View source for Immigration Act of 1924

{{short description|1924 United States immigration law}}
{{redirect-distinguish|Asian Exclusion Act|Chinese Exclusion Act}}
{{Use American English|date=June 2025}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2020}}{{Infobox U.S. legislation
| shorttitle = Immigration Act of 1924
| longtitle = An Act to limit the number of immigrants allowed entry into the United States, and for other purposes.
| nickname = Johnson-Reed Act
| enacted by = 68th
| effective date = May 26, 1924
| cite public law = {{USPL|68|139}}
| cite statutes at large = {{usstat|43|153}}
| leghistur1 = 
| introducedin = House of Representatives
| introducedbill = {{USBill|68|H.R.|7995}}
| introducedby = 
| introduceddate = 
| passedbody1 = House
| passeddate1 = April 12, 1924
| passedvote1 = [https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/68-1/h55 323–71]
| passedbody2 = 
| passeddate2 = 
| passedvote2 = 
| conferencedate = 
| passedbody3 = House
| passeddate3 = May 15, 1924
| passedvote3 = [https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/68-1/h90 308–62]
| passedbody4 = Senate
| passeddate4 = May 15, 1924
| passedvote4 = [https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/68-1/s126 69–9]
| signedpresident = [[Calvin Coolidge]]
| signeddate = May 24, 1924
}}

The '''Immigration Act of 1924''', or '''Johnson–Reed Act''', including the '''Asian Exclusion Act''' and '''National Origins Act''' ({{USStatute|68|139|43|153|1924|05|26}}), was a [[United States federal law]] that prevented [[Asian immigration to the United States|immigration from Asia]] and set quotas on the number of immigrants from [[Eastern Europe|Eastern]] and [[Southern Europe|Southern]] Europe.<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":8" /> It also authorized the creation of the country's first formal [[border control]] service, the [[United States Border Patrol|U.S. Border Patrol]], and established a "consular control system" that allowed entry only to those who first obtained a [[Visa policy of the United States|visa]] from a [[List of diplomatic missions of the United States|U.S. consulate]] abroad.

The 1924 act was passed due to growing public and political concerns about the country's fast-changing social and demographic landscape. It replaced earlier legislation by significantly reducing immigration from countries outside the Western Hemisphere. Immigrants from Asia were banned,<ref name=gov>{{cite news|url=https://history.state.gov/milestones/1921-1936/immigration-act|work=U.S Department of State Office of the Historian|title=The Immigration Act of 1924 (The Johnson-Reed Act)|access-date=February 13, 2012}}</ref> and the total annual immigration quota for the rest of the world was capped at 165,000—an 80% reduction of the yearly average before 1914. The act temporarily reduced the annual quota of any nationality from 3% of their [[1910 United States census|1910 population]], per the [[Emergency Quota Act]] of 1921, to 2% as recorded in the [[1890 United States census|1890 census]];<ref name=gov/> a new quota was implemented in 1927, based on each nationality's share of the total U.S. population in the [[1920 United States census|1920 census]], which would govern U.S. immigration policy until 1965.<ref name="ABA1924">{{Cite journal|last=Beaman|first=Middleton|date=1924|title=Current Legislation: The Immigration Act of 1924|journal=American Bar Association Journal|volume=10|issue=7|pages=490–492|issn=0002-7596|jstor=25709038}}</ref><ref name="statabstract1931" /><ref name="statabstract1966" />

According to the Department of State, the purpose of the act was "to preserve the ideal of U.S. homogeneity."<ref name="gov" /> The 1924 act would define U.S. immigration policy for nearly three decades, until being substantially revised by the [[Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952]] and ultimately replaced by the [[Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965]].

==Context==
{{See also|History of laws concerning immigration and naturalization in the United States}}
The [[Naturalization Act of 1790]] declared that only people of European or white descent were eligible for naturalization, but eligibility was extended to people of African descent in the [[Naturalization Act of 1870]].<ref name=Guisepi>{{cite news |last=Guisepi |first=Robert A. |work=World History International |title=Asian Americans |date=January 29, 2007 |url=http://history-world.org/asian_americans.htm |access-date=March 18, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110527055848/http://history-world.org/asian_americans.htm |archive-date=May 27, 2011 |url-status=usurped }}</ref><ref name=":7">{{Cite web |date=2016-08-15 |title=Race, Nationality, and Reality |url=https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2002/summer/immigration-law-1 |access-date=2023-02-21 |website=National Archives |language=en}}</ref> [[Han Chinese|Chinese]] and Japanese laborers were barred from [[immigrating]] to the U.S. in the 1882 [[Chinese Exclusion Act]] and the  [[Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907]], respectively.<ref name=gov/>

A limitation on [[Eastern Europe|Eastern]] and [[Southern Europe]]an immigration was first proposed in 1896 in the form of the literacy test bill. Henry Cabot Lodge was confident the bill would provide an indirect measure of reducing emigration from these countries, but after passing both houses of Congress, it was vetoed by President [[Grover Cleveland]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Tichenor|first=Daniel J|title=Dividing lines: the politics of immigration control in America|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=2002|isbn=9781400824984|location=Princeton|pages=84}}</ref> Another proposal for immigration restriction was introduced again in 1909 by U.S. Senator [[Henry Cabot Lodge]].<ref name=":8">{{cite news |url=http://us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/pdocs/lodge_immigration.pdf |work=University of Wisconsin |title=The Restriction of Immigration |date=1909 |access-date=2012-03-02 |first1=Henry |last1=Lodge |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120306093754/http://us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/pdocs/lodge_immigration.pdf |archive-date=2012-03-06}}</ref> The [[Immigration Act of 1917]] restricted immigration further in a variety of ways. It increased restrictions on Asian immigration, raised the general immigrant head tax, excluded those deemed to be diseased or mentally unwell, and in light of intense lobbying by the [[Immigration Restriction League]], introduced the literacy test for all new immigrants to prove their ability to read English.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Tichenor|first=Daniel J|title=Dividing Lines: the politics of immigration control in America|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=2002|isbn=9781400824984|location=Princeton|pages=138}}</ref> In the wake of the [[post–World War I recession]], many Americans believed that bringing in more immigrants would worsen the [[Unemployment in the United States|unemployment rate]]. The [[First Red Scare]] of 1919–1921 had fueled fears of foreign radicals migrating to undermine American values and provoke an uprising like the 1917 [[October Revolution]] in [[Russia]].<ref name=Imai>{{cite web|last=Imai |first=Shiho |url=http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Immigration%20Act%20of%201924/ |title=Immigration Act of 1924 |publisher=Densho Encyclopedia |access-date=2014-08-15}}</ref> The number of immigrants entering the United States decreased for about a year from July 1919 to June 1920 but doubled in the year after that.<ref>{{cite book |last=Cannato |first=Vincent J. |title=American Passage: The History of Ellis Island |location=New York |publisher=Harper |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-06-194039-2 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/americanpassageh00cann_0/page/331 331] |url=https://archive.org/details/americanpassageh00cann_0 |url-access=registration}}</ref>

