THE IMMIGRANT
228. =The Immigrant Problem.=--An increasing proportion of the city's
population is foreign born or of foreign parentage. For a hundred
years America has been the goal of the European peasant's ambition,
the magnet that has drawn him from interior hamlet and ocean port.
Migration has been one of the mighty forces that have been reshaping
society. The American people are being altered by it, and it is a
question whether America will maintain its national characteristics if
the volume of immigration continues unchecked. Europe has been deeply
affected, and the people who constitute the migrating mass have been
changed most of all. And the end is not yet.
The immigrant constitutes one of the problems of society. Never has
there been in history such a race movement as that which has added to
one nation a population of more than twenty million in a half century.
It is a problem that affects the welfare of races and continents
outside of America, as well as here, and that affects millions yet
unborn, and millions more who might have been born were it not for the
unfavorable changes that have taken place because of the shift in
population. It is a problem that has to do with all phases of group
life--its economic, educational, political, moral, and religious
interests. It is a problem that demands the united wisdom of all who
care for the welfare of humanity in the days to come. The heart of the
problem is first whether the immigrant shall be permitted to crowd
into this country unhindered, or whether sterner barriers shall be
placed in the way of the increasing multitude; secondly, if
restrictions are decided upon what shall be their nature, and whose
interests shall be considered first--those of the immigrant, of the
countries involved, or of world progress as a whole?
The problem can be approached best by considering (1) the history of
immigration, (2) the present facts about immigration, (3) the
tendencies and effects of immigration. Migrations have occurred
everywhere in history, and they are progressing in these days in other
countries besides the United States. Canada is adding thousands every
year, parts of South America are already German or Italian because of
immigration, in lesser numbers emigrants are going to the colonies
that the European nations, especially the English, have located all
over the world. European immigration to North America has been so
prolonged and abundant that it constitutes the particular phenomenon
that most deserves attention. Other nations have fought wars to secure
additional territory for their people; the immigrant occupation of
America has been a peaceful conquest.
229. =The Irish.=--Although the early occupation of this continent was
by immigration from Europe, after the Revolution the increase of
population was almost entirely by natural growth. Large families were
the rule and a hardy people was rapidly gaining the mastery of the
eastern part of the continent. It was not until 1820 that the new
immigration became noticeable and the government took legislative
action to regulate it (1819). Between 1840 and 1880 three distinct
waves of immigration broke on American shores. The first was Irish.
The Irish peasants were starving from a potato famine that extended
over several years in the forties, and they poured by the thousand
into America, the women becoming domestic servants and the men the
unskilled laborers that were needed in the construction camps. They
built roads, dug canals, and laid the first railways. Complaint was
made that they lowered the standards of wages and of living, that
their intemperate, improvident ways tended to complicate the problem
of poverty, and that their Catholic religion made them dangerous, but
they continued to come until the movement reached its climax, in 1851,
when 272,000 passed through the gates of the Atlantic ports. The
Irish-American has become an important element of the population,
especially in the Eastern cities, and has shown special aptitude for
politics and business.
230. =Germans and Scandinavians.=--The Irishman was followed by the
German. He was attracted by-the rich agricultural lands of the Middle
West and the opportunities for education and trade in the towns and
cities. German political agitators who had failed to propagate
democracy in the revolutionary days of 1848 made their way to a place
where they could mould the German-American ideas. While the Irish
settled down in the seaboard towns, the Germans went West, and
constituted one of the solid groups that was to build the future
cosmopolitan nation. The German was followed by the Scandinavian. The
people of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark were increasing in number, but
their rough, cold country could not support them all. As the Norsemen
took to the sea in the ninth century, so the Scandinavian did in the
nineteenth, but this time in a peaceful migration toward the setting
sun. They began coming soon after the Civil War, and by 1882 they
numbered thirteen per cent of the total immigration. They were a
specially valuable asset, for they were industrious agriculturists and
occupied the valuable but unused acres of the Northwest, where they
planted the wheat belt of the United States, learned American ways and
founded American institutions, and have become one of the best strains
in the American blood.
231. =The New Immigrants.=--If the United States could have continued
to receive mainly such people as these from northern Europe, there
would be little cause to complain of the volume of immigration, but
since 1880 the tide has been setting in from southern and eastern
Europe and even from Asia, bringing in large numbers of persons who
are not of allied stock, have been little educated, and do not
understand or fully sympathize with American principles and ideals,
and for the most part are unskilled workmen. These have come in such
enormous numbers as to constitute a real menace and to compel
attention.
