Question

Why did the US Congress pass an exclusion act in 1882 barring Chinese immigrants?
ecause Chinese immigrants would work for low wages, which labor leaders felt took jobs away from US citizens
because the Chinese immigrants refused to work for low wages, which labor leaders felt added jobs to the US economy
because the federal government had decided to ban all immigration to control the size of the US population
because the trend of Chinese immigrants to large urban cities harmed the industrialization of the US economy
because only immigrants from southern and eastern European countries

Answer 1

In 1882, the U.S. had just emerged from its longest business depression in its history, brought on by the Panic of 1873. In a business depression, money created by banks is destroyed in the course of bankruptcies, and the money supply collapses violently. The result is that prices are driven into the ground, firms with long-term contracts at the old money relation no longer can pay their bills, and they go bust, leading to unemployment of the workers.

At the same time, a lot of the Chinese in the country (many imported to build the railroads) were taking their wages in silver coin and sending them back to family in China (where silver is especially prized). This made them easy targets for demagogues, who not only could whine about their willingness to work for low wages but also could accuse them of being responsible for the disappearance of the money. Add to that their non-Christian culture and foreign language, and it was easy to whip up local sentiment against them.