{{Eugenics sidebar|expanded=History}}

U.S. Representative [[Albert Johnson (congressman)|Albert Johnson]], a [[Eugenics in the United States|eugenics]] advocate, and Senator [[David A. Reed|David Reed]] were the two main architects of the act. They conceived the act as a bulwark against "a stream of alien blood"; it likewise found support among xenophobic and nativist groups such as the [[Ku Klux Klan]]. However, some proponents, such as the [[American Federation of Labor]] (AFL), welcomed the act for reducing cheap immigrant labor that would compete with local workers. Both public and Congressional opposition was minimal. In the wake of intense [[lobbying]], it passed with strong congressional support.<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1924/04/19/archives/immigration-bill-passes-the-senate-by-vote-of-62-to-6-ban-on.html |title=Immigration Bill Passes Senate by Vote of 62 to 6 |date=April 19, 1924 |access-date=February 18, 2011}}</ref> There were nine dissenting votes in the [[United States Senate|Senate]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Senate Vote #126 (May 15, 1924)|url=http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=s68_1-126&sort=vote|work=govtrack.us|publisher=Civic Impulse, LLC|access-date=20 May 2011}}</ref> and a handful of opponents in the [[United States House of Representatives|House of Representatives]], the most vigorous of whom was freshman [[Brooklyn]] Representative [[Emanuel Celler]], a [[Jewish American]]. Decades later, he pointed out the act's "startling discrimination against central, eastern and southern Europe."<ref name="cq">{{cite journal|title=Immigration and Nationality Act|journal=[[CQ Press|CQ Almanac]]|year=1952|url=https://library.cqpress.com/cqalmanac/document.php?id=cqal52-1380984}} {{subscription required}}</ref>

Proponents of the act sought to establish a distinct American identity by preserving its ethnic homogeneity.<ref name=jones277>{{cite book|last=Jones|first=Maldwyn Allen|author-link=Maldwyn Jones|title=American Immigration|location=Chicago|publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=1992|orig-year=1960 |edition=2nd|isbn=978-0226406336|page=237}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Who Was Shut Out?: Immigration Quotas, 1925–1927|url=http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5078|work=History Matters|publisher=[[George Mason University]]|access-date=January 3, 2012}}</ref> Reed told the Senate that earlier legislation "disregards entirely those of us who are interested in keeping American stock up to the highest standard—that is, the people who were born here."<ref>{{cite book |first=George M. |last=Stephenson |title=A History of American Immigration. 1820–1924 |location=New York |publisher=Russel & Russel |year=1964 |page=190}}</ref> He believed that immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, most of whom were Catholics or Jews, arrived sick and starving, were less capable of contributing to the [[Economy of the United States|American economy]], and were unable to adapt to [[American culture]].<ref name=jones277 /> Eugenics was used as justification for the act's restriction of certain races or ethnicities of people to prevent the spread of perceived feeblemindedness in American society.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Defectives in the Land: Disability and Immigration in the Age of Eugenics|last=Baynton|first=Douglas C.|publisher=Chicago; London: The University of Chicago Press|year=2016|isbn=978-0-226-36433-9|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zdrFDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA45|page=45}}</ref> [[Samuel Gompers]], himself a Jewish immigrant from Britain and the founder of the [[American Federation of Labor]] (AFL), supported the act because he opposed the cheap labor that immigration represented even though the act would sharply reduce Jewish immigration.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.numbersusa.com/content/learn/issues/unions/what-samuel-gompers-had-say-about-illega.html |first=Samuel |last=Gompers |title=Immigration and labor |access-date=February 1, 2009 |archive-date=February 5, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090205035035/http://www.numbersusa.com/content/learn/issues/unions/what-samuel-gompers-had-say-about-illega.html |url-status=dead }}{{subscription required}}</ref> Both the AFL and the [[Ku Klux Klan]] supported the act.<ref name=koven>Steven G. Koven, Frank Götzke, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=Pq04PFuRmQgC&pg=PA133 American Immigration Policy: Confronting the Nation's Challenges]'' (Springer, 2010), p. 133</ref> Historian [[John Higham (historian)|John Higham]] concludes: "Klan backing made no material difference.  Congress was expressing the will of the nation.".<ref>John Higham, ''Strangers in the land: Patterns of American nativism, 1860-1925'' (Rutgers University Press, 1955) p. 321.</ref>

[[Image:CalvinCoolidgeimmigration3.jpg|thumb|President [[Calvin Coolidge]] signs the Immigration Act on the [[South Lawn (White House)|White House South Lawn]] along with appropriation bills for the [[Veterans Bureau]]. [[John J. Pershing]] is on the left.]]
Lobbyists from the [[West Coast of the United States|West Coast]], where a majority of Japanese, Korean, and other East Asian immigrants had settled, were especially concerned with excluding Asian immigrants. The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act had already slowed Chinese immigration, but as Japanese and{{Snd}}to a lesser degree{{Snd}}Korean and Filipino laborers began arriving and putting down roots in [[Western United States]], an exclusionary movement formed in reaction to the "[[Yellow Peril]]." [[Valentine S. McClatchy]], the founder of [[The McClatchy Company]] and a leader of the [[Anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States|anti-Japanese]] movement, argued, "They come here specifically and professedly for the purpose of colonizing and establishing here permanently the proud [[Yamato people|Yamato race]]." He cites their supposed inability to assimilate to American culture and the economic threat that they posed to white businessmen and farmers.<ref name=Imai/>

Opposing the act, U.S. Secretary of State [[Charles Evans Hughes]] said, "The legislation would seem to be quite unnecessary, even for the purpose for which it is devised."<ref>{{cite book |last=Durant |first=Will |author-link=Will Durant |title=The Story of Civilization: Our Oriental Heritage |date=1935 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York}}</ref> The act faced strong opposition from the Japanese government with which the U.S. government had maintained a cordial economic and political relationship.<ref name=Imai/> In Japan, the bill was called by some the "Japanese Exclusion" act.<ref name=":4" /> Japanese Foreign Minister [[Matsui Keishirō]] instructed the Japanese ambassador to the U.S., [[Masanao Hanihara]], to write to Hughes:
{{blockquote|the manifest object of the [section barring Japanese immigrants] is to single out Japanese as a nation, stigmatizing them as unworthy and undesirable in the eyes of the American people. And yet the actual result of that particular provision, if the proposed bill becomes law as intended, would be only to exclude 146 Japanese per year.... I realize, as I believe you do, the grave consequences which the enactment of the measure retaining that particular provision would inevitably bring upon the otherwise happy and mutually advantageous relations between our two countries.<ref>{{cite journal |title=International Documents |journal=Advocate of Peace |date=1924 |volume=86 |page=311 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QPg4AQAAIAAJ&pg=PA311 |publisher=American Peace Society}}</ref>}}

Wisconsin Senator [[Robert M. La Follette]], who did not vote on the bill, in a statement to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, said that the bill would have to be revisioned "to make its operation simple, humane, and free from the misery and disappointment to which would-be immigrants are now subjected."<ref>La Follette Makes Statement on Ku Klux Klan, Immigration, Minority Rights and Zionism; Jewish Telegraphic Agency, September 15, 1924</ref>

Members of the Senate interpreted Hanihara's phrase "grave consequences" as a threat, which was used by hardliners of the bill to fuel both houses of Congress to vote for it. Because 1924 was an [[1924 United States presidential election|election year]], and he was unable to form a compromise, President [[Calvin Coolidge]] declined to use his [[veto]] power to block the act,<ref name="Duus">{{cite book|last=Duus|first=Masayo Umezawa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H68wDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA306|title=The Japanese Conspiracy: The Oahu Sugar Strike of 1920|publisher=University of California Press|year=1999|isbn=9780520204850|location=Berkeley, CA|pages=306–7}}</ref> although both houses passed it by a veto-overriding two-thirds majority. The act was signed into law on May 24, 1924.<ref name=":3" />

==Provisions==
[[File:America_of_the_melting_pot_comes_to_end.png|thumb|New York Times headline announcing "America of the melting pot comes to end," with before and after map of immigration quotas from Europe, showing preference for immigration from Germany and the United Kingdom]]

The immigration act made permanent the basic limitations on [[immigration to the United States]] established in 1921 and modified the [[National Origins Formula]], which had been established in that year. In conjunction with the [[Immigration Act of 1917]], it governed American immigration policy until the [[Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952]], which revised it completely, was passed.

The act provided that no alien ineligible to become a citizen could be admitted to the U.S. as an immigrant. That was aimed primarily at Japanese aliens,<ref name=gov/> although they were not explicitly named in the act.<ref>{{cite book|editor-last1=Zhao|editor-first1=Xiaojian|editor-last2=Park|editor-first2=Edward J. W.|last1=Sohi|first1=Seema|title=Asian Americans: An Encyclopedia of Social, Cultural, Economic, and Political History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3AxIAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA535|year=2013|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-59884-240-1|page=535}}</ref> It imposed fines on transportation companies who landed aliens in violation of [[U.S. immigration law]]. It defined the term "immigrant" and designated all other alien entries into the U.S. as "non-immigrant," or temporary visitors. It also established classes of admission for such non-immigrants.<ref name="ABA1924"/>

The act set a total immigration quota of 165,000 for countries outside the [[Western Hemisphere]], an 80% reduction from average before World War I, and barred immigrants from Asia, including Japan.<ref name=Guisepi /> However, the [[Philippines]] was then a [[Territories of the United States|U.S. colony]] and so its citizens were [[U.S. nationals]] and could thus travel freely to the U.S.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://history.state.gov/milestones/1921-1936/immigration-act|title=Milestones: 1921–1936 - Office of the Historian|website=history.state.gov|access-date=2020-01-25}}</ref> The act did not include China since it was already barred under the Chinese Exclusion Act.

The 1924 act reduced the annual quota of any nationality from 3% of their [[1910 United States census|1910 population]] (as defined by the [[Emergency Quota Act]] of 1921) to 2% of the number of foreign-born persons of any nationality residing in the U.S. according to the [[1890 census]].<ref name=koven/> A more recent census existed, but at the behest of a eugenics subcommittee chaired by eugenicist [[Madison Grant]], Congress used the 1890 one to increase immigrants from Northern and Western Europe and to decrease those from Eastern and Southern Europe.<ref name=":6" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|date=January 1925|title=Outstanding Features of the Immigration Act of 1924|journal=Columbia Law Review|volume=25|issue=1|pages=90–95|doi=10.2307/1113499|jstor=1113499}}</ref> According to [[Commonweal (magazine)|''Commonweal'']], the act "relied on false nostalgia for a census that only seemed to depict a homogenous, Northern European–descended nation: in reality, 15 percent of the nation were immigrants in 1890."<ref>{{Cite magazine|last=Gee|first=Melody S.|date=September 7, 2020|title=Making an American|url=https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/making-american|access-date=May 6, 2021|magazine=Commonweal}}</ref>

The 1890-based quotas were set to last until 1927, when they would be replaced by of a total annual quota of 150,000, proportional to the national origins figures from the [[1920 census]].<ref name=":5">[https://www.loc.gov/law/help/statutes-at-large/68th-congress/session-1/c68s1ch190.pdf Immigration Act of 1924 (43 Stat.153)]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210323020221/https://loc.gov/law/help/statutes-at-large/68th-congress/session-1/c68s1ch190.pdf |date=March 23, 2021 }}</ref><ref name=":2" /> However, this did little to diversify the nations from which immigrants came because the 1920 census did not include Blacks, Mulattos, and Asians as part of the American population used for the quotas.{{Citation needed|date=April 2021}} The lowest quota per country was 100 individuals,<ref name=":5" /> but even then only those eligible for citizenship could immigrate to the U.S. (i.e. only whites in China could immigrate).{{Citation needed|date=April 2021}} Establishing national origin quotas for the country proved to be a difficult task, and was not accepted and completed until 1929.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Ngai|first=Mae M.|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9781400850235|title=Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America|date=2014-01-31|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-5023-5|location=Princeton|doi=10.1515/9781400850235 }}</ref>{{Page needed|date=August 2021}} The act gave 85% of the immigration quota to Northern and Western Europe and those who had an education or had a trade. The other 15% went disproportionately to Eastern and Southern Europe.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title=Coolidge signs Immigration Act of 1924|url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/coolidge-signs-stringent-immigration-law|access-date=2020-01-25|website=HISTORY|date=November 16, 2009 |language=en}}</ref>

The act established preferences under the quota system for certain relatives of U.S. residents, including their unmarried children under 21, their parents, and spouses at least 21 and over. It also preferred immigrants at least 21 who were skilled in agriculture and their wives and dependent children under 16. Non-quota status was accorded to wives and unmarried children under 18 of U.S. citizens; natives of Western Hemisphere countries, with their families; non-immigrants; and certain others.

Subsequent amendments eliminated certain elements of the law's [[discrimination against women]],{{clarify|date=October 2023}} but this was not more fully achieved until [[Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952|1952]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Digital History |url=https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=1116#:~:text=Subsequent%20amendments%20eliminated%20certain%20elements,and%20Nationality%20Act%20of%201952). |website=www.digitalhistory.uh.edu}}</ref>

