The Chinese Exclusion Repeal Act of 1943, also known as the Magnuson Act, was an immigration law proposed by U.S. Representative (later Senator)

Warren G. Magnuson Warren Grant "Maggie" Magnuson (April 12, 1905May 20, 1989) was an American lawyer and politician who represented the state of Washington in Congress for 44 years, first as a Representative from 1937 to 1944, and then as a senator from 1944 to 1 ...

of Washington and signed into law on December 17, 1943, in the United States. It allowed Chinese immigration for the first time since the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, and permitted some Chinese immigrants already residing in the country to become naturalized citizens. However, in many states, Chinese Americans (mostly immigrants but sometimes U.S. citizens) were denied property-ownership rights either

by law A by-law (bye-law, by(e)law, by(e) law), or as it is most commonly known in the United States bylaws, is a set of rules or law established by an organization or community so as to regulate itself, as allowed or provided for by some higher authorit ...

or '' de facto'' until the Magnuson Act itself was fully repealed in 1965. This act is the first legislation since 1870 which relaxed racial and national immigration barriers in the United States and started the way to the completely non-racial immigration legislation and policy of the late 1960s. The Magnuson Act was passed on December 17, 1943, two years after the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

became an official

allied An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

nation of the United States in World War II. Although considered a positive development by many, it was still restrictive, limiting Chinese immigrants to an annual quota of 105 new entry visas. The quota was determined according to the National Origins Formula prescribed by the Immigration Act of 1924, which set immigration quotas on countries subject to the law as a fraction of 150,000 in proportion to the number of inhabitants of that nationality residing in the United States as of the 1920 census, which for China was determined to be 0.07%, or 105 per annum. Chinese immigration later increased with the passage of the

Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (), also known as the McCarran–Walter Act, codified under Title 8 of the United States Code (), governs immigration to and citizenship in the United States. It came into effect on June 27, 1952. Before ...

, which abolished direct racial barriers and later by the

Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, also known as the Hart–Celler Act and more recently as the 1965 Immigration Act, is a federal law passed by the 89th United States Congress and signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The l ...

, which abolished the National Origins Formula.

References

{{Immigration to the United States 1943 in American law United States federal immigration and nationality legislation History of immigration to the United States Chinese-American history 1943 in international relations Anti-Chinese legislation China–United States relations December 1943 events