Jewish Immigration to the United States from 1881 to 1910 Part 10

The division of the peoples represented in the immigration to the United States into "old" and "new", the former consisting of the peoples from Northern and Western Europe, the latter of the peoples from Southern and Eastern Europe, is a convenient cla.s.sification essentially of two periods of immigration coinciding largely with changes in the economic conditions in the United States.

A comparison of the proportion of females and children in the "old"

and the "new" immigration with that in the Jewish shows that the Jewish immigration has proportionately almost twice as many females as the "new" immigration (Jews excepted), and surpa.s.ses even the "old"

immigration in this regard.[107] Of children under fourteen the Jewish movement has proportionately more than two and one-half times as many as the "new" immigration (Jews excepted), and nearly twice as many as the "old" immigration.

This a.n.a.lysis shows conclusively that the Jewish immigration is essentially a family movement; that it is approached by no other immigrant people in this regard; that it not only cannot be cla.s.sed with the "new" immigration, but shows a tendency towards family movement far stronger than that of the peoples composing the "old"

immigration.

The significance of this characteristic of the Jewish immigration is obvious. Their unequaled family movement gives one of the clearest indications that the Jewish immigrants are essentially composed of permanent settlers.

FOOTNOTES:

[94] _Cf._ table x.x.xIII, p. 176.

[95] _Cf._ table x.x.xIV, p. 176.

[96] _Cf._ table x.x.xV, p. 177.

[97] _Cf._ Hersch, _op. cit._, p. 76.

[98] _Cf._ table x.x.xVI, p. 177.

[99] _Cf._ table x.x.xVII, p. 178.

[100] _Cf. Abstract of Emigration Conditions in Europe_, p. 14. See Bibliography.

[101] _Cf._ table x.x.xVIII, p. 179.

[102] _Cf. Abstract of Emigration Conditions in Europe_, p. 15, for the high proportion of servants among the Irish immigrants.

[103] _Cf._ table x.x.xIX, p. 180.

[104] _Cf._ table XL, p. 181.

[105] _Cf._ table XLI, p. 181. The Roumanian immigrants come princ.i.p.ally from Austria-Hungary, and only slightly from Roumania.

[106] _Cf. supra_, p. 131, note 2.

[107] _Cf._ table XLII, p. 182.

CHAPTER II

PERMANENT SETTLEMENT

Our studies of the s.e.x and age distribution of the Jewish immigrants have shown a family movement unsurpa.s.sed in degree. This in itself is sufficient indication that the Jews are essentially permanent settlers in this country and not transients, "who have no intention of permanently changing their residence and whose only purpose in coming to America is temporarily to take advantage of greater wages paid for industrial labor in this country."[108]

Equally convincing evidence is afforded by a survey of the facts regarding the outward movement of Jews from this country.[109] The figures of Jewish immigration are obtainable only from 1908, the law of 1907 having required all steamship companies to furnish information regarding their emigrant pa.s.sengers.

The relative stability of an immigration may be determined by contrasting the departure of the aliens composing the immigration with the arriving immigrants of this group for the same period. From 1908 to 1912, 33,315 Jews left the United States--an average annual emigration of 6,660 Jews. This is a strikingly low number, especially when compared with the large Jewish immigration for the same period, which numbered 417,016, and averaged annually 83,400 Jewish immigrants. Thus, for every hundred Jews admitted, only eight Jews left the country. This average proportion was largely exceeded only in 1909, not, however, because of any great increase in the absolute numbers of the Jewish emigrants, but because of the great fall in the number of Jewish immigrants of this year.

The part that is taken by the Jewish emigrants in the total emigration is insignificant and is in striking contrast with the great part taken by the Jewish immigrants in the total immigration.[110] From 1908 to 1912, the Jewish immigrants const.i.tuted 9.7 per cent of the total immigrants. In the same period, the Jewish emigrants const.i.tuted only 2.3 per cent of the total emigrants. Moreover, while the proportion that the Jewish immigrants const.i.tuted of the total immigrants exhibited a considerable and significant variation, fluctuating from 7.7 per cent to 13.2 per cent, the proportion the Jewish emigrants const.i.tuted of the total emigrants remained around 2 per cent and showed practically no variation. Relatively both to the number of Jewish immigrants and of total emigrants, therefore, the number of the Jewish emigrants is exceedingly small and practically negligible.

How great the relative stability of the Jewish immigration is may be seen when its return movement is compared with that of the total immigration and of other peoples conspicuous in the immigration to the United States.[111] Whereas, from 1908 to 1910, for every hundred admitted in the total immigration, thirty-two departed--the outward movement thus approximating one-third of the inward--in the case of the Jewish immigration, only eight departed, an outward movement only one-quarter as large, relatively, as the total. This was the smallest outward movement, relatively to the inward, of any immigrant people, except the Irish, whose outward movement was 6 per cent of the inward.

Relatively to the inward movement, the Jews had an outward movement one-seventh as large as the South Italians, almost one-fourth as large as the Poles, and less than one-half as large as the Germans.

In the total immigration for these years, the Jews were the third largest group with 236,100 immigrants, which const.i.tuted 10.2 per cent of the total immigration. To the outward movement for this period, however, they contributed 18,543 Jews, which const.i.tuted only 2.5 per cent of the total number of emigrants, one of the smallest contributions. The Poles, who const.i.tuted 11.7 per cent of the immigration for the three years, contributed practically the same proportion, 11.4 per cent, to the outward movement. Even more striking is the contrast with the Italian movement. The Italians contributed 19.8 per cent of the inward movement for the period and 35.7 per cent of the outward movement for the three years. Though their immigration for these three years was only twice as large as that of the Jews, their emigration was more than fourteen times that of the Jews. In other words, no people combined in an equal degree as the Jews so small a number of emigrants with so large a number of immigrants.