===Quota calculation formula===
The 1924 act provided that census data from 1920 would determine the quotas beginning in {{FY|1927}}. The [[Bureau of the Census]] and [[United States Department of Commerce|Department of Commerce]] estimated the ''National Origins of the White Population of the United States in 1920'' in numbers,{{Clarify|reason=Is this italicized text a name of a document? Need a secondary source or quote to explain why this is different from the raw 1920 census data.|date=August 2021}} then calculated the percentage share each nationality made up. The National Origins Formula derived quotas by calculating the equivalent proportion of each nationality out of a total pool of 150,000 annual quota immigrants, with a minimum quota of 100. This formula was used until the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 adopted a simplified formula limiting each country to a flat quota of one-sixth of one percent of that nationality's 1920 population count, with a minimum quota of 100.<ref name="statabstract1930">{{citation|date=July 1930|title=Statistical Abstract of the United States: 1930.|url=https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/1930/compendia/statab/52ed/1930-04.pdf|location=Washington, D.C.|publisher=U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce|pages=102–105|edition=52nd|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210326085609/https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/1930/compendia/statab/52ed/1930-04.pdf|archive-date=March 26, 2021|access-date=August 9, 2021}}</ref><ref name="statabstract1931">{{citation|date=August 1931|title=Statistical Abstract of the United States: 1931.|url=https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/1931/compendia/statab/53ed/1931-03.pdf|location=Washington, D.C.|publisher=U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce|pages=103–107|edition=53rd|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210329144712/https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/1931/compendia/statab/53ed/1931-03.pdf|archive-date=March 29, 2021|access-date=August 10, 2021}}</ref><ref name="statabstract1966" />
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
!  Country of origin
!  Population count
!  Percentage share
|-
|{{flagdeco|Austria|state}} [[First Austrian Republic|Austria]] 
|align="right"|{{nts|843,000}}
|align="right"|0.942%
|-
|{{flag|Belgium}}
|align="right"|{{nts|778,000}}
|align="right"|0.869%
|-
|{{flagcountry|First Czechoslovak Republic}}
|align="right"|{{nts|1,715,000}}
|align="right"|1.916%
|-
|{{flag|Denmark}}
|align="right"|{{nts|705,000}}
|align="right"|0.788%
|-
|{{flag|Estonia}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|69,000}}
|align="right"|0.077%
|-
|{{flag|Finland}}
|align="right"|{{nts|339,000}}
|align="right"|0.379%
|-
|{{flagcountry|French Third Republic}}
|align="right"|{{nts|1,842,000}}
|align="right"|2.058%
|-
|{{flagcountry|Weimar Republic}}
|align="right"|{{nts|15,489,000}}
|align="right"|17.305%
|-
|{{flagcountry|Kingdom of Greece|state}}
|align="right"|{{nts|183,000}}
|align="right"|0.204%
|-
|{{flagcountry|Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946)}}
|align="right"|{{nts|519,000}}
|align="right"|0.580%
|-
|{{flag|Irish Free State|name=Ireland}}
|align="right"|{{nts|10,653,000}}
|align="right"|11.902%
|-
|{{flagcountry|Kingdom of Italy}}
|align="right"|{{nts|3,462,000}}
|align="right"|3.868%
|-
|{{flag|Latvia}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|141,000}}
|align="right"|0.158%
|-
|{{flag|Lithuania}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|230,000}}
|align="right"|0.257%
|-
|{{flag|Netherlands}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|1,881,000}}
|align="right"|2.102%
|-
|{{flag|Norway}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|1,419,000}}
|align="right"|1.585%
|-
|{{flagcountry|Second Polish Republic}}
|align="right"|{{nts|3,893,000}}
|align="right"|4.349%
|-
|{{flagdeco|Portugal}} [[Ditadura Nacional|Portugal]]
|align="right"|{{nts|263,000}}
|align="right"|0.294%
|-
|{{flagcountry|Kingdom of Romania}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|176,000}}
|align="right"|0.197%
|-
|{{nowrap|{{flag|RSFSR|1918|name=Russia}} (part of {{flag|Soviet Union|1936|name=USSR}})}}
|align="right"|{{nts|1,661,000}}
|align="right"|1.856%
|-
|{{flagdeco|Kingdom of Spain|1874}} [[Restoration (Spain)|Spain]]
|align="right"|{{nts|150,000}}
|align="right"|0.168%
|-
|{{flag|Sweden}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|1,977,000}}
|align="right"|2.209%
|-
|{{nowrap|{{flagdeco|Syria|1932}} [[First Syrian Republic|Syria]] & {{flagdeco|Lebanon|1920}} [[Greater Lebanon|Lebanon]]}}
|align="right"|{{nts|73,000}}
|align="right"|0.082%
|-
|{{flag|Switzerland}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|1,019,000}}
|align="right"|1.138%
|-
|{{flag|Turkey}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|135,000}}
|align="right"|0.151%
|-
|{{flag|United Kingdom}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|39,216,000}}
|align="right"|43.814%
|-
|{{flagcountry|Kingdom of Yugoslavia}} 
|align="right"|{{nts|504,000}}
|align="right"|0.563%
|-
|'''1920 total'''
|align="right"|'''{{nts|89,507,000}}'''
|align="right"|'''100.000%'''
|}

