Immigration Restrictions

Breckinridge Long

Laws adopted in 1921 and 1924 set strict quotas that limited the number of people permitted to enter the country annually. Fearing new-comers would swell the ranks of the unemployed or take jobs from American citizens during the Depression, the administration created a maze of bureaucratic obstacles that disqualified many visa applicants. In 1940, Breckinridge Long, Assistant Secretary of State, a nativist and anti-Semite, who was charged with implementing immigration policies, tightened visa requirements, making it even more difficult to enter the country.

The annual U.S. quota for German immigrants in 1933 was 30,000 but only 1,445 were permitted to enter the country. Less than a third were Jewish. Except for a short period in 1938- 1939, the government blocked the quotas. Some distinguished academics, scientists, musicians, and artists were welcomed, but immigration was held to 10 percent of the quota. The Nazis, openly contemptuous of intellect, drove out 43 percent of Germany’s academics. The effect on Germany was disastrous, but the United States reaped the benefits.

Relative to its population, the United States was less of an asylum for refugees than Britain, France, or the Netherlands.