ABSTRACT
The period between World Wars I and II witnessed the triumph of restrictionists in the long struggle to control the number and ethnic origin of immigrants. In the 1880s, the major shift in ethnic origin of immigrants, from northern and western Europe to southern and eastern Europe, was an incentive to organized efforts to reduce and redirect immigration. In the 1920s, a policy of immigration restriction that favored northwestern Europeans within overall limits was embodied in a pair of national origin quota laws. The interwar period was a time of low levels of immigration due to quotas, the effects of the depression, and the onset of war. Many thought the era of mass migration to the United States was over. Immigration policy during the interwar period was characterized by the establishment of principles of limitation and choice by nationality, by the use of administrative means to reduce or increase flows, and by the establishment of bureaucratic mechanisms to regulate migration.
