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1920, as immigration hit its peak. For four decades after 1890, an annual
average of 580,000 immigrants arrived on American shores, and 1907 set a
record of 1.3 million newcomers in a single year. On the eve of World War I,
the foreign-born had swollen to 15% of the US population.
The character of immigration also changed with the Third Wave. Whereas in 1880,
87% of immigrants had been from Northwestern Europe (the British Isles, Germany,
and Scandinavia), by 1900, over 80% were from Southern and Eastern Europe (Italy,
Russia, Austro-Hungary). The size and greater cultural diversity of the Third Wave
would give rise to a great new Xenophobia (fear and hatred of foreigners) that
would slam the door to new arrivals in the 1920s
Factors that drove Southern and Eastern Europeans to leave their native
countries: