Immigration Law in the U.S.
Prior to the 1920’s, immigration rates in America were high. In fact, immigration was encouraged from all nations. In the decade after 1900, immigration nearly doubled, peaking to just over 8,200,000, with many arriving from Southern Europe – nearly half came from Austria-Hungary and Italy.
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"Give me your tired, your poor, |
"The fundamental idea in the theory of the Melting Pot was that environment, not heredity, determines what human beings shall become. It was thought that the great American Melting Pot could fuse into a new homogeneous race, better and finer than the world had ever known, unlimited numbers of aliens of all nations, habits and languages who might choose to come here from any quarter of the globe" – “Our New Immigration Policy” 1924 [2\ |
Faced with a new challenge of accommodating masses of immigrants, the U.S. had already began implementing narrower immigration policy. The 1875 Page Act was the first restrictive policy, barring ‘undesirables:’ Asian laborers. In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act suspended Chinese immigration and naturalization.
Then in 1917, the Literacy Act required immigrants over the age of 16 to pass a series of reading and writing tests. Many of the poorer immigrants, especially those from eastern Europe, had received no education and therefore failed the tests and were refused entry. However, for the most part, immigration numbers remained high.
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