Was migrating way easier back then (e.g., people can just board a ship with their bags to the US and settle there)? What makes migrating to most countries so difficult now?

Question

Was migrating way easier back then (e.g., people can just board a ship with their bags to the US and settle there)? What makes migrating to most countries so difficult now?

In: 491

Answer 1

When my grandparents came to the US in the 1910s, there weren’t any immigration laws and anyone could come. Xenophobes upset with people that they thought were a little too ethnic, passed the Johnson-Reed Law in 1924, enacting strict quotas and curbing most immigration.