Many Chinese immigrants began to arrive in California in 1848 to mine for gold. As the years, proceed it became more and more difficult for Chinese to maintain a satisfying work experience. In 1852, the court ruled that Chinese could not give testimony in court and in 1870, California passed a law against the importation of Chinese and Japanese women for prostitution. The Panic of 1873 took an especially heavy toll on the status of Chinese workers when there was a major downfall in the American economy and was one of the major events that led to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
Growing tensions between Americans and Chinese immigrants soon enough turned into major conflicts between the Chinese and other immigrant groups such as the Germans and the Irish. And surely, during the spring of 1882, The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by Congress and signed by President Chester A. Arthur. The act provided an absolute 10 year moratorium on Chinese Labor immigration. The Federal law proscribed entry of an ethnic working group on the premise that it endangered the good order of certain localities. Non laborers who sought entry had to obtain certification from Chinese government that they had permission to migrate. State and federal courts also negated the rights to grant citizenship to Chinese residents. When the exclusion act expired, American continued to oppress Chinese workers by instilment of The Geary Act, added restrictions by requiring each Chinese resident to register and obtain a certificate of residence.
The motives for Americans to have passed the Chinese Exclusion Act were that Americans and other immigrant groups like the Irish and German were scared that the Chinese were taking away the jobs that belonged to them and they posed a threat to a "prosperous community". Anger rose as businesses began to be taken over by Chinese men and women and monopolized and flourished businesses which made them a competition and a threat. 