On February 26, 2026, Dean Jodi Sandfort hosted a conversation with panelists Dafeng Xu (Evans School) and Catherine Clement about the past efforts to curb immigration in North America and how those policies impacted communities, families, labor markets, and social relations.
Event Speakers
Jodi Sandfort
Dean and Professor
Daniel J. Evans School of Public Policy & Governance
Dafeng Xu
Assistant Professor
Daniel J. Evans School of Public Policy & Governance
Catherine Clement
Public Historian
Creator, Curator, Author of “The Paper Trail to the 1923 Chinese Exclusion Act”
Event Recording
Conversation Resources
U.S. Chinese Immigration Policy Timeline University of Washington
Bill C-3: An Act to amend the Citizenship Act (2025) Department of Justice Canada
How to Claim Citizenship by Descent Under Canada’s New Citizenship Act Bill C-3 Immigration.ca
Chinatown: San Francisco’s 1906 Earthquake and the Paradox of American Immigration Policy by Dafeng Xu
The Paper Trail to the 1923 Chinese Exclusion Act by Catherine Clement
The Paper Trail Digital Collection University of British Columbia
The Paper Trail Exhibition Chinese Canadian Museum
Immigrants from China, 1885-1952 Library & Archives Canada
Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America – Update Edition by Mae M. Ngai
A White Man’s Province: British Columbia Politicians and Chinese and Japanese Immigrants 1858-1914 by Patricia E. Roy
At America’s Gates: Chinese Immigration during the Exclusion Era, 1882-1943 by Erika Lee