<P> Prior to the passage of the Immigration Act of 1882, the United States Congress had passed two significant acts regarding immigration . The first was the Page Act of 1875, which restricted the immigration of forced laborers coming from Asia . This had a major effect on the immigration of Asian indentured workers and women; specifically women presumed to be immigrating to work as prostitutes . The second was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 . This act halted all legal immigration of Chinese laborers and is considered by many to be the first major exclusionary immigration restriction on an entire nationality enacted by the United States . While both of these acts resulted from public fear of the Chinese influence in the labor market and the economy, they also derived from simple prejudice and the public perception of these immigrants' inability to assimilate into American culture . </P> <P> During the same time that America immigration was restricting Asian (specifically Chinese) immigration, many also criticized the influx of European immigrants--later referred to as the "Great Wave"--coming to the United States . As Europe's urban industrialization was changing the demographic landscape of life in many European cities, millions looked to immigrate in order to find opportunity in America . Calling it the "most massive of all human migrations to date," scholar Otis . L. Graham reported that almost "27 million immigrants settled in the United States between 1880 and 1930". Furthermore, as explained in Debating American Immigration: 1882--Present, Roger Daniels explained how "great growth in the volume of immigration in the Gilded Age made some kind of organized administration necessary". This need and call for an "organized administration" would later be somewhat realized in the administrative outcomes of the Immigration Act of 1882 . </P> <P> While the Immigration Act of 1882 shared the principle of immigration restriction with the two aforementioned acts, it was different in a fundamental way . Unlike the Chinese Exclusion act, the Immigration Act of 1882 would not limit all immigration from a certain country or region . Certain European immigrants were considered extremely desirable, so to limit by region would deny desirable immigrants as well . Instead, to limit immigration based on excluding certain kinds of people who were deemed "undesirable", there needed to be a piece of legislation capable of adhering to a more comprehensive, exclusionary approach that would be administered through a federal government agency with federal policy . </P> <P> On August 3, 1882, the forty - seventh United States Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1882 . It is considered by many to be "first general immigration law" due to the fact that it created the guidelines of exclusion through the creation of "a new category of inadmissible aliens ." </P>

What changes to immigration to the us took place in the 1880s and 1890s