How to hate immigrants

American objections to Chinese immigration took many forms, and
generally stemmed from economic and cultural tensions, as well as ethnic
discrimination. Most Chinese laborers who came to the United States did
so in order to send money back to China to support their families
there. At the same time, they also had to repay loans to the Chinese
merchants who paid their passage to America. These financial pressures
left them little choice but to work for whatever wages they could.
Non-Chinese laborers often required much higher wages to support their
wives and children in the United States, and also generally had a
stronger political standing to bargain for higher wages. Therefore, many
of the non-Chinese workers in the United States came to resent the
Chinese laborers, who might squeeze them out of their jobs. Furthermore,
as with most immigrant communities, many Chinese settled in their own
neighborhoods, and tales spread of Chinatowns as places where large
numbers of Chinese men congregated to visit prostitutes, smoke opium, or
gamble. Some advocates of anti-Chinese legislation therefore argued
that admitting Chinese into the United States lowered the cultural and
moral standards of American society. Others used a more overtly racist
argument for limiting immigration from East Asia, and expressed concern
about the integrity of American racial composition.^[13]