===Quotas by country under successive laws===
Listed below are historical quotas on emigration from the [[Eastern Hemisphere]], by country, as applied in given fiscal years ending June 30, calculated according to successive immigration laws and revisions from the Emergency Quota Act of 1921 to the final quota year of 1965. The 1922 and 1925 systems based on dated census records of the foreign-born population were intended as temporary measures; the 1924 Act's National Origins Formula based on the 1920 census of the total U.S. population took effect on July 1, 1929.<ref name="ABA1924"/><ref name="statabstract1922">{{citation|date=July 1923|title=Statistical Abstract of the United States: 1922.|url=https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/1923/compendia/statab/45ed/1922-03.pdf|location=Washington, D.C.|publisher=U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce|pages=100–101|edition=45th|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210329121443/https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/1923/compendia/statab/45ed/1922-03.pdf|archive-date=March 29, 2021|access-date=August 10, 2021}}</ref><ref name="statabstract1924">{{citation|date=July 1925|title=Statistical Abstract of the United States: 1924.|url=https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/1925/compendia/statab/47ed/1924-02.pdf|location=Washington, D.C.|publisher=U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce|page=83|edition=47th|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210328004741/https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/1925/compendia/statab/47ed/1924-02.pdf|archive-date=March 28, 2021|access-date=August 10, 2021}}</ref><ref name="statabstract1930" /><ref name="statabstract1931" /><ref name="statabstract1966">{{cite journal|date=July 1966|title=Statistical Abstract of the United States: 1966.|journal=Statistical Abstract of the United States ...: Finance, Coinage, Commerce, Immigration, Shipping, the Postal Service, Population, Railroads, Agriculture, Coal and Iron |url=https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/1966/compendia/statab/87ed/1966-02.pdf|location=Washington, D.C.|publisher=U.S. Bureau of the Census|pages=89–93|lccn=04-018089|issn=0081-4741|oclc=781377180|edition=87th|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210328113257/https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/1966/compendia/statab/87ed/1966-02.pdf|archive-date=March 28, 2021|access-date=August 9, 2021}}</ref> 
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:right"
|-
!rowspan="2"|Annual [[National Origins Formula|National Quota]]
!colspan="2"|[[Emergency Quota Act|Act of 1921]]||colspan="4"|Act of 1924||colspan="2"|[[Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952|Act of 1952]]
|-
!1922{{efn|Quota per country limited to 3% of the number of foreign-born persons of that nationality residing in the U.S. in the 1910 census (FY 1922-1924)}}
!%
!1925{{efn|Quota per country limited to 2% of the number of foreign-born persons of that nationality residing in the U.S. in the 1890 census (FY 1925-1929)}}
!%
!1930{{efn|Quota per nationality limited to a percentage share of 150,000 in a ratio proportional to the number of U.S. inhabitants of that national origin as a share of all U.S. inhabitants in the 1920 census (FY 1930-1952)}}
!%
!1965{{efn|Quota per nationality limited to one-sixth of 1% of the number of U.S. inhabitants of that national origin in the 1920 census (FY 1953-1965)}}
!%
|-
| align="left"|{{flagdeco|Albania|1920}} [[Albanian Republic (1925–1928)|Albania]]
| 288
| 0.08%
| 100
| 0.06%
| 100
| 0.07%
| 100
| 0.06%
|-
| align="left"|{{flagcountry|First Republic of Armenia}}
| 230
| 0.06%
| 124
| 0.08%
| 100
| 0.07%
| 100
| 0.06%
|-
| align="left"|{{flagdeco|Austria|state}} [[First Austrian Republic|Austria]] 
| 7,451
| 2.08%
| 785
| 0.48%
| 1,413
| 0.92%
| 1,405
| 0.89%
|-
| align="left"|{{flag|Belgium}}
| 1,563
| 0.44%
| 512
| 0.31%
| 1,304
| 0.85%
| 1,297
| 0.82%
|-
| align="left"|{{flagcountry|Kingdom of Bulgaria}}
| 302
| 0.08%
| 100
| 0.06%
| 100
| 0.07%
| 100
| 0.06%
|-
| align="left"|{{flagcountry|First Czechoslovak Republic}}
| 14,357
| 4.01%
| 3,073
| 1.87%
| 2,874
| 1.87%
| 2,859
| 1.80%
|-
| align="left"|{{flag|Danzig}}
| 301
| 0.08%
| 228
| 0.14%
| 100
| 0.07%
|  
| 
|-
| align="left"|{{flag|Denmark}} 
| 5,619
| 1.57%
| 2,789
| 1.69%
| 1,181
| 0.77%
| 1,175
| 0.74%
|-
| align="left"|{{flag|Estonia}}
| 1,348
| 0.38%
| 124
| 0.08%
| 116
| 0.08%
| 115
| 0.07%
|-
| align="left"|{{flag|Finland}}
| 3,921
| 1.10%
| 471
| 0.29%
| 569
| 0.37%
| 566
| 0.36%
|-
| align="left"|{{flag|Fiume}}
| 71
| 0.02%
|  
|  
|  
|  
| 
|  
|-
| align="left"|{{flagcountry|French Third Republic}}
| 5,729
| 1.60%
| 3,954
| 2.40%
| 3,086
| 2.01%
| 3,069
| 1.94%
|-
| align="left"|{{flagcountry|Weimar Republic}}
| 67,607
| 18.90%
| 51,227
| 31.11%
| 25,957
| 16.89%
| 25,814
| 16.28%
|-
| align="left"|{{flagcountry|Kingdom of Greece|state}}
| 3,294
| 0.92%
| 100
| 0.06%
| 307
| 0.20%
| 308
| 0.19%
|-
| align="left"|{{flagcountry|Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946)}}
| 5,638
| 1.58%
| 473
| 0.29%
| 869
| 0.57%
| 865
| 0.55%
|-
| align="left"|{{flagdeco|Iceland}} [[Kingdom of Iceland|Iceland]]
| 75
| 0.02% 
| 100
| 0.06%
| 100
| 0.07%
| 100
| 0.06%
|-
| align="left"|{{flag|Irish Free State|name=Ireland}}
| {{efn|name=uk|From 1921 to 1924, quota for [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland]] encompassed all of Ireland; after 1925, only [[Northern Ireland]], with a separate quota created for the [[Irish Free State]]}}
|
| 28,567
| 17.35%
| 17,853
| 11.61%
| 17,756
| 11.20%
|-
| align="left"|{{flagcountry|Kingdom of Italy}}
| 42,057
| 11.75%
| 3,854
| 2.34%
| 5,802
| 3.77%
| 5,666
| 3.57%
|-
| align="left"|{{flag|Latvia}} 
| 1,540
| 0.43%
| 142
| 0.09% 
| 236
| 0.15%
| 235
| 0.15%
|-
| align="left"|{{flag|Lithuania}} 
| 2,460
| 0.69%
| 344
| 0.21% 
| 386
| 0.25%
| 384
| 0.24%
|-
| align="left"|{{flag|Luxembourg}}
| 92
| 0.03%
| 100
| 0.06%
| 100
| 0.07%
| 100
| 0.06%
|-
| align="left"|{{flag|Netherlands}}
| 3,607
| 1.01%
| 1,648
| 1.00%
| 3,153
| 2.05%
| 3,136
| 1.98% 
|-
| align="left"|{{flag|Norway}} 
| 12,202
| 3.41%
| 6,453
| 3.92% 
| 2,377
| 1.55%
| 2,364
| 1.49%
|-
| align="left"|{{flagcountry|Second Polish Republic}}
| 31,146
| 8.70%
| 5,982
| 3.63% 
| 6,524
| 4.24%
| 6,488
| 4.09%
|-
| align="left"|{{flagdeco|Portugal}} [[Ditadura Nacional|Portugal]]
| 2,465
| 0.69%
| 503
| 0.31% 
| 440
| 0.29%
| 438
| 0.28%
|-
| align="left"|{{flagcountry|Kingdom of Romania}}
| 7,419
| 2.07%
| 603
| 0.37% 
| 295
| 0.19%
| 289
| 0.18%
|-
| align="left"|{{nowrap|{{flag|RSFSR|1918|name=Russia}} (part of {{flag|Soviet Union|1936|name=USSR}})}}{{efn|[[USSR]] excluding regions falling under the [[Asiatic Barred Zone]] while in effect}} 
| 24,405
| 6.82%
| 2,248
| 1.37% 
| 2,784
| 1.81%
| 2,697
| 1.70%
|-
| align="left"|{{flagdeco|Kingdom of Spain|1874}} [[Restoration (Spain)|Spain]]
| 912
| 0.25%
| 131
| 0.08% 
| 252
| 0.16%
| 250
| 0.16%
|-
| align="left"|{{flag|Sweden}} 
| 20,042
| 5.60%
| 9,561
| 5.81% 
| 3,314
| 2.16%
| 3,295
| 2.08%
|-
| align="left"|{{flag|Switzerland}} 
| 3,752
| 1.05%
| 2,081
| 1.26% 
| 1,707
| 1.11%
| 1,698
| 1.07%
|-
| align="left"|{{flag|Turkey}} 
| 2,388
| 0.67%
| 100
| 0.06% 
| 226
| 0.15%
| 225
| 0.14%
|-
| align="left"|{{flag|United Kingdom}}{{efn|name=uk}} 
| 77,342
| 21.62%
| 34,007 
| 20.65% 
| 65,721
| 42.76%
| 65,361
| 41.22%
|-
| align="left"|{{flagcountry|Kingdom of Yugoslavia}} 
| 6,426
| 1.80%
| 671
| 0.41% 
| 845
| 0.55%
| 942
| 0.59%
|-
| align="left"|{{nowrap|{{flag|Australia}} and {{flag|New Zealand}}}}
| 359
| 0.10%
| 221
| 0.13% 
| 200
| 0.13%
| 700
| 0.44%
|-
| align="left"|Total from [[Europe]]
| 356,135
| 99.53%
| 161,546
| 98.10%
| 150,591
| 97.97%
| 149,697
| 94.41%
|-
| align="left"|Total from [[Asia]] 
| 1,066
| 0.30%
| 1,300
| 0.79% 
| 1,323
| 0.86%
| 3,690
| 2.33%
|-
| align="left"|Total from [[Africa]]
| 122
| 0.03%
| 1,200
| 0.73% 
| 1,200
| 0.78%
| 4,274
| 2.70%
|-
| align="left"|'''Total from all Countries'''
| '''357,803'''
| '''100.00%'''
| '''164,667'''
| '''100.00%'''
| '''153,714'''
| '''100.00%'''
| '''158,561'''
| '''100.00%'''
|-
|}
{{notelist}}

