Immigration policy prior to the 1930s: Labor markets, policy interactions, and globalization backlash

What determines immigration policy? The literature here is not nearly as mature as that for trade policy, so this article must be viewed as an initial effort to establish the main empirical outlines. The authors construct an index of immigration policy for five countries of immigration-Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, and the United States-for 1860-1930, that is, during and shortly after the age of mass migration. The exercise reveals that the doors to the New World did not suddenly slam shut on immigrants after World War I, as is typically illustrated by citing the passage of the Emergency Quota Act by the US Congress in 1921. Instead, there was a gradual closing of the doors, although the rate and timing of the closing varied across countries. The authors find that poor wage performance and the perceived threat from more, low-quality foreign workers were the main influences on shifts in immigration policy. They also offer some support for the idea that immigration policy was as much an interactive process as were the tariff policies of the time.