The Impact of Immigration Reform

In the 1920s, the passed two new immigration laws, one in 1921, and the other in 1924. These laws, for the first time, set nationality-based quotas for immigration to the United States. Using the information from the two laws, and the figures from the Censuses of 1890 and 1910, calculate the immigrant quota for each of the following countries under the 1921 Act and the 1924 Act.

Once you have calculated these numbers, move on to the next page.

Country Quota under the 1921 Act Quota under the 1924 Act

Great Britain and Ireland combined

Germany

Scandinavian countries (Norway, Sweden, and Denmark)

Russia

Italy

Austria/Hungary combined

1 Explanation

Using the quotas that you calculated on the previous page, as well as the other documents provided, and the section on immigration that you have read from the class textbook, write a short paragraph (four or five sentences) explaining the significance of these two immigration laws. Make sure that you explain the significance of the differences between the 1924 Act and the 1921 Act. Why was a new law passed only three years after the first one? Do NOT just repeat the numbers that you have calculated; offer an analysis of what the effects of the two laws tell us about American attitudes to immigrants and immigration.

2 Emergency Quota Act, also known as the Immigration Restriction Act of 1921

H.R. 4075; Pub.L. 67-5; 42 Stat. 5.

67th Congress; May 19, 1921.

1924 , also known as the Johnson-Reed Act

H.R. 7995; Pub.L. 68-139; 43 Stat. 153.

68th Congress; May 26, 1924.

3 4 5 The High Tide of Immigration

Louis Dalrymple, “The High Tide of Immigration—A National Menace,” Judge Magazine, August 22, 1903.

6 Immigrants from to the United States, 1870-1920

“Old” immigration – England, Germany, Ireland, Scandinavia

“New” immigration – Italy, Russia, Austria-Hungary

7 Immigration Restriction League

Do we want these people [immigrants]? We do with restrictions and reservations. We should take the best, the highest standard men, the men who will benefit this country, men who will not tend to a lowering of wages; those that will assimilate and with whom we wish to assimilate. The greater portion of this class of desirable immigrants comes from . For years we have been trying to exclude the imbecile, the diseased, the anarchist and the criminal. Still the waves rushed to our shores, ever getting larger and larger, while their quality ever deteriorated. A new barrier, a new test, is necessary. Without striking at any particular nationality we need now means of excluding the undesirables.

Source: Immigration Restriction League (U.S.); Records, 1893-1921. Series I, Correspondence to and from the IRL; B, Circular letters; Circular letters: 1915-1919. MS Am 2245, folder 1048. Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.

A. Mitchell Palmer “The Case Against the Reds” It has been impossible in so short a space to review the entire menace of the internal revolution in this country as I know it, but this may serve to arouse the American citizen to its reality, its danger, and the great need of united effort to stamp it out, under our feet, if needs be. It is being done. The Department of Justice will pursue the attack of these "Reds" upon the Government of the United States with vigilance, and no alien, advocating the overthrow of existing law and order in this country, shall escape arrest and prompt deportation. It is my belief that while they have stirred discontent in our midst, while they have caused irritating strikes, and while they have infected our social ideas with the disease of their own minds and their unclean morals we can