What was the goal of the National Origins Act of 1924?

The goal of the National Origins Act of 1924 was to ensure that fewer of the “wrong” kind of immigrants entered the United States.  This act came about because many people in the US felt that the most recent wave of immigration had brought undesirable people to the country.

The National Origins Act set up a quota system for who would be allowed to immigrate to the US.  The act set quotas for various countries. ...

The goal of the National Origins Act of 1924 was to ensure that fewer of the “wrong” kind of immigrants entered the United States.  This act came about because many people in the US felt that the most recent wave of immigration had brought undesirable people to the country.

The National Origins Act set up a quota system for who would be allowed to immigrate to the US.  The act set quotas for various countries.  The number of immigrants from any given country each year was to equal 2% of the people born in that country but living in the United States according to the 1890 census.  In other words, if many people from a given country were living in the US in 1890, many immigrants from that country could continue to enter.  However, if the population from that country in the US in 1890 was small, only a very few people from that country would be allowed to immigrate to the US.

The point of this was to limit immigration from countries that had sent many people to the US between 1890 and 1920.  This was the time period in which the wave of “new immigrants” had come to the US.  Many Americans felt that these new immigrants were not likely to become good Americans.  The new immigrants tended to be from southern Europe (countries like Greece and Italy) or Eastern Europe (countries like Poland or Russia).  They were often Roman Catholic or Jewish at a time when many Americans distrusted people of these faiths.  Many of the immigrants held radical political views.  For all these reasons, many Americans wanted to cut off immigration from these countries.  Because they wanted to do this, they passed the National Origins Act of 1924.