==Visas and border control==
The act also established the "consular control system" of immigration, which divided responsibility for immigration between the [[United States State Department|U.S. State Department]] and the [[Immigration and Naturalization Service]]. The act also mandated no alien to be allowed to enter the U.S. without a valid immigration [[Visa (document)|visa]] issued by an American [[Consul (representative)|consular officer]] abroad.<ref name="ABA1924"/>

Consular officers were now allowed to issue visas to eligible applicants, but the number of visas to be issued by each consulate annually was limited, and no more than 10% of the quota could be given out in any one month. Aliens were not able to leave their home countries before having a valid visa, as opposed to the old system of deporting them at ports of debarkation. That gave a double layer of protection to the border since if they were found to be inadmissible, immigrants could still be deported on arrival.<ref name=":1" />

===Establishment of Border Patrol===
The National Origins Act authorized the formation of the [[U.S. Border Patrol]], which was established two days after the act was passed, primarily to guard the [[Mexico–United States border]].<ref name="Airriess40">{{Cite book |last=Airriess |first=Christopher A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AzaCCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA40 |title=Contemporary Ethnic Geographies in America |date=2015 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing PLC |isbn=978-1-4422-1857-4 |pages=40 |language=en}}</ref>

==Results==
[[Image:European immigration to the United States 1881-1940.png|thumb|Relative proportions of immigrants from Northwestern Europe{{efn|Defined in the act as immigrants from [[Germany]], [[Free City of Danzig]], [[Switzerland]], [[Austria]], [[Belgium]], [[France]], [[Luxembourg]], [[British Isles|the British Isles]] and [[Scandinavia]]}} (red) and Southern and Eastern Europe{{efn|Defined in the act as immigrants from the [[Baltic States]], all [[Slavs|Slavic nations]], [[Magyar people|Hungary]], [[Romania]], [[Italy]], [[Spain]], [[Portugal]], [[Albania]] and [[Greek people|Greece]]}} (blue) in the decades before and after the act]]

The act was seen in a negative light in Japan, causing resignations of ambassadors and protests.<ref name=":3">{{Cite magazine|last=Atkinson|first=David C.|date=2017-02-03|title=What History Can Tell Us About the Fallout From Restricting Immigration|url=https://time.com/4659392/history-fallout-restricting-immigration/|access-date=2020-11-14|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]}}</ref> A citizen committed ''[[seppuku]]'' near the [[U.S. Embassy in Tokyo]] with a note that read: "Appealing to the American people".<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|last1=Chow|first1=Misuzu Hanihara|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DzyVDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA124|title=The Turning Point in US-Japan Relations: Hanihara's Cherry Blossom Diplomacy in 1920–1930|last2=Chuma|first2=Kiyofuku|publisher=Springer|year=2016|isbn=978-1-349-58154-2|pages=125|language=en}}</ref> American businesses situated in Japan suffered the economic brunt of the legislation's repercussions, as the Japanese government subsequently increased tariffs on American trading by '100 per cent'.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Ngai|first=Mae|title=Impossible Subjects: illegal aliens and the makings of modern America|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=2004|location=Princeton|pages=49}}</ref>

Passage of the Immigration Act has been credited with ending a growing democratic movement in Japan during this time period, and opening the door to Japanese militarist government control.<ref name=neiwert>{{citation |last=Neiwert |first=Daniel |title=The xenophobic career of Miller Freeman, founding father of modern Bellevue | newspaper=[[International Examiner]] |date=May 10, 2022 |url=https://iexaminer.org/the-xenophobic-career-of-miller-freeman-founding-father-of-modern-bellevue/}}</ref> According to David C. Atkinson, on the Japanese government's perception of the act, "this indignity is seen as a turning point in the growing estrangement of the U.S. and Japan, which culminated in the 1941 [[attack on Pearl Harbor]]".<ref name=":3" />

The act's revised formula reduced total emigration from 357,803 between 1923 and 1924 to 164,667 between 1924 and 1925.<ref name="Airriess40" /> The law's impact varied widely by country. Emigration from [[Great Britain]] and [[Ireland]] fell 19%, while emigration from Italy fell more than 90%.<ref>{{cite book |first=Robert K. |last=Murray |title=The 103rd Ballot: Democrats and the Disaster in Madison Square Garden |location=New York |publisher=Harper & Row |year=1976 |page=[https://archive.org/details/103rdballotdemoc0000murr/page/7 7] |isbn=978-0-06-013124-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/103rdballotdemoc0000murr/page/7 }}</ref> From 1901 to 1914, 2.9 million Italians immigrated, an average of 210,000 per year.<ref>''[https://www2.census.gov/prod2/statcomp/documents/HistoricalStatisticsoftheUnitedStates1789-1945.pdf Historical Statistics of the United States: 1789–1945]'', Series B 304–330 (p. 33). US Bureau of the Census, 1949.{{Original research inline|date=February 2019}}</ref> Under the 1924 quota, only 4,000 per year were allowed since the 1890 quota counted only 182,580 Italians in the U.S.<ref name=stats>''[https://www2.census.gov/prod2/statcomp/documents/HistoricalStatisticsoftheUnitedStates1789-1945.pdf Historical Statistics of the United States: 1789–1945]'', Series B 304–330 (p. 32). US Bureau of the Census, 1949.</ref> By contrast, the annual quota for Germany after the passage of the act was over 55,000 since German-born residents in 1890 numbered 2,784,894.<ref name=stats/> Germany, Britain, and Ireland had the highest representation in 1890.<ref name=stats/> The provisions of the act were so restrictive that in 1924 more Italians, Czechs, Yugoslavs, Greeks, Lithuanians, Hungarians, Poles, Portuguese, Romanians, Spaniards, Chinese, and Japanese left the U.S. than arrived as immigrants.<ref name=koven/>

During World War II, the U.S. modified the act to set immigration quotas for their allies in China.<ref name=Guisepi /> The immigration quotas were eased in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 and replaced in the [[Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965]].<ref name="gov" /><ref name=":9">{{Cite magazine|last=Cobb|first=Jelani|date=September 5, 2017|title=Trump's Move to End DACA and Echoes of the Immigration Act of 1924|url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/trumps-move-to-end-daca-and-echoes-of-the-immigration-act-of-1924|access-date=2020-10-20|magazine=The New Yorker|language=en-us}}</ref>

===Jewish migration===
The law heavily restricted immigration from the countries where most Jews in the U.S. had come from, including Russia, which alone accounted for nearly 75% of Jewish immigrants.<ref name=Wright>Stuart J. Wright, ''An Emotional Gauntlet: From Life in Peacetime America to the War in European Skies'' (University of Wisconsin Press, 2004), p.&nbsp;163</ref> Because Eastern European immigration did not become substantial until the late 19th century, the law's use of the population of the U.S. in 1890 as the basis for calculating quotas effectively made mass migration from Eastern Europe, where the vast majority of the [[Jewish diaspora]] lived at the time, impossible.<ref>[[Julian Levinson]], ''Exiles on Main Street: Jewish American Writers and American Literary Culture'' (Indiana University Press, 2008), p. 54</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/haventohome/haven-century.html|title=A Century of Immigration, 1820-1924 - From Haven to Home: 350 Years of Jewish Life in America|website=[[Library of Congress]]|date=9 September 2004|access-date=February 10, 2019}}</ref> In 1929, the quotas were adjusted to one-sixth of 1% of the 1920 census figures, and the overall immigration limit reduced to 150,000.<ref name=cq/><ref name=ushmm/><ref name=Airriess40/>

