quota system

American  

noun

1. a system, originally determined by legislation in 1921, of limiting by nationality the number of immigrants who may enter the U.S. each year.

2. a policy of limiting the number of minority group members in a business firm, school, etc.

3. any hiring or admissions policy requiring that a specified number or percentage of minority group members be hired or admitted.

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Etymology

Origin of quota system

First recorded in 1920–25

Example Sentences

A helpful program note by dramaturg Adrian Trujillo Centeno explains that the law eliminated “the national origins quota system that had favored Northern and Western Europeans since the 1920s.”

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 5, 2025

At least 25 percent of parliamentary seats must go to women, according to the quota system that also reserves nine seats for minorities.

From Barron's • Nov. 3, 2025

Execution risks remain, as does uncertainty surrounding the U.S. tariff quota system, Deutsche adds.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 31, 2025

That year also witnessed the death of 85-year-old former Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins and the passage of the Hart-Celler Immigration Act that abolished the xenophobic quota system put in place in the 1920s.

From Slate • Jan. 26, 2025

The quota system has worked for over two hundred years, and although it fluctuates region to region, it makes it crystal clear what each scythe’s responsibility to the world is.

From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman