EXAMINING PATTERNS OF ITALIAN IMMIGRATION TO ...

cultural, because of fear of the loss of Anglo-Saxon supremacy; and religious, because the
new immigrants were mostly Catholics. Once the need for cheap labor ceased, they had their
victory.
To curb the rapid movement of immigrants into the United States the government
passed a series of laws. In 1921 the government passed the Immigration Quota Act. It
restricted immigration to 3% of the population of each specific country according to the
census of 1910. In 1924 the act was revised to restrict further the percentage to 2% using the
census of 1890. These acts heavily affected Italian immigration. Before the enactment of the
first restriction, Italian immigration into the United States in 1921 was 222,260. In 1925 it
dropped to 6,203.
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