace the Chinese. These Japanese were able to get to society rungs by establishing businesses and truck farming. The Japanese later on were however targeted in the 1924 act of the National Origins. This resulted to a total ban of the entire East Asia. (Madeline Hsu 21)
Paper son practice is an illegal practice and if it is not stopped then it will result into so many other evils both in the immigration service and among those aspiring to migrate. For instance, the Gam Saan Jong used to ask applicants for black money from their sponsors to aid in processing visas (Madeline Hsu 25). Also the Chinese who found themselves on the Angel Island were mostly criminals and the used crime to find their way to US. (Madeline Hsu 31). Through such practices persons who have been banned from getting to the US due to security reasons can also find their entry to the United States.