Introduction to Immigration from 1905–1945

While the exact division of chapters by year in this volume is somewhat arbitrary, the chapter divisions do track ebbs, flows, and waves of immigration to the United States. Although 1905–1945 was a critical period in U.S. history, it witnessed a dramatic reduction in immigration from its zenith in the period from 1905–1914, to a brief nadir during World War I (1915–1918) and the early years of the Great Depression in the 1930s.

Between 1905 and 1914, an average of one million immigrants per year landed in the United States. Two-thirds of those individuals emigrated from eastern, southern, and central Europe. The outbreak of World War I in Europe in the summer of 1914 suddenly halted the era of mass emigration. From 1915 until 1945, two world wars, pandemic influenza, a global depression, and increasingly restrictive quota laws limited immigration to the United States.

Ellis Island remains an enduring symbol of the mass-immigration era. For millions of European immigrants, Ellis Island, New York, was their gateway to the United States. "Processing Immigrant Arrivals at Ellis Island" is a glimpse at the process of immigration and one of the iconic images of the immigration station itself. On the other side of the American continent, Angel Island, California, processed immigrants from Asia. The two stations differed in their handling of immigrants and their overall philosophy. More frequently detained and deported, Asian immigrants were subjected to restrictive immigration and employment laws as well as limitations on their general liberties. The Angel Island experience is captured here in a photograph of the station and the poetry of immigrants detained on the island.

The era of mass immigration was also the era of the melting pot, the idea that the United States was a crucible in which the amalgamation of immigrant cultures was a critical social force. Of special interest in this chapter is the article "The Melting-Pot" featuring an excerpt from Israel Zangwill's play, the presumed spark of popular use of the metaphor to describe the effects of European immigration on U.S. society. Other articles such as "Good Metal in Our Melting Pot, Says Miss Wald," "Materials of the New Race," and "What I Owe to America" further elaborate and debate the melting-pot theory and ideas of European immigrant assimilation.

This chapter ends with the rise of institutionalized anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany and World War II years. The internment of Japanese-Americans and Japanese immigrants during World War II was among the darkest episodes in American history. Wartime alliances, however, benefited Chinese immigrants, long victims of discrimination and legal restrictions. Included here is a presidential message urging repeal of the laws that excluded Chinese immigrants.