Immigration Restrictions in the 1920s
The volume of immigrants coming into the United States at this time was worrisome to citizens already in the country. They were concerned about new immigrants taking jobs, taking land, and spreading radical ideas like communism and labor unrest. The Emergency Quota Act of 1921 slowed the immigration inflow. Additionally, President Calvin Coolidge signed the Immigration Act of 1924, putting further restrictions on who could enter the country. Immigrants with college degrees and desirable skills were often welcome, and there was overall acceptance of immigrants from the norther region such as Great Britain and the Scandinavian countries. But southern and eastern Europeans, and Japan in particular, were under heavy restrictions – a move that irritated the Japanese government, as they had collaborated with President Theodore Roosevelt to increase immigration quotas from Japan. Japan declared May 26 as a national day of humiliation, and added to the rift between the two nations.