Changes.....
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Imagine you are in charge of immigration control
at Ellis Island in New York.
You want your employees to know the difference
between ‘old’ and ‘new’ immigrants.
Come up with a definition for each type of
immigrant
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The changes that occurred in immigration law
When the changes happened
What impact the changes had
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“Give me your
tired, your poor,
your huddled
masses yearning
to breathe
free....”
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Some exceptions...
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No alcoholics
No lunatics
No convicts
No anarchists - ?
Pay a tax on entry
 1882 Federal
Immigration Act
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1884 – Immigration Restriction League – USA in
danger of being swamped by ‘lesser breeds’
Campaigned for literacy test – why?
1882 Chinese Exclusion Act – Chinese
immigration illegal
1907 ‘Gentlemen’s Agreement’ gave the USA the
right to exclude Japanese immigrants (finally
banned completely in 1924)
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Passed by Congress
despite President Wilson’s
veto
Must pass a literacy test
showing you can read and
write.
Increased the entry tax to
$8 a head
‘Barred zone’ – forbidding
immigration from most of
Asia
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1850 to 1914 – 35 million immigrants
June 1919 to June 1921 – 800,000 entered USA
(65% from Southern and Eastern Europe)
News from Europe was that millions more were
preparing to leave
Ellis Island was so jammed that ships full of
immigrants were being diverted to Boston
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A series of laws introduced during the 1920s to
seriously reduce the numbers of immigrants
entering the USA.
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Established quotas based on nationality.
This was aimed at reducing immigrants from
eastern and central Europe – how does this
work????
The formula is as follows;
 The number of people admitted from one country =
 No more than 3% of all the emigrants from that country
who were already resident in the USA in 1910
 Example
 Italian emigrants number 4, 074 000 in 1910 – how many
would be allowed to enter the USA in one year?
ANSWER? 122,220
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Only about 350,000 immigrants could enter the USA
each year
Large numbers of people from ‘undesirable’
countries kept out
Favoured people from Britain and Ireland, Germany,
Holland, Switzerland and Scandinavia
Few from Southern Europe
Most new immigrants after 1921 were WHITE &
PROTESTANT
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Sometimes known as Johnson-Reed Act
Reduced the quota to 2%
Took the basis for measurement back to the 1890
census – why?
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Foreign immigration reduced to 150,000 p.a.
Mass immigration was ended
85% of all places were reserved for immigrants
from northern and western Europe
Immigration from Asia stopped almost entirely
Immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe
was very difficult
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Continue with the written tasks on the sheet you
started last day.