Immigration 1880-1920

Between 1880 and 1920, The United States saw more than 20 million immigrants settle to make a new life. Beginning in the 1890s, the majority of arrivals were from Central, Eastern and Southern Europe. The 1890s saw about 600,000 Italians migrate to America, but by 1920 there were more than 4 million Italians that had entered the United States. Jews from Eastern Europe fleeing religious persecution also arrived in large numbers.  More than 2 million Jews entered the United States between 1880 and 1920.  The peak year of new immigrants arriving to the United States was 1907.  About 1.3 million people entered the United States from all over Europe.  One of those people was my great-grandfather.  He had heard from a cousin that the Oakland Police Department was hiring and offering good money.  He took everything he had and $50. to start a new life.

In 1917, Congress passed a law requiring immigrants over 16 to pass a literacy test.  By the 1920s immigration quotas were created. Immigration quotas were maintained by the Immigration Act of 1924.  It created a quota system that restricted entry to 2 percent of the total number of people of each nationality in America as of the 1890 national census.  It also prohibited immigrants from Asia.