It is interesting to determine what is the emigration tendency of the Jews coming from Russia, Roumania and Austria-Hungary. This may be gathered from the number of emigrants returned for each of these countries, from 1908 to 1912, as compared with the number admitted.[112] From 1908 to 1912, 294,813 Jews from Russia entered the United States and 20,546 Jews departed for Russia; 11,246 Jews from Roumania entered the United States and 546 Jews departed for Roumania; 60,408 Jews from Austria-Hungary entered the United States, and 8,513 Jews departed for Austria-Hungary. In other words, for every hundred Jews entering from Russia seven departed, for every hundred Jews entering from Roumania five Jews departed, for every hundred Jews entering from Austria-Hungary fourteen departed for their respective countries. The emigration tendency was thus smaller with the Roumanian and the Russian Jews than with the Austro-Hungarian Jews. This held true for each of the five years. Relatively twice as many Jews from Austria-Hungary as from Russia returned. The Roumanian Jews showed the smallest tendency to return.

Of importance is the question of the relative stability of the Jewish movement from Russia and Austria-Hungary and that of their close neighbors in these countries, the Poles, who contributed almost as large a current of immigrants to the United States as the Jews, and who, since they const.i.tute the most important Slavic group, may be taken as the type of the Slavic movement to this country.

From 1908 to 1912, 265,964 Polish immigrants from Russia were admitted to the United States and 60,290 Poles departed for Russia, this const.i.tuting an average emigration of twenty-two per hundred admitted.[113] As, for every hundred Russian Jews admitted in this period, only seven departed, this const.i.tuted a relative emigration one-third as large as that of the Poles. For the same period, 214,931 Poles were admitted from Austria-Hungary and 88,994 Poles left for that country, which const.i.tuted an average emigration of forty-one per hundred admitted. The average emigration of the Jews from Austria-Hungary was fourteen per hundred admitted or practically one-third as large as that of the Poles. Thus, the Jewish immigrants from Russia and Austria-Hungary present relatively three times as stable a movement as the Polish immigrants from these countries.

The fact that the Jewish emigration from Galicia was a movement of families and was essentially a movement of permanent settlement in their new home was noted by Buzek as characteristic of this emigration even in the early eighties, and as strongly contrasted with the emigration of the Poles from Galicia.[114]

A comparison of the return movement of the "old" and the "new"

immigration with that of the Jewish immigration gives similar results.[115] For every hundred admitted, there were, in the "new"

immigration, forty-two emigrants, relatively more than five times as many as among the Jews. Even in the "old" immigration, which is largely accepted as the type of permanent immigration, for every hundred admitted, there were thirteen emigrants, about one and a half times as many relatively as among the Jews. The Jewish immigration must thus be accorded the place of distinction in American immigration for permanence of settlement.

An unusual test of this conclusion was afforded by the remarkable emigration following the crisis of 1907.[116] The general opinion that "the causes which r.e.t.a.r.d emigration from abroad also accelerate the exodus from the United States", was considerably strengthened by the great exodus of 1908. To this rule the Jewish immigration forms, again, a most striking exception. Although its number in 1907--149,182 immigrants--was only slightly below its maximum for thirty years, and const.i.tuted the second highest immigration for the year, only 7,702 Jews left the country in 1908. This const.i.tuted only two per cent of the total emigration for that year. Relatively to the number admitted the Jewish emigration was, without exception, the lowest, being only five departed for every hundred admitted. The remarkable disparity in this regard with the Poles and the Italian was again shown here. For every hundred Poles entering in 1907, thirty-three emigrated in 1908.

For every hundred South Italians entering in 1907, sixty emigrated in 1908.

That the business conditions of this country affect Jewish immigration is unquestioned, but the difference in the degree and the manner of the response puts it in a cla.s.s apart. A comparison of the total gain in population in 1908 and 1909 in the immigration of Italians and Jews shows that whereas in the Italian inward and outward movement in 1908 there was a net loss to this country of 79,966, but in 1909 a net gain of 94,806, in the Jewish inward and outward movement in 1908 there was a net gain of 95,685, and in 1909 a net gain of 50,705.[117] The Jewish immigration responds in its inward movement much more slowly and less completely to the pressure of unfavorable conditions in this country. In its outward movement it shows practically no response.

The conclusion that the Jewish immigrants const.i.tute to an unusual degree a body of permanent settlers is strengthened by an examination of the figures concerning immigrants who have been in the United States previously.[118] Of the total from 1899 to 1910 of 9,220,066 immigrants, 1,108,948, or 12 per cent, had been here before. Of the 1,074,442 Jews who entered the country during this period, only 22,914, or 2.1 per cent, had been previously in the United States. The proportion of Jews who have been in this country before is by far the lowest of any immigrant peoples.

As the total Jewish exodus is insignificant as compared both with the total emigration and the proportion of the Jewish immigration in the total inward movement; as the Jewish outward movement shows practically no response to unfavorable economic conditions in this country, and as the Jewish inward movement presents the phenomenon of a practically new body of immigrants, we are led to conclude that the Jewish immigration exhibits a quality of permanence and stability to so great a degree as to render this fact one of its distinguishing characteristics.

FOOTNOTES:

[108] Immigration Commission: _Conclusions and Recommendations_, p.

16.

[109] _Cf._ table XLIII, p. 182.

[110] _Cf._ table XLIV, p. 183.

[111] _Cf._ table XLV, p. 183.

[112] _Cf._ table XLVI, p. 134.

[113] _Cf._ table XLVII, p. 184.

[114] Buzek, _op. cit._, p. 467.