The Rise of Illegal Immigration from Europe: An Unintended Consequence of the Quota Acts

On September 2, 1993, an article in the New York Times announced the results of the New York City Planning Department’s first complete analysis of undocumented immigration for the entire state. The study found that New York State had the highest number of illegal immigrants in the country after California. Yet, this was certainly not its most surprising finding. Contrary to the stereotypical images of undocumented immigrants, the journalist reported that the three major groups of illegal immigrants in the state came from Ecuador, Italy, and Poland, in that order.  Illegal immigration from Europe remains a little study phenomenon, and many Americans continue to hold the notion that all illegal aliens were (and are) Asian or Hispanic. As my paper shows, the rise of illegal immigration from Europe dates back to the beginning of the twentieth century and coexisted with the contemporary Mexican and Chinese undocumented immigration movements to this country.

More specifically, this paper traces the emergence of illegal immigration from Italy in response to the ratification of the 1921 and 1929 Quota Acts. Many Italians left Italy to enter the United States illegally while Congress debated the passing of more restrictive immigration laws targeted at Southern Europeans. They entered the country through Cuba, Canada, or Mexico; pretended to be seamen; or arrived on tourist and student visas never to leave again. The illegal immigration of Italians became a lucrative business for those involved in their smuggling, forced both the American and the Italian governments to deal with unexpected consequences of the new American immigration policy, and left illegal Italian immigrants in the United States on precarious footing in their new communities.