The Open Door policy and immigration to 1928Ethnic groups in the USA 1918

At the end of the First World War there were many identifiable groups who made up the majority of American society:

• White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (also called WASPs or ‘old immigrants’)
• New immigrants
• Black Americans
• Native Americans
• Asians
• Hispanics

White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

This was the first immigrant group to settle in America in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.

WASPs originally came from northern Europe, especially from Britain, Ireland, Germany and Scandinavia.

They were attracted by the promise of higher wages, better housing and assisted passage schemes.

Many of these old immigrants were skilled and often had family already living in America who had arranged jobs and housing for them.