Historically, Chinese immigrants to the United States are a special group. They were or almost were banned from 1882 to 1968. Since in 1968 the United States abolished national origin quotas and eliminated national, race, or ancestry as a basis for immigration, thousands of Chinese immigrants came to the United States. The total population of Chinese immigrants to the US between 1980 and 2002 was 911,220, whereas it was 136,843 between 1891 and 1979. Not only did the population of Chinese immigrants have great change, the quality of Chinese immigrants also had substantial difference from those immigrated in the last century. However, there are very limited literatures focusing on the dynamics of Chinese immigration in these twenty years, which is the most important time period for Chinese immigration. The following study tries to describe the dynamics of Chinese immigration to the United States between 1980 and 2002; and analyze the influence of the American immigration laws on Chinese immigration. The dynamics of Chinese immigrants are described and analyzed by different migration categories. Other social and economic factors are added to comprehensively understand the change of Chinese immigration.

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By considering San Francisco’s legal, social, and cultural history during the late 19th and early 20th centuries in relation to American law, missionary women, and Chinese American prostitutes, this thesis argues that by aggressively trying to control Chinese sexuality through laws, “yellow slave” narratives, Christianizing, and the immigration process, the American government and missionaries created an atmosphere ripe for Chinese prostitutes in America with varying degrees of sexual freedoms.

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Today, some twelve million immigrants are unlawfully present in the United States. What response to this situation does Christian theology suggest for these immigrants and those who receive them? To this question about the status of immigrants before the law, the theological literature lacks an understanding of how federal U.S. immigration law developed, and it lacks a robust theological account of the governance of immigration. To fill this gap, the thesis presents three stages in the formation of the laws that designate some immigrants as aliens unlawfully present or illegal aliens, drawing out the moral argumentation in each phase and responding with moral theology. In the first stage, non-citizens were called aliens in U.S. law. In response to the argument that aliens exist as a consequence of natural law, Christian teaching indicates that immigrants are not alien either in creation or for the church. In the second stage, the authority of the federal government to exclude and expel aliens was established, leaving those who do not comply to be designated illegal aliens. To the claim that the federal government has unlimited sovereignty over immigration, interpretations of the Christian Scriptures respond that divine sovereignty limits and directs civil authority over immigration. In the third stage, legal reforms that were intended to end discrimination between countries allowed millions from countries neighboring the U.S. to become illegal aliens. These reforms turn out to be unjust on philosophical grounds and unneighborly on theological grounds. While federal law classes many as aliens unlawfully present in the United States, Christian political theology indicates that immigrants are not alien, the government of immigration is limited by divine judgment, and nationals of neighboring countries deserve special regard.