Page Act of 1875

The Page Act (often: Page Law, German: Page - law ) was a United States federal law passed in 1875 that banned the entry of prostitutes and convicted criminals in the United States. The law covered only applicants from China, Japan and other East and Southeast Asian countries.

Background and Policy

The Page Act was passed by the U.S. Senate on March 3, 1875. Background was increased prostitution in the Chinese- American community, which was sponsored by a criminal minority within this community and consumed by the fact that the Chinese migrants, the men were almost exclusively from a variety of reasons, neither their wives in take the United States could still get married in the United States. The law was not only the basis for ensuring that women who were classified by the immigration officer as a prostitute, could be sent back to China, but also saw penalties for people before, the prostitute attempted to bring into the United States. Use the - often arbitrary - branding on travel willing Chinese women as " prostitutes " should actually be prevented not only the Chinese-American prostitution. By Chinese women in general, the entry was made difficult, even under the Chinese traditionally widespread polygamy, in which men in addition to a wife took a concubine, at least on American soil, a bolt should be advanced.

In addition to prostitutes and concubines also condemned abroad offenders were excluded from entry into the U.S., unless the condemnation was done for purely political reasons.

Since the intention of prostitution in individual cases could hardly be detected and the officers of the Immigration Department in assessing the candidates had a wide discretion, the scheme led to the entry of Chinese women and other Asian was a total largely suppressed, regardless of the intent for which they entered the country. Historically, law opens the Page Act so that a number of federal laws that would prevent the immigration of Chinese migrants. In 1880 the Chinese Exclusion Act.