This chapter examines the discourses toward Chinese immigration to Colombia in the first three decades of the twentieth century. Colombia entered the century looking for migrants to help the country’s economic and racial progress. Inspired by the eugenics postulations of the era, Colombian state-makers considered that nonwhite migrants would be unfit and detrimental to the nation. During this period, immigration debates resulted in concrete laws that restricted the entry of non-white people, including the Chinese. At the same time, local newspapers denounced the arrival of Chinese immigrants to different port cities and attacked the main Chinese business of the period, the laundromat. The Chinese were considered damaging, unhealthy, ruinous, and thus unsuitable for Colombia, and the laundromats were seen as places where unsuitableness was reproduced.

By analyzing laws, decrees, regulations, and newspapers, this chapter reveals how anti-Chinese immigration was part of Colombia's official and popular discourses in the early twentieth century and part of a broader pattern of anti-Chinese discourse in the region and in the hemisphere. The questions this chapter addresses are what were the official and popular discourses about Chinese immigration in Colombia? How did Colombia define who was a fit migrant and who was not? What was the relationship between migration and hygiene? How did the Chinese community react to the speeches about itself? To answer these questions, I will rely on national and local state-produced documents such as immigration laws, decrees, municipal hygiene bulletin, and hygiene director reports. Last, because newspapers reported the arrival of the Chinese and denounced their practices in the laundromats, they constitute a vital source for reconstructing discourses about Chinese in the first decades of the twentieth century.

Pre-Circulated Paper and Registration

The pre-circulated paper will be available one-week prior to the workshop. The paper will be available to the Princeton University community via SharePoint. All others should request a copy of the paper by emailing Amanda Pinheiro.