The act was seen as causing many Jews to instead immigrate to [[mandatory Palestine]], spurring the [[Fourth Aliyah]].<ref name=gur>{{Cite journal |last=Alroey |first=Gur |date=2017-05-04 |title="Between the straits": Jewish immigration to the United States and Palestine, 1915–1925 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13501674.2017.1400859 |journal=East European Jewish Affairs |language=en |volume=47 |issue=2–3 |pages=150–168 |doi=10.1080/13501674.2017.1400859 |issn=1350-1674|url-access=subscription }}</ref> In 1937, the [[Peel Commission]] noted the act spurred immigration levels not anticipated during the drafting of the 1922 [[Mandate for Palestine]].<ref name=gur/><ref>[https://unispal.un.org/pdfs/Cmd5479.pdf ''Palestine Royal Commission Report Presented by the Secretary of State for the Colonies to Parliament by Command of His Majesty, July 1937'']. His Majesty's Stationery Office., London, 1937. p 289 [[UNISPAL]]</ref>

The law was not modified to aid the flight of [[Jews escaping from German-occupied Europe|Jewish refugees]] in the 1930s or 1940s despite the rise of [[Nazi Germany]].{{efn|On May 18, 1937, the Omnibus Immigration Bill entered Congress, which was intended to naturalize Jews who had [[Illegal immigration to the United States|entered the country illegally]]. It was supported by a majority, including most Republicans, future Democrat President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]], as well as Southern '[[Dixiecrat]]s'.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Smallwood|first=James|title=Operation Texas: Lyndon B. Johnson, The Jewish Question and the Nazi Holocaust|date=March 2009|journal=East Texas Historical Journal|volume=47|issue=1|url=https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=2560&context=ethj}}</ref>}}{{efn|President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] invited 982 refugees, most of whom were Jewish, to stay at [[Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter]] until the war was over.<ref>{{cite news |last=Bernard |first=Diane |title=Jews fleeing the Holocaust weren't welcome in the U.S. Then FDR finally offered a refuge to some. |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/05/01/jews-fleeing-holocaust-werent-welcome-us-then-fdr-finally-offered-refuge-some |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=May 3, 2019 |date=May 1, 2019}}</ref>}} The quotas were adjusted to allow more Jewish refugees after [[World War II]], but without increasing immigration overall.<ref name=ushmm>{{cite web|url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/united-states-immigration-and-refugee-law-1921-1980|title=United States Immigration and Refugee Law, 1921–1980|website=[[Holocaust Encyclopedia]]|access-date=February 9, 2019}}</ref>

==Legacy==
The act has been characterized as the culmination of decades of intentional exclusion of Asian immigrants.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Zhou|first=Li|date=May 5, 2021|title=The inadequacy of the term "Asian American"|url=https://www.vox.com/identities/22380197/asian-american-pacific-islander-aapi-heritage-anti-asian-hate-attacks|access-date=2021-05-06|website=Vox|language=en}}</ref>

The act had negative economic effects. Economists have argued that both innovation and employment were negatively affected by the restrictions. In a 2020 paper, the economists [[Petra Moser]] and Shmuel San demonstrated that the drastic reduction in immigration from Eastern and Southern European scientists led to fewer new patents, not only from immigrants but also from native-born scientists working in their fields.<ref>{{Citation |last1=Moser |first1=Petra |last2=San |first2=Shmuel |date=March 21, 2020 |title=Immigration, Science, and Invention. Lessons from the Quota Acts |url=https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3558718 |journal= |ssrn=3558718 |via=SSRN}}</ref> Even the mass migration of unskilled workers had been a spur to innovation, according to a paper by Kirk Doran and Chungeun Yoon, who found  "using variation induced by 1920s quotas, which ended history's largest international migration" that "inventors in cities and industries exposed to fewer low-skilled immigrants applied for fewer patents."<ref>{{Citation |last1=Duran |first1=Kirk |last2=Yoon |first2=Chungeun |date=January 2021 |title=Immigration and Invention: Evidence from the Quota Acts |url=https://www3.nd.edu/~kdoran/Doran_Quotas.pdf |journal= }}{{Dead link|date=August 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Nor did US-born workers benefit, according to a 2023 study in the ''American Economic Journal.'' Farming, a sector of the economy highly reliant on migrant labor, shifted towards more capital-intensive forms of agriculture, whereas the mining industry, another immigrant-reliant industry, contracted.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Abramitzky |first1=Ran |last2=Ager |first2=Philipp |last3=Boustan |first3=Leah |last4=Cohen |first4=Elior |last5=Hansen |first5=Casper W. |date=2023 |title=The Effect of Immigration Restrictions on Local Labor Markets: Lessons from the 1920s Border Closure |url=https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/app.20200807 |journal=American Economic Journal: Applied Economics |language=en |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=164–191 |doi=10.1257/app.20200807 |s2cid=240158682 |issn=1945-7782|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Looking back on the significance of the act, [[Harry Laughlin]], the eugenicist who served as expert advisor to the House Committee on Immigration during the legislative process, praised it as a political breakthrough in the adoption of [[scientific racism]] as a theoretical foundation for immigration policy.<ref name=":6">{{Cite book |last=Jacobson |first=Matthew Frye |url=https://archive.org/details/whitenessofdiffe0000jaco/page/82/ |title=Whiteness of a Different Color: European Immigrants and the Alchemy of Race |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1999 |isbn=0674951913 |location=Cambridge |pages=82–83, 85 |language=en |author-link=Matthew Frye Jacobson}}</ref> Due to the reliance upon eugenics in forming the policy, and growing public reception towards scientific racism as justification for restriction and [[racial stereotypes]] by 1924, the act has been seen as a piece of legislation that formalized the views of contemporary U.S. society.<ref>{{Cite book|last=King|first=Desmond|url=https://archive.org/details/makingamericans00desm/page/195/mode/2up|title=Making Americans: Immigration, Race, and the Origins of the Diverse Democracy|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2000|isbn=0-674-00088-9|location=Cambridge|pages=195|author-link=Desmond King (professor)}}</ref> Historian [[Mae Ngai]] writes of the national origins quota system:

<blockquote>At one level, the new immigration law differentiated Europeans according to nationality and ranked them in a hierarchy of desirability. At another level, the law constructed a [[White American]] race, in which persons of European descent shared a common Whiteness distinct from those deemed to be not White.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Ngai|first=Mae M.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X1dzAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA24|title=Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=2004|isbn=978-0-691-16082-5|location=Woodstock, Oxfordshire|pages=24–25}}</ref> </blockquote>

In 1928, Nazi leader [[Adolf Hitler]] praised the act for banishing "strangers of the blood".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Podolsky |first=Robin |date=2021-02-23 |title=Purim: A Celebration of Difference and a Call to Action |url=https://jewishjournal.com/commentary/columnist/333457/purim-a-celebration-of-difference-and-a-call-to-action/ |access-date=2024-04-16 |website=[[Jewish Journal]] |language=en-US}}</ref> U.S. immigration law was cited favorably by the framers of Nazi legislation due to its excluding "wholly foreign racial population masses".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Young |first=Patrick |date=2018-08-30 |title=When America's Racist Immigration Law Inspired Hitler |url=https://longislandwins.com/immigration-history/when-americas-racist-immigration-law-inspired-hitler/ |access-date=2024-04-16 |website=Long Island Wins |language=en-US}}</ref>{{efn|Sources such as ''[[The New Yorker]]'' argue that the [[Trumpism]] movement includes an attempt to return to the exclusion of pre-1965 U.S. immigration law.<ref name=":9" />}}

