THE CAUSES OF IMMIGRATION
There are two things which the student of sociological problems—like
every other scientist—wishes to know about the phenomena which fall
within his field. These are the causes and the effects. Hitherto we have
said a good deal about the causes of immigration and very little about
the effects. In truth, it is much simpler to predicate causes of such a
movement than effects. The causes lie in the past; the effects are
largely a matter of the future. It is possible to state with a fair
degree of certainty what are the causes of the modern immigration to the
United States. The reader will have already formed a general idea from
the examples of the new immigration which we have given.
In general the causes of our recent and present immigration may be
divided into two classes, the natural and the artificial. Most of what
has been said thus far refers to the former; the latter has been merely
hinted at. Another distinction which is often helpful is that between
the permanent or predisposing causes, and the temporary or immediate
causes. It frequently happens that in a given country there are
conditions of long standing—perhaps inherent in the character of the
country itself—which make life hard and disagreeable for the resident.
Yet no immigration takes place until some relatively trivial event, of a
temporary nature, occurs, which serves as the final impulse to
emigration. To the superficial view this temporary event appears as the
cause of emigration, when in point of fact its weight in the total
amount of dissatisfactions is insignificant.[121] The natural causes of
immigration at the present time lie primarily in the superiority of the
economic conditions in the United States over those in the countries
from which the immigrants come. Modern immigration is essentially an
economic phenomenon. Religious and political causes have played the
leading part in the past, and still enter in as contributory factors in
many cases. But the one prevailing reason why the immigrant of to-day
leaves his native village is that he is dissatisfied with his economic
lot, as compared with what it might be in the new world. The European
peasant comes to America because he can—or believes he can—secure a
greater return in material welfare for the amount of labor expended in
this country than in his home land. This fact is recognized by
practically all careful students of the subject, and is frequently
emphasized in the recent report of the Immigration Commission. It is
worthy of notice, also, that the changes which affect the volume of the
immigration current, and cause those repeated fluctuations which we have
observed, are changes in the economic situation in this country, rather
than in the countries of source. A period of good times in this country
attracts large numbers of immigrants by promising large rewards for
labor; an industrial depression checks the incoming current, and sends
away many of those who are here. This is probably accounted for by the
fact that economic conditions in this country are subject to greater
oscillations than in European countries which are relatively static,
rather than dynamic. An example of the opposite condition is furnished
by the Irish emigration of the middle of the nineteenth century, when a
great economic disaster in the country of source occasioned a large
increase in emigration. This relation between the economic situation in
this country and the volume of immigration has been worked out
statistically by Professor Commons, and is presented in graphic form in
a table in his book, _Races and Immigrants in America_ (opposite page
64). In this table he takes imports as an index of the prosperity of the
United States and shows how closely the curve representing immigration
follows the curve of imports per capita. If he could have taken account
of the departing aliens as well, the showing would probably have been
still more striking.
The search for the reasons for this economic superiority of the United
States involves an investigation too complicated and extensive to be
undertaken in the present connection. There are two factors, however,
which may be pointed out, which, at the beginning of our national life,
gave us an advantage possessed by no other modern nation. The first of
these was the small ratio between men and land, which we have commented
on before. The territory of the United States was a vast, newly
discovered region, with untold natural resources and every advantage of
climate and configuration, inhabited by a mere handful of settlers, at a
time when the nations of Europe had long since struck a balance between
population and land, on the customary standard of living. The countries
of Europe have also profited, it is true, by the opening up of this
great new world. But their benefit has been transmitted and indirect,
while the American people have been the direct and immediate recipients
of this great advantage. The importance of this factor can hardly be
overestimated.
The second of these great factors is the character of the American
people themselves. We have seen that this was well formed and
distinctive at the time of the Revolution. The early settlers of the
North American continent were in many respects a picked body, taken from
the best of the populations of Europe. Their descendants were also
subjected to the stern selective processes of the struggle with, and
conquest of, the wilderness, and the establishment of their own economic
and political independence. As a result, the American people at the
beginning of our national life had certain qualities both of physical
and intellectual character,—hardihood, enterprise, daring, independence,
love of freedom, perseverance, etc.,—which set them apart from any of
their contemporaries.
