History /
POLAND: EASTERN or CENTRAL European country? [1080]
The term "Eastern Europe" wasn't that much in use I suppose. It's mostly a product of the Cold war.
Immigration Act of 1924
Congressional opposition was minimal.
Proponents of the Act sought to establish a distinct American identity by favoring native-born Americans over Southern and Eastern Europeans in order to "maintain the racial preponderance of the basic strain on our people and thereby to stabilize the ethnic composition of the population".[6][7] Reed told the Senate that earlier legislation "disregards entirely those of us who are interested in keeping American stock up to the highest standard - that is, the people who were born here".[8] Southern and Eastern Europeans, he believed, arrive sick and starving and therefore less capable of contributing to the American economy, and unable to adapt to American culture.[6]
So restrictive were the new quotas for immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe, that in 1924 there were more Italians, Czechs, Yugoslavs, Greeks, Lithuanians, Hungarians, Poles, Portuguese, Romanians, Spaniards, Chinese, and Japanese that left the United States than those who arrived as immigrants.[16]
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_Act_of_1924
From this it is clearly seen that in the beginning of 20-th century Poles and Czecs were regarded as Eastern europeans, secondary people to ``American identity``.
