This coming Sunday, May 26, marks the 100th anniversary of the signing of the 1924 Johnson-Reed Act, the law that ended the so-called “Great Wave” of immigration and paused further immigration for more than 40 years. Mark Krikorian, Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies, today published an opinion piece on the NY Post website describing the impact of the historic act. Among other results were these:
- The pause in immigration led to a half-century-long decline in the foreign-born share of the population, from 13%-15% to less than 5% in 1970.
- With fewer competitors in the labor market, less-skilled American workers saw their bargaining power increase greatly.
- Worker-starved businesses began to recruit in the South, especially among black workers, leading to the “Great Migration” of blacks to the North and West.
- The rising wages allowed the middle class to grow in size and strength.
The abandonment of Johnson-Reed in 1965 — especially the policies of the Biden administration, which has admitted at least 6.4 million — has gradually brought the country back to 1924-like conditions. The foreign-born share of our population exceeds the largest estimate of the Great Wave. The foreign-born now make up 15.6% of America’s residents. Without any changes in policy, nearly one in four people living here will be from abroad by 2040. We are in desperate need of 1924-era policies today.
For more, see the NY Post.