Emergency Quota Act

In the United States, the Emergency Quota Act (ch. 8, , also known as the Johnson Quota Act) of May 19, 1921 was an immigration quota that limited the annual number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country to 3% of the number of persons from that country living in the United States in 1910, according to United States Census figures. This totaled about 357,802 immigrants. Of that number just over half was allocated for northern and western Europeans, and the remainder for eastern and southern Europeans, a 75% reduction from prior years. Professionals were allowed in despite their origins. The act was passed without a record vote in the U.S. House of Representatives and by a vote of 78-1 in the U.S. Senate during a time of swelling isolationism following World War I. Historian John Higham wrote in his classic work on American nativism, Strangers in the Land (1963), that although intended as temporary legislation the act "proved in the long run the most important turning-point in American immigration policy" because it imposed numerical limits on European immigration for the first time and established a nationality quota system (Higham, p. 311).

The Emergency Quota Act had been proposed several times before, but never made it through until 1921. The main reason for passing the Act was that the flood of immigrants in recent years had negative wage effects on native-born Americans. This led to increasing support for immigration restrictions. Another factor was the decreasing political power of immigration groups.

Summary

-The immigration level was limited to 3% in 1921 by the Emergency Quota Act, soon to be limited by the Immigration Act of 1924, which brought it down to 2%.

-The average annual inflow of immigrants prior to 1921 was 176,983 from Northern and Western Europe, and 685,531 from other countries, principally Southern and Eastern Europe.

-In 1921, the incoming immigrant population was settled down to 198,082 from Northern and Western Europe, and 158,367 from principally Southern and Eastern Europe (including other countries), being shown as a drastic reduction in immigration levels from other countries, principally Southern And Eastern Europe. This also portrays a 3% level in reduction. This was due to the Emergency Quota Act of 1921.

-The 2% level was reached in the Quota Act of 1924, where levels dropped to 140,999 for Northern and Western Europe, and 21,847 for other countries, principally Southern and Eastern Europe.''

-The census used for the Emergency Quota Act was the 1910 census. (The Immigration Act of 1924 was based on the census of 1890.)

The Act set no limits on immigration from Latin America.

References

Nathan Miller, New World Coming. Cambridge: Da Capo Press, 2003.
John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism. 2nd ed. New York: Atheneum, 1963. (First edition published by Rutgers University Press in 1955).