(Eli) Chinese Immigration Act of 1885

  The Chinese immigration Act of 1885 was the Canadian act where all Chinese immigrants had to pay $50 to come in to Canada, no one else had to pay the fee. In 1900 the fee was raised all the way to $100, this was very difficult to pay because most of the immigrants only earned $1 per day. In 1903 the fee was raised yet again all the way to $500. An average Chinese immigrant made that amount of money in 2 years. In a couple years the law changed yet again this time it wasn’t about how much they had to pay. The law was changed so that for every 50.8 tonnes of cargo only 1 Chinese immigrant could come, so if the boat was carrying 508 tonnes you could only have 10 Chinese immigrants. By 1923 they changed it so much that they completely didn’t allow Chinese to immigrate into Canada. This is more formally known as the Chines Exclusion Act of 1923.