How was the World War I the beginning of the hate towards immigrants ?

While the United States had several anti-immigrant policies long before World War I began, there was a renewed emphasis on restricting immigration to our country as a result of World War I. Several anti-immigration laws were passed after World War I ended.

There had been two major waves of immigration to the United States from Europe. The first wave was from 1820-1860. Most immigrants came from North and West Europe. The second wave was from 1880-1920. These immigrants came from South and East Europe. The immigrants from South and East Europe were very different than the immigrants from North and West Europe. Their languages, cultures, and customs were very different than those of the immigrants from North and West Europe.

After World War I, there was a significant fear that the communists were trying to spread their system to the United States. This was known as the Red Scare. It was fueled by a large number of strikes that occurred after World War I ended. There was the famous Sacco-Vanzetti case in which these Italian immigrants were accused and convicted of murder. Many people believed these events were related to the growing number of immigrants coming to our country from South and East Europe.

As a result, two very restrictive immigration laws were passed. The Emergency Quota Act was passed in 1921. This law limited immigration to three percent of a country’s population in the United States in 1910. Thus, if there were 100,000 Italians living in the United States in 1910, then 3,000 Italians could come to the United States each year. In 1924, a more restrictive immigration law, the National Origins Act, limited the amount of people who could come to the United States to two percent of a country’s population and used 1890 as the base year. The goal of these laws was to restrict immigration to the United States, especially immigration from South and East Europe. This law also prevented immigration from Asia. It should be noted the National Origins Act did not restrict the immigration from countries in the Western Hemisphere because we needed Hispanic workers to work in the farm fields of the southwest part of the country to harvest crops.

Thus, after World War I, the United States developed policies to restrict immigration from parts of Europe, mainly from South and East Europe. These laws were aimed at groups of people who were perceived as different from most Americans in terms of language, culture, and political viewpoints.