The Aliens Ordinance was adopted by the government to control immigration in Malaya during the era of the Great Depression in 1933. Quotas were set to restrict the number of Chinese adult males entering Malaya. Chinese women, however, were encouraged to enter Malaya in order to balance out the sex ratio (early Chinese immigrants to Malaya were mostly men). Although it was not exclusively targeted at the Chinese population, they were the most affected by the ordinance due to the high number of Chinese immigrants in Malaya. The government continued to use the ordinance to regulate immigration till the 1950s despite opposition from the Chinese community.
