The “Chinese Question” and the Canada–US Border, 1885: “Why don't Governor Squire send his troops to Semiahmoo to prevent the twelve or fifteen thousand pagans from crossing our borders from British Columbia?”

Abstract

This article explores the significance of Chinese immigration on the formation of the Canada–US border during the fall of 1885. The fear of a flood of Chinese immigrants from Canada turned into a campaign to drive Chinese communities out of Washington Territory, as white workers sought to “enforce” the Chinese Exclusion Act 1882. In turn, developments in the United States caused Canadians to reexamine their own “Chinese Question” and the meaning of the Chinese Restriction Act 1885. For Chinese laborers in Canada, the growing significance of the Canada–US border in the debate over the “Chinese Question” only diversified migratory patterns and methods. This migratory diversification tested the parameters of both the Chinese Exclusion Act and the Chinese Restriction Act and pushed the application of the legislation into a new bureaucratic reality. By the end of 1885, the debate over the Chinese Question had forged a new Canada–US border.