End of the Trans-Atlantic Migration
Italian immigration was restricted by the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924
which set quotas favoring Northern Europeans over people from eastern
and Southern Europe. Despite these restrictions, many Italians continued
to migrate, albeit illegally, until the Great Depression brought
America's shortage of unskilled labor, and the economic opportunities
it represented to immigrants, to an end. In total, more than five
million Italians have immigrated to the United States since 1820,
making it the second largest immigrant group after the Germans.
Following World War II, the Italian neighborhoods of Manhattan gradually
disappeared. Their residents moved to outer boroughs and suburbs
in New Jersey, Westchester County, and on Long Island. Today, Mulberry
Street's Little Italy is commercial rather than residential, and
few Italians remain in the area.
Thomas Kessner, The Golden Door: Italian and Jewish Immigrant
Mobility in New York City, 1880-1915 (New York, 1977); Donna
R. Gabaccia, From Sicily to Elizabeth Street: Housing and Social
Change Among Italian Immigrants, 1880-1930 (Albany, 1984).