It has been the combination of these two factors—a unique people in a
rich virgin land—which, more than anything else, has accounted for the
eminent position attained by the American nation in the economic life of
the world. Many other circumstances have doubtless contributed to the
result, but they would have been powerless to accomplish the end,
without these two essential prerequisites. With the disappearance of
these two distinguishing features the United States will begin to lose
her position of economic superiority.
The statement made in a previous paragraph, that the immigrant comes to
America because he can—or believes he can—better his economic lot by so
doing, suggested that great class of causes which we have called the
artificial. The advantages of the economic life in the United States all
too frequently exist, not in fact, but in the mind of the prospective
emigrant. And this belief is equally potent in stirring up emigration,
whether it is grounded on fact or not. There are hosts of immigrants
passing through the portals of Ellis Island every year whose venture is
based on a sad misconception. There are also countless numbers who would
never have engaged in the undertaking had not the idea of doing so been
forcibly and persistently instilled into their minds by some outside
agency. In other words, a very large part of our present immigration is
not spontaneous and due to natural causes, but is artificial and
stimulated. This stimulation consists in creating the desire and
determination to migrate, by inducing dissatisfaction with existing
conditions as compared with what the new world has to offer. Its source
is in some interested person or agency whose motive may, or may not, be
selfish.
There are three principal sources from which this stimulation or
encouragement to immigration emanates—the transportation companies, the
labor agents, and the previous immigrants. The motive of the first two
is an economic and wholly selfish one; that of the latter may or may not
be selfish.
The carrying of immigrants from Europe to America is a very vast and
lucrative business. The customary charge for steerage passage averages
at least $30, and as the large immigrant ships carry 2000 or more
steerage passengers there is a possibility of receiving as much as
$60,000 from steerage passengers on a single voyage. It is, furthermore,
a business which can be almost indefinitely expanded by vigorous
pushing. A skillful agent can induce almost any number of the simple and
credulous peasants of a backward European country to emigrate, who had
scarcely had such an idea in their heads before. Consequently it pays
the transportation companies to have an immense army of such agents,
continually working over the field, and opening up new territory. The
motive is not so much rivalry for a given amount of business between the
different companies; a mutual agreement between different lines or
groups of lines, dividing up the territory from which they shall draw
their steerage passengers, practically precludes this.[122] It is rather
the possibility of actually creating new business by energetic
canvassing.
It is obvious that the activity of these agents may be of the most
pernicious nature. The welfare of the immigrant, or the benefit of
either country concerned, are of no concern to them. Their sole aim is
to get business. So long as the immigrant has the wherewithal to pay his
passage, it matters not to them where he got it, nor are they deterred
by any doubts as to the fitness of the immigrant for American life, or
of the probability of his success there. In fact, it is claimed that the
steamship companies prefer a class of immigrants which is likely,
eventually, to return to the old country, as this creates a traffic
going the other way. The only checks to their operations are such as are
imposed by their own scruples, and the possession of too many of these
does not help a man to qualify for the position of agent.
