The legislation imposing the national origins quotas dealt a death blow to the Pennsylvania model, and the Great Depression did the same initially to the Virginia model. By the time the national origins quotas went fully into effect in 1929, any calls for renewed immigration would have been suppressed by unprecedented levels of unemployment. During the 1930s, only 500,000 immigrants came to the United States – less than one-eighth the number that had arrived in the previous decade. The Depression affected not only new arrivals but also the ability of prior immigrants to remain in the country. In 1932, emigration was almost three times higher than immigration – 35,576 entered and more than 100,000 immigrants left the United States. At the same time, there were large numbers of internal migrants, including African-Americans moving from the South to northern cities and “Okies” moving from the Dust Bowl to California.

Perhaps the most tragic victims of this restrictive atmosphere were the refugees who tried to flee repression and conflict in Europe. The German quota under the 1924 Act often went unfilled as consular officers refused to grant visas to those likely to become public charges or who fell under other exclusions. This chapter will go into some detail on the heated debate in 1939, when Congress defeated the Wagner-Rogers Act, which was legislation intended to bring 20,000 mostly Jewish children from Nazi Germany outside existing legislative limits. The language of the opposition was reminiscent of the debates over the eastern and southern European immigration of the earlier era.