Why do you think the economic and the political turmoil in Europe may have made some people more willing to pass anti-immigration laws in the...

Europe experienced a great deal of economic and political turmoil in the early 1900s. This impacted our country as restrictive immigration laws were passed in the 1920s.

After World War I ended, there was a good deal of concern that the Soviet Union was trying to spread its communist system to our country. People pointed to a large number of strikes after World War I as an example of this. They believed the Soviet Union...

Europe experienced a great deal of economic and political turmoil in the early 1900s. This impacted our country as restrictive immigration laws were passed in the 1920s.

After World War I ended, there was a good deal of concern that the Soviet Union was trying to spread its communist system to our country. People pointed to a large number of strikes after World War I as an example of this. They believed the Soviet Union and the communists were trying to start a revolution to bring communism to the United States. This was known as the Red Scare. The conviction of Sacco and Vanzetti on murder charges added to this growing fear. These men were Italian immigrants and called themselves anarchists. Additionally, many of the immigrants who came to this country left Europe because of economic issues. These immigrants often took low paying jobs causing Americans to believe these immigrants were taking jobs away from them and keeping wages low.

As a result of these concerns, the United States passed two restrictive immigration laws in the 1920s. The Emergency Quota Act of 1921 limited immigration to three percent of a country’s population that was living in our country in 1910. In 1924, the National Origins Act lowered the percentage from three percent to two percent and changed the base year to 1890. These laws were aimed at immigrants from South and East Europe. Many of the immigrants from South and East Europe were perceived as being different from the immigrants from North and West Europe in terms of culture, language, and political viewpoints.

Americans were fearful that their way of life was under attack and that their economic security was in jeopardy from immigrants coming from South and East Europe due to the difficult economic conditions there and the political turmoil that also existed in these areas of Europe. These concerns led to very restrictive immigration laws, aimed at limiting immigration from parts of Europe, to be passed in the 1920s.