The methods used by these agents to encourage emigration are most
ingenious and insidious. Every possible means is used to make the
peasant dissatisfied with his present lot, and to impress him with the
glories and joys of life in America. Many, perhaps the majority, of the
agents are themselves returned immigrants, who give glittering accounts
of their experiences in America, and display gold watches, diamond pins,
and various other proofs of their prosperity. The methods of to-day are
not quite so crude and bizarre as they used to be. The stories of the
richness of America and the ease of life there which used to be current
were so overdrawn as to undeceive any but the most ignorant and
gullible. Immigrants have left for America expecting to be able to pick
up unlimited dollars lying loose in the streets, and stories are told of
steerage passengers who threw away the cooking utensils they had brought
with them, as the vessel neared New York, supposing that they could get
a new lot for nothing as soon as they landed. A better knowledge of
actual conditions in America, which now prevails in most European
countries, has precluded the continued circulation of such fictions as
these. In fact, if there were not real advantages in the United States,
and many cases of successful emigrants, the agents would not be able to
operate successfully for an indefinite time. But as yet there does exist
a sufficient difference between conditions in the new world and in the
old to give them a basis of truth, which they may embellish as occasion
demands. Many of these agents make a practice of advancing money to the
emigrants to pay for their passage, taking a mortgage on their property
for an amount far in advance of that actually furnished. These debts are
met with a strange faithfulness by the immigrants, even when they have
been woefully deceived and cheated. In Greece it is asserted that the
agents work through the priests, and thus largely increase their
influence.[123]
Immigration which is inspired by such stimulation as this is far from
being so desirable as that which is natural and spontaneous. It follows
no natural laws, and responds to no economic demand in this country. It
is likely to be of injury rather than of benefit to the United States,
and works untold injustice to the immigrants. It is regarded as
pernicious by all fair-minded observers, and the United States
government has made serious efforts to check it. This is the purpose of
the clause in the immigration law limiting the nature of solicitation
that may be done by transportation lines. The solicitation of
immigration is no new thing. Hale, in his _Letters on Irish
Immigration_, written in 1851–1852, said that competition between the
different lines of packets and different shipping houses had made the
means of emigration familiar in the remotest corners of Ireland, and
that advertising was fully utilized. Professor Mayo-Smith in 1892 wrote
that the Inman Steamship Company had 3500 agents in Europe and an equal
number in the United States selling prepaid tickets. In Switzerland in
1885 there were 400 licensed emigration agents.[124] The laws passed
since then have forced the agents to proceed more cautiously, and
conceal their activities. They have not put a stop to their operations.
These emigration agents are by no means all accredited representatives
of the steamship lines over which they send their recruits. There are,
to be sure, plenty of official agents of the various transportation
companies, who are openly acknowledged as such. The region around the
harbor, in many of the Mediterranean seaports, is thronged with
steamship ticket offices, often flying the American flag, and with
emigration agencies, and the line between the two is frequently very
difficult to draw. But the traveling agents, or “runners,” are often
free lances as far as appearances go. It is very hard to establish any
connection between them and any transportation company. Yet all who have
investigated the subject are convinced that there is a close
understanding and coöperation between the two, even if there is no
official relation. It is contrary to human nature, when so much money is
to be made by such canvassing, and there are plenty of people ready to
do it, that the transportation companies should neglect the opportunity.
On this subject the Immigration Commission says, “It does not appear
that the steamship lines as a rule openly direct the operations of these
agents, but the existence of the propaganda is a matter of common
knowledge in the emigrant-furnishing countries, and, it is fair to
assume, is acquiesced in, if not stimulated, by the steamship lines as
well.”[125]
The Commissioner General of Immigration is much more emphatic in his
statements. The report for 1909 contains the following passages (p.
112): “The promoter is usually a steamship ticket agent, employed on a
commission basis, or a professional money lender, or a combination of
the two.... He is employed by the steamship lines, large and small,
without scruple, and to the enormous profit of such lines.... To say
that the steamship lines are responsible, directly or indirectly, for
this unnatural immigration is not the statement of a theory, but of a
fact, and of a fact that sometimes becomes, indeed, if it is not always,
a crying shame.... [Referring to Contract Labor Inspector John
Gruenberg] He shows quite clearly that all of the steamship lines
engaged in bringing aliens from Europe to this country have persistently
and systematically violated the law, both in its letter and spirit, by
making use of every possible means to encourage the peasants of Europe
to purchase tickets over their lines to this country. They have issued
circulars and advertisements, and made use of extensive correspondence,
through their own agents in this country and in Europe.”
