The Immigration Restriction League: a study of the League's impact on American immigration policy, 1894-1924
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1993
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Abstract
This thesis provides an in-depth look at the activities of the Immigration Restriction League (Boston). Encompassing the years 1894 to 1924, the thesis analyzes the League's impact on American immigration legislation. Chapter One discusses the background of the League members, and the formation of the League. Moreover, this chapter examines the League's "methodology," the means by which the League was able to procure public and government support. Chapter Two explores the League's fight for the enactment of a literacy test as a means to exclude immigrants; the literacy test was, after a long fight, finally included in the 1917 Immigration Act. In Chapter Three, the League's involvement in the eugenics movement is detailed; the amalgamation of the "science" of eugenics with the immigration restriction movement resulted in the 1924 Immigration Act. A decisive victory for the League, the 1924 Act virtually terminated immigration of southern and eastern Europeans while favouring northwestern Europeans.
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Bibliography: p. 137-147.
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Hershfield, R. L. (1993). The Immigration Restriction League: a study of the League's impact on American immigration policy, 1894-1924 (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/14357