Document Type

Working Paper

Publication Date

2-28-2014

SSRN Discipline

Legal Scholarship Network; PSN Subject Matter eJournals; Law School Research Papers - Legal Studies; Law & Society eJournals; Law & Society: Private Law eJournals; Administrative Law eJournals; LSN Subject Matter eJournals; AARN Subject Matter eJournals; Humanities Network; Political Science Network; Anthropology & Archaeology Research Network; Political Economy - Development eJournals

Abstract

In the early twentieth century several states enacted laws aimed at regulating lease and purchase of agricultural land by immigrants Industrious Japanese farmers had been renting and buying barren land in the West and by dint of hard work and skill made it bloom Annoyed white farmers in the state of Washington resented the competition and made their feelings known to the legislature which obliged by passing cleverly worded "alien land laws" that though racially neutral on their face had the intent and effect of excluding nonwhite foreigners who were ineligible for citizenship from engaging in farming Earlier in the state's history a dispute had occurred over property rights of Indians in the Washington Territory which foreshadowed the later antagonistic relations between white settlers and Japanese immigrants leading to the Terrace alien land law case Both events illustrate the interplay of nativism and Manifest Destiny "” the notion that newly discovered land belonged to white settlers The current treatment of undocumented immigrant workers in Washington reflects a familiar sense of entitlement fear and resentment and drives the force that links the state's mistreatment of Native people the Japanese and Latinos

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