Following a wave of xenophobia, the U.S. began to restrict immigration in 1917. The annual rate peaked in 1921 (800,000) until the Immigration Act that year limited new arrivals to 3% of the country of origin’s population. After that, the annual rate swung widely. It fell during the 1922 Depression (300,000), rose in 1923 (500,000), and again in 1924 (700,000), until the 1924 Immigration Act, which favored northern Europe, imposed severe restrictions on central, southern, and eastern Europeans (mainly Jews and Catholics). As a result, immigration dropped once more in 1925 (300,000), until the limits were relaxed in 1929. Read more about the immigrants who made it to America at the turn of the last century in On the Shore (see NOVELS).
