European Immigrant and Oriental Alien: Acceptance and Rejection by the California Legislature of 1913

Olin, Spencer C.

doi:10.2307/3636790

Cited by 17 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 4 publications

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“…Thus, the lack of correlation between Proposition 1 and Proposition 11 at the county level suggests that a single economic threat is not motivating support for these measures and, perhaps, that a specifically racial animus was driving voting on Proposition 1. This interpretation is also consistent with Olin's (1966) identification of the paradox that the 1913 California state legislature not only passed the original anti-Japanese Alien Land Law, but that it also created the first commission charged with investigating the conditions of immigrants and recommending policies to alleviate their poverty. Their concern was evidently for European immigrants and not their Japanese counterparts, whose ability to earn a living those same legislators were curtailing.…”

Section: Analysis Of the 1920 California Election Resultssupporting

confidence: 76%

On California's 1920 Alien Land Law: The Psychology and Economics of Racial Discrimination

Gaines

Cho

2004

State Politics Policy Q.

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Scholars have recently highlighted a critical, but previously neglected, facet of racially discriminatory public policies-such policies may be motivated by either economic or psychological forces. That is, racially discriminatory policy may be the result of self-interest and competition in the face of scarcity or prejudices and affects based on group identities. We test if these motivations were behind the passage of an important, openly discriminatory public policy: California's Alien Land Law of 1920. We find that neither motivation alone accounts for the initiative vote that passed this law; both played a role. Our analysis also illustrates how racially discriminatory policies in the early 20th century fit into the ordinary politics of the day.

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Section: Analysis Of the 1920 California Election Resultssupporting

confidence: 76%