TABLE OF IMMIGRATION FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1914
(Races numbering less than 10,000 each are not included)
+--------------------------------------------------------+
| South Italians 251,612 |
| Jews 138,051 |
| Poles 122,657 |
| Germans 79,871 |
| English 51,746 |
| Greeks 45,881 |
| Russians 44,957 |
| North Italians 44,802 |
| Hungarians 44,538 |
| Croatians and Slovenians 37,284 |
| Ruthenians 36,727 |
| Scandinavians 36,053 |
| Irish 33,898 |
| Slovaks 25,819 |
| Roumanians 24,070 |
| Lithuanians 21,584 |
| Scotch 18,997 |
| French 18,166 |
| Bulgarians, Servians, and Montenegrins 15,084 |
| Mexicans 13,089 |
| Finns 12,805 |
| Dutch and Flemings 12,566 |
| Spanish 11,064 |
+--------------------------------------------------------+
232. =Italians and Slavs.=--Most numerous of these are the Italians.
At home they feel the pressure of population, the pinch of small
income, and heavy taxation. Here it costs less to be a citizen and
there are more opportunities for a livelihood. Gangs of Italian
laborers have taken the place of the Irish. Italians have established
themselves in the small trades, and some of them find a place in the
factory. Two-thirds of them are from the country, and they find
opportunity to use their agricultural knowledge as farm laborers. In
California and Louisiana they have established settlements of their
own, and in the East they make a foreign fringe on the outskirts of
suburban towns. North Italy is more progressive than the south and the
qualities of the people are of higher grade, but the bulk of
emigration is from the region of Naples and Sicily. Among the southern
Italians the percentage of illiteracy is high, they have the
reputation of being slippery in business relations, and not a few
anarchists and criminals are found among them. It is not reasonable to
expect that these people will measure up to the level of the steady,
reliable, and hard-working American or north European, especially as
large numbers of them are birds of passage spending the winter in
Italy or going home for a time when business in America is depressed.
Yet the great majority of those who settle here are peaceable,
ambitious, and hard-working men and women.
Alongside the Italian is the Slav. There are so many varieties of him
that he is confusing. He comes from the various provinces of Russia,
from the conglomerate empire of Austro-Hungary, and from the Balkan
states. In physique he is sturdier than the Italian and mentally he is
less excitable and nervous, but he drinks heavily and is often
murderous when not sober. The Slav has come to America to find a place
in the sun. At home he has suffered from political oppression and
poverty; he has had little education of body or mind; he is subject to
his primitive impulses as the west European long ago ceased to be. It
is not easy for America to assimilate large numbers of such backward
peoples, but the Slav is coming at the rate of three hundred thousand
a year. The Slav is depended upon for the hard labor of mine and
foundry, of sugar and oil refineries, and of meat-packing
establishments. Hundreds and thousands are in the coal and iron
regions of Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, and West Virginia. The
Bohemians and Poles more frequently than the others bring their
families with them, and to some extent settle in the rural districts,
but the bulk of the Slavs are men who herd in congested
boarding-houses, move frequently from one industrial centre to
another, and naturally are very slow to become assimilated.
233. =The Jews.=--Of all the races that have found asylum in America
none have felt abroad the heavy hand of oppression more than the Jew.
He has been the world's outcast through nineteen centuries, but in
America he has found freedom to expand. One-fifth of all the Jews are
already in America, and the rate of immigration is not far from
140,000 a year. The immigrant Jews are of different grades, some are
educated and well-to-do, but the masses are poor, and the most recent
immigrants have low ideals of living. Few of those who come settle in
the country districts; the large majority herd in the city tenements
and engage in small trades and manufacturing. Jewish masters are
unmerciful as sweaters, unprincipled as landlords, and disreputable as
white slavers, but no man rises above limitations that others have set
for him like the Jew, and with ambition, ability, and persistence the
race is pushing its way to the front. The young people are eager for
an education, and are often among the keenest pupils in their classes.
Later they make their mark in the professions as well as in business.
The Jew has found a new Canaan in the West.
234. =The Lesser Peoples.=--Besides these great groups that constitute
the bulk of the incoming millions, there are representatives from all
the nations and tribes of Europe. All parts of Great Britain have sent
their people, and from Canada so many have come as almost to
impoverish certain sections. French-Canadians are numerous in the mill
cities of New England. From the Netherlands there has always been a
small contingent. Portugal has sent islanders from the Azores and Cape
Verde. The Finns are here, the Lithuanians from Russia, the Magyars
from Hungary. The Greeks are pouring in from their sunny hills and
valleys; they rival the Italians in the fruit trade, and monopolize
the bootblack industry in certain cities. With the twentieth century
have come the Turks and their Asiatic subjects, the Syrians and the
Armenians. All these peoples have race peculiarities, prejudices, and
superstitions. Most of their members belong in the lower grades of
society and their coming is a distinct danger to the nation's future.
