The 1924 National Origins Act, a pivotal legislation in American immigration history, banned all Asian immigration and imposed a quota system for European countries based on the 1890 census data. This system aimed to restrict the entry of people from southern and eastern European countries, such as Jews and Catholics. As a result, the percentage of immigrants in the US population significantly declined from 15% in the 1920s to 4.7% by 1970, illustrating a drastic and rapid decrease over the years.
How did a nation of immigrants come to hate immigration? We start at the beginning, sort through the evidence, and explain why your grandfather was lying about Ellis Island. (Part one of a three-part series.)
- SOURCES:
- Leah Boustan, professor of economics at Princeton University.
- Zeke Hernandez, professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
- Roger Nam, professor of Hebrew Bible at Emory University.
- RESOURCES:
- The Truth About Immigration: Why Successful Societies Welcome Newcomers, by Zeke Hernandez (2024, available for pre-order).
- "The Refugee Advantage: English-Language Attainment in the Early Twentieth Century," by Ran Abramitzky, Leah Platt Boustan, Peter Catron, Dylan Connor, and Rob Voigt (NBER Working Paper, 2023).
- Streets of Gold: America's Untold Story of Immigrant Success, by Leah Boustan and Ran Abramitzky (2022).
- "If Liberals Won't Enforce Borders, Fascists Will," by David Frum (The Atlantic, 2019).