Immigration and its Relation to Political and Economic Theories and Party Affiliation

Report Outline
Oriental Exclusion
Problems of Assimilation
Economic Aspects
Conclusion

The Immigration act of 1924, more severely restrictive than any previous immigration measure, and the emergence of the Ku Klux Klan, identical in many respects with the Know Nothing movement of the '50s, as a factor of importance in national politics, serve to draw attention at this time to numerous striking changes that have taken place in the composition of the American population, due to immigration and the differences in birth rates between the foreign born and native American stock.

The first census, taken in 1790, revealed that of the total population those of pure English blood comprised the overwhelming majority. The following table shows the division by nationalities.

The change in the composition of the population during the six decades since the Know Nothing movement, showing the decline in the proportion of “native white stock”, is given in the following table.