WASPS

• WASPS were seen as the 'ideal Americans'

  Wasps stood for White Anglo-Saxon Protestants.

  They were the largest ethnic group in the USA.
• There was an influx of immigrants from Eastern and southern European countries in the 1910s, and this upset many Americans.
• WASPS tended to have prejudice views about immigrants because:

  1. Many were Catholics/jews
  2. They had different cultures and backgrounds
  3. Often they were poor, illiterate, or couldn't speak English.

  WASPS tended to have a fear of undemocratic ideas and also feared that immigrants would cause competition for jobs.
• Policies:

  • Emergency Quota Act of 1921

  Limited immigration from outside the Western part of the world.

  (375,000 max per year)

  Each country would send 3% of the amount of people of that Nation already living in the USA per year. (in 1920)

  • National Origins Act of 1924

  Reduced amount of immigrants allowed from outside of the Western part of the world to 164,000 per year.

  290 people from each nation (of nations in which there were already people from them living in the USA since 1890)

  Very few allowed in when quota was reduced again to allow only 150,000