Final answer:
The Emergency Quota Act affected potential immigrants to the U.S., especially those from Southern and Eastern Europe and Asia, by imposing stringent quotas based on nationality. These quotas favored Western European immigrants and reflected the nativist and isolationist sentiments of the early 20th century. Subsequent laws continued to evolve the U.S. immigration policy, focusing on skilled labor and family reunification.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Emergency Quota Act primarily affected people who were seeking to immigrate to the United States from Europe, particularly from Southern and Eastern Europe, as well as from Asia. The Emergency Quota Law of 1921 and subsequent laws, such as the National Origins Act of 1924, were designed to restrict immigration by establishing quotas based on a percentage of each nationality's population in the U.S. as of prior census counts. The legislation notably targeted groups that were considered non-traditional, such as Eastern Europeans, Jewish people, Asians, and Italians, setting limits that heavily favored traditional Western European immigrants, especially those from Britain, France, and Germany.
Immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe and from Asia faced severe limitations and were thus greatly affected by the quota system, which was meant to maintain the cultural homogeneity of the United States and respond to nativist sentiments. These policies reflected the isolationist mood of the period after World War I and were reinforced by economic concerns about job competition. The impact on potential immigrants was profound: many were denied entry based on their nationality, effectively altering the demographic composition of incoming immigrants to the U.S. during this era.
Later amendments and acts, notably the law passed in 1965, sought to rectify some of these exclusions by offering refuge to residents of Communist nations and placing emphasis on skilled laborers, but the effects of earlier laws continued to influence U.S. immigration policy.