After an halt in the rate of European immigration in the period of the U.S. Civil War, a population of above 20 million immigrants migrated to the U.S. —mainly from SOUTHERN AND EASTERN EUROPE—between the period of 1880 and 1920.
A majority of Southern European immigrants were positively influenced by economic advancement in the United States. The Eastern Europeans (mainly Jews) escaped religious persecution.
World War I had a negative impact on European immigration as it reduced it, and the national-origin quotas set up in the year 1921 and 1924—which provide priority to Western and Northern Europeans—followed with the Great Depression as the beginning of World War II led to a close stop in immigration from Europe.