The law referred to is Section 7 of the Act of 1907, repeating in
substance Section 4, Act of 1891 (p. 111). The ease and persistency with
which this provision, carefully worded as it is, is violated, furnishes
a striking example of the difficulty of passing statutes which shall be
capable of enforcement, especially in foreign countries, to put a stop
to practices which are universally conceded to be undesirable.
The second great source of stimulation to emigration is the labor agent.
His operations are extensive and diversified, and always in direct
violation of the contract labor law. That section of the immigration
statutes, as previously pointed out, is so sweepingly drawn as to make
any immigrant, not in the excepted classes, who has received the
slightest intimation that there is work awaiting him in this country, a
violator of the law. But the economic advantage to employers in this
country of importing European labor under contract to perform services
in the United States at much less than the market rate of wages, is so
great, that, as in the previous case, human nature cannot resist the
temptation, provided the chances of escaping detection are sufficiently
good. And this part of the law, like that relating to advertising, is of
such a nature as to make it susceptible of continued and extensive
evasion by unscrupulous persons, possessed of such skill and craftiness
as characterize the typical contract labor agent. While there is no way
of estimating the extent of this practice, there is no doubt that only a
very small proportion of the present immigration, from the Mediterranean
countries at least, is innocent of the letter of the law, strictly
interpreted. This is not to say that they are under actual contract to
labor, but that their coming has been encouraged by some sort of
intimation that there would be work awaiting them.
By a recent opinion of the Attorney-General, two essential points have
been laid down in the construction of the contract labor laws, as
follows:
“(1) That they ‘prohibit any offer or promise of employment which is of
such a definite character that an acceptance thereof would constitute a
contract.’
“(2) That the prohibition to encourage the immigration of an alien by a
promise of employment is ‘directed against a promise which specially
designates the particular job or work or employment for which the
alien’s labor is desired.’”[126]
Even under this somewhat liberal interpretation of the laws, wholesale
violations undoubtedly go on. In the words of the Immigration
Commission, “In this way hundreds of immigrants are annually debarred at
United States ports as contract laborers, while doubtless hundreds of
thousands more are admitted who have practically definite assurances as
to the place and nature of their employment in this country.”
A fuller description of contract labor in general, and of that
particular form of it which is known as the padrone system, will be
given in another connection. The point to be emphasized here is that it
operates as one of the great causes of our present immigration, and that
it continues to exert a powerful, and probably increasing, influence, in
spite of all the efforts of the legislators and officials of the United
States to check it.
The third source of stimulation to emigration is the earlier immigrant
himself. He is probably the greatest factor of all in induced
immigration, and his influence is utilized in various ways by both
emigration agents and labor agents, and made to contribute to the
success of their efforts.
Every stream of immigration must have its origin in some few
individuals, who, the first of their region, break the ties of home and
fatherland, and go to seek their fortune in a new and far-away land.
Upon their success depends the question whether others from the same
district shall follow in their footsteps. If they fail in their venture,
it serves as a discouraging factor as respects further emigration from
that region. But if they succeed, and win a position which makes them
envied in the eyes of their fellow-countrymen, it furnishes a powerful
stimulus to further emigration. Sooner or later, there will be some who
succeed from every region, and the example of a few successful ones is
likely to far outweigh numerous failures. Something like this is going
on in countless remote districts of the south European countries, and
has gone on for decades in every country which has sent us numbers of
immigrants.
Take a typical example. Some Slav peasant, in a little village of
Austria-Hungary, of a more ambitious and adventurous disposition than
most of his fellows, hears of the opportunities in America, and being
dissatisfied with his present lot, decides to try his fortune in the new
world. His first “job” is in a mine in some small town of Pennsylvania.
Accustomed as he is to a low standard of living, he is able to save a
considerable part of the wages which seem munificent to him. From time
to time he writes letters home, telling of his prosperity. Eventually he
saves up enough to purchase a little store or saloon. Of course there
will be a letter telling about that. These letters are wonderful
documents in the eyes of his friends and relatives at home.
