Which of the following groups was most affected by the immigration quotas of the 1920s?

The immigration quotas of the 1920s were established primarily through the Emergency Quota Act of 1921 and the Immigration Act of 1924. These laws were designed to limit the number of immigrants allowed into the United States, and they used a national origins formula that favored immigrants from northern and western Europe while severely restricting those from southern and eastern Europe.

Immigrants from southern and eastern Europe faced significant limitations under these quotas. The quota system set immigration limits based on the percentage of each nationality present in the United States as of the 1890 census. Since there were fewer people from southern and eastern Europe already living in the U.S. at that time, the quotas allowed in a very small number from these regions compared to those from northern and western Europe.

As a result, groups such as Italians, Poles, Russians, and others from southern and eastern Europe were disproportionately affected. They experienced considerable barriers in their attempts to immigrate to the United States during this period, which reflected the nativist sentiments of the time and aimed to maintain the demographic composition of the country as it was perceived by lawmakers.