Restriction of Entry and 3 Acts in America

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Restriction of Entry & 3 Acts Restriction of Entry: As the numbers of immigrants to the USA continued to rise at an increasing pace, some of the American population began to resent the American governments ‘Open Door Policy’. Originally the immigrants had originated from northern and western Europe – Britain, Ireland and Germany (these countries were said to have the ‘WASP’ qualities which Americans wanted to populate their country with). Between 1900 and 1914 13 million immigrants had arrived, mainly from southern and eastern Europe – Italy, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Poland and Greece. Reasons why some Americans took dislike to these immigrants was because: * They were often poor * Many were illiterate * Most could not speak English (the native language of America) * Many were Catholics or Jews and had a very different religious and cultural background to those in America * The traumas of the First World War and the fear of communism frightened Americans As a result the US Congress passed three acts to limit immigration, each act was stricter than the last one and immigrants had to pass all three to gain the right to emigrate to America. Literacy Test (1917): Many of the immigrants who had to pass the series of tests were poor, particularly those from eastern Europe who had received little or no education, they all had to pass a group of tests on literacy to prove they could read and write. If they could not pass the tests then they were denied entry to the country. Emergency Quota Act (1921): This act had a limit of 357,000 immigrants per year, as well as quotas – only 3% of the total population of any foreign group already in the USA in 1910 would be allowed in after 1921. The National Origins Act (1924): The act reduced the number of immigrants allowed entry to America to 150,000 per year, and cut the quota from 3% to 2%,
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