Correspondence does not flourish in these regions, and the receipt of
any letter is a matter of great importance. The arrival of a message
from across the sea creates an impression which it is almost impossible
for an American to comprehend. The precious missive is read aloud in the
coffee-houses, and passed from hand to hand throughout the village. It
may even travel to neighboring hamlets, and make its impression there.
The neighbor in America, and his career, become the foremost topic of
conversation for miles around.
In time all this has its effect. A small group of the original
emigrant’s former neighbors resolve to try their luck too. The most
natural thing, of course, is for them to go to the place where their
friend is. He helps them to find work, tides them over difficulties, and
in various ways makes their life easier and simpler than his had been.
Each of these newcomers also writes letters home, which go through the
same round, and add to the growing knowledge of America, and the
discontent with European life in comparison. Once started, the movement
grows with great rapidity, and the letters from America increase in
geometrical proportion. Other nuclei start up in other places, recruits
are drawn from more distant villages, and the first little trickling
stream becomes a swelling tide.
This is what has come to be known as the chain-letter system. Multiplied
by hundreds of thousands, the foregoing example serves to illustrate the
irresistible network of communications which is drawing the peasants of
Europe to every part of the United States. This is recognized by all
authorities as probably the most powerful single factor in stirring up
emigration from such countries as Italy, Austria-Hungary, Greece,
Bulgaria, etc. Its effect has been graphically described by a Greek
writer in the following words:
“‘Such a one, from such a village, sent home so many dollars within a
year,’ is heard in some village or city, and this news, passed like
lightning from village to village and from city to city, and magnified
from mouth to mouth, causes the farmer to forsake his plow, the shepherd
to sell his sheep, the mechanic to throw away his tools, the
small-grocer to break up his store, the teacher to forsake his rostrum,
and all to hasten to provide passage money, so that they may embark, if
possible, on the first ship for America, and gather up the dollars in
the streets before they are all gone.”[127]
This is a perfectly natural influence, and obviously beyond the power of
any legislation to check, even if that were desirable. When inspired
merely by a friendly interest in the home neighbors, a desire to keep in
touch with them, and a little personal vanity, it is probably the most
harmless of any of the forms of stimulation. When, as all too frequently
happens, the underlying motive is sinister and selfish, it becomes a
source of the greatest deceit and injustice.
When the pioneer emigrant returns to his native village, after some
years of prosperous life in America, his influence and importance are
unbounded. He becomes in truth the “observed of all observers.” Groups
of interested listeners and questioners gather round him wherever he
goes, and hang on his words in breathless awe. His fine, strange
clothes, his sparkling jewelry and gold watch, his easy, worldly
manners, all arouse the greatest admiration. He has to tell over and
over again the story of his career, and describe the wonders of that
far-away land. If such a one is returning to the United States, it takes
no urging on his part to induce a number of his countrymen to accompany
him; they are fairly clinging to the skirts of his garments, to be taken
back. Even if he has come home to remain, his constant example is there
to inspire the youth of the village to follow in his path. So the “visit
home” and the “returned immigrant” add their weight to the influence of
the stream of letters. How universal this condition has become is
evidenced by the fact that in 1909 only 6.3 per cent of all the
immigrants admitted to the United States were not going to join either
relatives or friends, according to their statement; in 1910 the
percentage was only 4.9. In 1912 it rose to 7.5. About six times as many
go to join relatives as friends.
Many of the letters from America contain remittances from the immigrants
to their friends and relatives at home. Often these remittances take the
form of prepaid tickets,[128] complete from some European center or port
to the city in America, where the sender is waiting. Then their
influence is absolutely irresistible. The transportation companies make
every effort to make the passage as simple as possible, and railroad
companies in this country make special immigrant rates, to be used in
connection with such tickets. A large part of the induced immigration of
the present day is also assisted immigration. It is a perfectly natural
thing that an immigrant in this country should wish to be joined by
certain of his relatives on the other side, and, if he is able, should
send them the means to come. This has always been done. In the middle of
the nineteenth century E. E. Hale wrote that a large part of the letters
from Irish to their friends in this country consisted in acknowledgments
of remittances, and requests for more. The remittances in 1850 are said
to have amounted to about four and one half million dollars. Prepaid
tickets were also in use at that date. It is manifestly impossible to
estimate correctly the extent of this business at the present time.