There can be no question, of course, that individuals among them
possess ability and even talent, and that certain groups like those
from Great Britain and the Netherlands are exceptions to the general
rule, but there is a strong conviction among social workers and
students that those who are here should be assimilated before many
more arrive. Definite measures are advocated by which it is expected
that the government or private agencies may be able to make over these
latest aliens into reputable, useful American citizens.
235. =Public Attitude toward Immigration.=--Although interest in
national and immigrant welfare is far less keen than it well might be,
the tremendous consequences of the wide-spread movement have not
passed unnoticed. Wage-earners already here have felt the effects of
low-grade competition and have clamored for restrictive legislation.
On race rather than economic grounds Asiatics have been excluded
except for the few already here. Federal regulation has been increased
with reference to all immigrant traffic. This has been based
increasingly on investigation by private effort and government
commission, and governments and churches have established bureaus on
immigration. Aid associations maintain agents to safeguard the
newcomer from exploitation, both on the journey and in port. From all
these sources a body of information has been gathered that throws
light on the causes and effects of immigration.
236. =Causes and Effects.=--The primary cause is industrial. The
desire of the people to improve their economic and social condition is
the compelling motive that drives them, in spite of homesickness and
ignorance, to venture into an unknown country and to face dangers and
difficulties that could not be foreseen. Three out of four who come
are males, pioneers oftentimes of a family that looks forward to a
larger migration later on. Friends on this side encourage others and
commonly supply the necessary funds. Eighty per cent of all who come
into Massachusetts make the venture in hope of finding better
industrial conditions or to join relatives or friends. In some
countries, like Russia, religious and political oppression are
expelling causes, and the military service required by the European
Powers drives young men away. It has been demonstrated that forty per
cent of the immigration is not permanent, but that for various reasons
individuals return for a season, some permanently.
Immigration has its good and bad effects. There are certain good
qualities in many of the immigrant strains that are valuable to
American character, and it cannot be denied that the exploitation of
national resources and the execution of public works could not have
been accomplished so rapidly without the immigrant. But the bad
effects furnish a problem that is not easily solved. Immigrants come
now in such large numbers that they tend to form alien groups of
increasing proportions in the midst of the great cities. There is
danger that the city will become a collection of districts--little
Italy, little Hungary, and little Syria--and the sense of civic unity
be destroyed. Even more significant is the high birth-rate of the
foreigner. Statistics show that with the greater birth-rate of the
immigrants there is a corresponding decline in the native birth-rate,
so that the alien is supplanting the native American stock. Along with
race degeneracy goes lack of industrial skill and declining wages, for
the foreigner is ignorant, often unorganized, and willing to work and
live under worse conditions than the native American. Among the
disastrous social effects are increasing poverty and crime, lack of
sanitation, and an increase of diseases that thrive in filth.
Illiteracy and slow mentality lower the general level of intelligence.
Lack of training in democracy renders the average immigrant a poor
citizen, though some State laws give him the ballot without delay. In
morals and religion there is more loss than gain by immigration.
American liberty tends to become license, scores of thousands lose all
interest in the church, and moral restraint is thrown off with the
ecclesiastical yoke. Plainly when the immigrant population is
predominant in a great city the problem of immigration becomes vital
not only to the local municipality but also to the nation, which is
fast becoming urban.
237. =Americanizing the Alien.=--After all is said, the immigrant
problem is not insoluble. There is much in the situation to make one
optimistic. Thus far the native stock has been able to survive and to
give its best to the newcomer. The immigrant himself has no desire to
destroy American institutions. He comes longing to share in their
benefits. America is to him an Eldorado, a promised land flowing with
milk and honey. His children, through the schools and other contacts,
learn the language that his tongue is slow to acquire, and absorb the
ideas and ideals that are typically American. After all, it is the
spirit rather than the form of the institutions that make them
valuable. The upper-class American, who is too indifferent to go to
the polls on election day, is less patriotic and more harmful to
American institutions than the Italian who is too ignorant to vote,
but would die on the battle-field for the defense of his adopted
country. Many agencies are at work to help the alien adjust himself to
American ways and to make him into a good citizen. In the last resort
the Americanization of the foreigner rests with the attitude of the
native American toward him rather than with the immigrant himself.
READING REFERENCES
ROSS: _The Old World in the New_, pages 24-304.
FAIRCHILD: _Immigration_, pages 213-368.
COMMONS: _Races and Immigrants in America_, pages 198-238.
ROBERTS: _The New Immigration._
JENKS AND LAUCK: _Immigration._
WOODS: _Americans in Process._
WILLIS: "Findings of the Immigration Commission," art. in _The
Survey_, 25: 571-578.