In the Progressive Era, increasing immigration and fear of foreign nationals led Congress to create the Dillingham Commission to investigate current trends and recommend changes in immigration law. Through much of the 19th century, the United States had an “open door” immigration policy that allowed individuals and families from Europe to enter the country with relatively few restrictions. As the economy of the United States became more concentrated in urban areas and focused on industrial production, the volume of migrants to America steadily increased. The growing congregation of immigrants in urban centers quickly became an issue of much concern. As a result, it gave raise to a vocal anti-immigrant movement by the end of the 19th century. Although Congress enacted legislation that restricted the ability of Chinese immigrants to enter the United States in 1882, immigrants from areas other than China and Asia faced few restrictions in migrating to the United States before the outbreak of the European war in 1914. With a liberal immigration policy and steady improvements in transatlantic transportation, European migrants were able to reach the United States in ever-increasing numbers and from a wider range of areas between the 1880s and the war. In 1882 some 788,922 immigrants entered the United States, and 1,285,349 in 1907. The countries of origin dramatically shifted as well. Although there was little immigration from eastern and southern Europe in the 19th century, by 1907 these countries combined sent nearly 75 percent of the immigrants who arrived in the United States.
As the United States witnessed major economic changes during the last quarter of the century, immigrants often became the scapegoat for the rapid changes taking place in American society. The vocal anti-immigrant sentiments of this time period ultimately pushed Congress to appoint the so-called Dillingham Commission to investigate immigration-related issues. Headed by Senator William P. Dillingham of Vermont, a moderate restrictionist, the committee ultimately issued a 42-volume report that played on the fears held by the growing anti-immigrant faction in the United States. Despite drawing alarming conclusions about the effects of immigration on American society, the evidence amassed by immigration officials across the United States did not support the arguments of Senator Dillingham and his fellow committee members about the need for immigration restrictions. The committee argued in its report that the so-called new immigrants were racially inferior to the old immigrants from northern and western Europe. Manipulating statistical data on these “new” immigrants, the Dillingham Commission provided a “scientific” argument calling for legislation to restrict their entry to the United States. In essence, the Commission’s contention that the “new” immigrants from southern and eastern Europe were incapable of becoming Americans found a welcome audience in the United States, especially as hostilities in Europe broke out and calls for “Americanization” of immigrants reemerged. The passage of the IMMIGRATION Act OF 1917 was only the first in a series of increasingly restrictive immigration policies, culminating in the 1924 Immigration Act, which Congress adopted in response to the Dillingham Commission’s recommendation to close the immigration door, especially for immigrants from Asia, Africa, and southern and eastern Europe.
Further reading: U. S. Immigration Commission, Reports of the Immigration Commission, 41 vols. (Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office, 1907-10).
—David R. Smith
World History