According to the official reports, in 1910, 72.5 per cent of the
immigrants had paid for their own tickets, 26.5 per cent had their
tickets paid for by a relative, and 1 per cent by some one other than
self or relative. But this showing rests solely upon the immigrant’s own
statement, and is undoubtedly an underestimate. The suspicion of
immigrants whose passage is paid for them, which characterizes our law,
leads many to practice deceit in this matter. For instance, it is almost
impossible to believe that all but 5.4 per cent of the Greeks had paid
their own passage. An examination of the figures shows that there is a
larger proportion of passages paid by some one besides the immigrant
among the old immigration than among the new. This is explained by the
fact that the old immigration has more of a family character, and that
immigrants are sending for wives and children. This can be understood
only by comparison with the sex and age tables.[129]
Even when these remittances are not in the form of prepaid tickets, nor
are even intended to pay passage in any way, they exert a powerful
influence in stirring up immigration, through the tangible evidence
which they furnish of American possibilities. There could be no stronger
proof of the success of immigrants in the United States than the
constant stream of gold which is flowing from this country to Europe.
For the sake of clearness, these different forms of stimulation have
been discussed separately. In practice, they overlap and combine in a
variety of complicated relations. The emigration agent is often himself
a returned immigrant; if not, he utilizes all the influences which arise
from the letters, visits, and remittances of actual immigrants to
further his ends. The letters from America are often misleading or
spurious, used by labor agents in this country to entice others to come.
The prepaid ticket is susceptible of a wide variety of uses. Assistance
to emigrants is often furnished, not by well-disposed friends and
relatives, but by loan-sharks, whose motives are wholly selfish, and
whose sole aim is to secure usurious rates of interest for sums
advanced, which are amply protected by mortgages.
As a result of this complex of motives and forces, America has become a
household word even to the remote corners of Europe, and he who wishes,
for any reason, to stir up emigration from any region finds a fertile
field already prepared for him. It is amazing to find how much an
ignorant Greek peasant knows about conditions in America. The economic
situation is, of course, the prime interest. But there is also a good
fund of information about social and political subjects. There are of
course many misconceptions and errors, but it is evident that the lines
of communication between the European village and the American city are
very well established. Similar conditions prevail in all the
immigrant-furnishing countries.
It is impossible to say to just what extent our present immigration
ought to be classified as induced. It is probable that only a very small
part of the total immigration is wholly free from stimulation to some
degree. Certain it is that a very large proportion of it is thoroughly
artificial and induced. The getting of immigrants is now a thoroughly
developed system, planned to serve the needs of every form of interest
which might profit thereby.[130] As to the quality of such immigration,
something has already been said. There is evidently nothing about the
immigrants themselves, or the way in which they are secured, that serves
as a guarantee of their serviceability or value to this country; as to
their own prospects, we can do no better in closing this chapter than to
quote the words of the Commissioner General; these various operations
“often result in placing upon our shores large numbers of aliens who, if
the facts were only known at the time, are worse than destitute, are
burdened with obligations to which they and all their relatives are
parties,—debts secured with mortgages on such small holdings as they and
their relatives possess, and on which usurious interest must be paid.
Pitiable indeed is their condition, and pitiable it must remain unless
good fortune accompanies the alien while he is struggling to exist and
is denying himself the necessaries of decent living in order to clear
himself of the incubus of accumulated debt. If he secures and retains
employment at fair wages, escapes the wiles of that large class of
aliens living here who prey upon their ignorant compatriots, and retains
his health under often adverse circumstances, all may terminate well for
him and his; if he does not, disaster is the result to him and
them.”[131]