==See also==
* [[Anarchist Exclusion Act]]
* [[Anti-Italianism]]
* [[History of antisemitism in the United States]]
* [[Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907]]
* [[History of immigration to the United States]]
* [[Immigration Act of 1917]]
* {{annotated link|Indian Citizenship Act}}
* [[List of United States immigration laws]]
* [[Mexican Repatriation]]
* [[Nordicism]]
* [[Racial Equality Proposal]]
* [[Racism in the United States]]
* [[Statue of Liberty National Monument]]
* [[White Australia policy]]

==References==
'''Footnotes'''
{{notelist}}

'''Citations'''
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
* Allerfeldt, Kristofer. "'And We Got Here First': Albert Johnson, National Origins and Self-Interest in the Immigration Debate of the 1920s." ''Journal of Contemporary History'' 45.1 (2010): 7-26.
* {{Cite news|last=Diamond|first=Anna|date=May 19, 2020|title=The 1924 Law That Slammed the Door on Immigrants and the Politicians Who Pushed it Back Open|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/1924-law-slammed-door-immigrants-and-politicians-who-pushed-it-back-open-180974910/|access-date=2021-05-06|website=Smithsonian Magazine|language=en}}
* {{cite journal|last=Eckerson|first=Helen F.|year=1966|title=Immigration and National Origins|journal=Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science|volume=367|series=The New Immigration|pages=4–14|jstor=1034838|doi=10.1177/000271626636700102|s2cid=144501178}}
* Higham, John. ''Strangers in the land: Patterns of American nativism, 1860-1925'' (2nd ed. Rutgers University Press, 1963) pp 301–330. [https://archive.org/details/strangersinlandh0000unse online]
* {{Cite book|title=White by law: the legal construction of race|last=Ian|first=Haney-López|date=2006|publisher=New York University Press|isbn=0814736947|edition=Rev. and updated, 10th anniversary|location=New York|oclc=213815614}}
* {{cite journal|last=Johnson|first=Kevin R.|year=1998|title=Race, the Immigration Laws, and Domestic Race Relations: A "Magic Mirror" into the Heart of Darkness|journal=Indiana Law Journal|volume=73|pages=1111–1159|url=https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ilj/vol73/iss4/2/}}
* Keely, Charles B. "Immigration in the Interwar Period." in ''Immigration and US Foreign Policy'' (Routledge, 2019) pp.&nbsp;43–56.
* Lee, Erika. "America first, immigrants last: American xenophobia then and now." ''Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era'' 19.1 (2020): 3–18. [https://scholar.archive.org/work/o7drkfxvvbaifotn2binrf7sju/access/wayback/https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/C9656464A5BA481C7F976C4835173E2D/S1537781419000409a.pdf/div-class-title-america-first-immigrants-last-american-xenophobia-then-and-now-div.pdf online]
* {{Cite book|title=U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Laws and Issues: A Documentary History|editor1-last=Lemay|editor1-first=Michael Robert|editor2-last=Barkan|editor2-first=Elliott Robert|publisher=Greenwood Press|year=1999|isbn=978-0-313-30156-8}}
* Marinari, Maddalena. ''Unwanted: Italian and Jewish mobilization against restrictive immigration laws, 1882–1965'' (UNC Press Books, 2019).
* Montoya, Benjamin C. ''Risking Immeasurable Harm: Immigration Restriction and US-Mexican Diplomatic Relations, 1924–1932'' (U of Nebraska Press, 2020). [https://books.google.com/books?id=Zs_TDwAAQBAJ&dq=1924+immigration+restriction&pg=PA326 online]
* Ngai, Mae M. "The architecture of race in American immigration law: A reexamination of the Immigration Act of 1924." ''Journal of American History'' 86.1 (1999): 67–92. [https://cres100.sites.ucsc.edu/files/2019/01/Ngai-2kpq6wr.pdf online]
* {{Cite book|first=Mae M.|last=Ngai|title=Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America|location=Princeton, NJ|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=2004|isbn=978-0-691-16082-5|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/impossi_nga_2004_00_9423}}
* {{Cite book|last=Yang|first=Jia Lynn|title=One Mighty and Irresistible Tide: The Epic Struggle Over American Immigration, 1924–1965|date=2020|isbn=978-0-393-63584-3|location=New York|publisher=W.W. Norton & Company|oclc=1120099419}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=DqO6DwAAQBAJ&dq=1924+immigration+restriction&pg=PT5 online]
* Yuill, Kevin. " 'America must remain American': The Liberal Contribution to Race Restrictions in the 1924 Immigration Act." ''Federal History'' (2021). [http://sure.sunderland.ac.uk/id/eprint/13154/1/13154.pdf online]
* {{cite book|first=Aristide|last=Zolberg|title=A Nation by Design: Immigration Policy in the Fashioning of America|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2006|isbn=978-0-674-02218-8}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20151216211400/http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5078/ Statistics of who was allowed in after the Immigration Act of 1924]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20151212031412/http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5080 "'Shut the Door': A Senator Speaks for Immigration Restriction"] – transcript of speech given before Congress by Sen. [[Ellison D. Smith]], April 9, 1924
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160304001338/http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/html/eugenics/essay9text.html Eugenics Laws Restricting Immigration]
* {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160924100432/http://library.uwb.edu/static/usimmigration/43%20stat%20153.pdf|title=Text of 1924 Immigration Act and enabling proclamation by the President|date=September 24, 2016|url2=https://web.archive.org/web/20201115123031/https://www.loc.gov/law/help/statutes-at-large/68th-congress/session-1/c68s1ch190.pdf|title2=Chapter 190, An Act To limit the immigration of aliens into the United States, and for other purposes, May 26, 1924|date2=November 15, 2020|url3=https://web.archive.org/web/20210120222257/https://www.loc.gov/law/help/statutes-at-large/68th-congress.php|title3=Statutes at Large: Congress 68 - Law Library of Congress|date3=January 20, 2021}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090228084926/http://www.civics-online.org/library/formatted/texts/immigration1924.htm Quotas defined in Immigration Law of 1924]

{{Calvin Coolidge}}
{{Chinese American|state=collapsed}}
{{Immigration to the United States}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1924 in international relations]]
[[Category:1924 in American law]]
[[Category:68th United States Congress]]
[[Category:Anti-Asian sentiment in the United States]]
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[[Category:Anti-Filipino sentiment]]
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[[Category:Anti-Slavic sentiment]]
[[Category:Asian-American issues]]
[[Category:European diaspora in the United States]]
[[Category:Eugenics in the United States]]
[[Category:Nordicism]]
[[Category:White supremacy]]
[[Category:Italian-American history]]
[[Category:Presidency of Calvin Coolidge]]
[[Category:United States federal immigration and nationality legislation]]
[[Category:Repealed United States legislation]]
[[Category:1924 in Judaism]]
[[Category:May 1924 in the United States]]
[[Category:Immigration bans]]
[[Category:Scientific racism]]
[[Category:Antisemitism in the United States]]