THE

II. CAUSES

CAUSES OF EMIGRATION

UNITED STATES IMMIGRATION COMMISSION

HE present movement of population from Europe to the United States is, with few exceptions, almost entirely attributable to economic causes. Emigration due to political reasons and, to a less extent, religious oppression, undoubtedly exists, but even in countries where these incentives prevail the more important cause is very largely an economic one. This does not mean, however, that emigration from Europe is now an economic necessity. At times in the past, notably during the famine years in Ireland, actual want forced a choice between emigration and literal starvation, but the present movement results in the main from a widespread desire for better economic conditions rather than from the necessity of escaping intolerable ones. In other words, the emigrant of to-day comes to the United States not merely to make a living, but to make a better living than is possible at home.

With comparatively few exceptions, the emigrant of to-day is essentially a seller of labor seeking a more favorable market. To a considerable extent this incentive is accompanied by a certain spirit of unrest and adventure and a more or less definite ambition for general social betterment, but primarily the movement is accounted for by the fact that the reward of labor is much greater in the United States than in Europe.

The desire to escape military service is also a primary cause of emigration from some countries, but on the whole it is relatively unimportant. It is true, moreover, that some emigrate to escape punishment for crime, or the stigma which follows such punishment, while others of the criminal class deliberately.. seek supposedly more advantageous fields for criminal activity in

The emigration of criminals of this class is a natural movement not altogether peculiar to European countries, and, although vastly important because dangerous, numerically it affects but little the tide of European emigration to the United States. In order that the chief cause of emigration from Europe may be better understood, the commission has given considerable attention to economic conditions in the countries visited, with particular reference to the status of emigrating classes in this regard. It was impossible for the commissioners personally to make more than a general survey of this subject, but because an understanding of the economic situation in the chief immigrant-furnishing countries is essential to an intelligent discussion of the immigration question, the results of the commission's investigation have been supplemented by official data or wellauthenticated material from other sources.

The purely economic condition of the wageworker is generally ✓ very much lower in Europe than in the United States. This is especially true of the unskilled laborer class from which so great a proportion of the emigration to the United States is drawn. Skilled labor also is poorly paid when compared with returns for like service in the United States, but the opportunity for continual employment in this field is usually good and the wages sufficiently high to lessen the incentive to emigration. A large proportion of the emigration from southern and eastern Europe may be traced directly to the inability of the peasantry to gain an adequate livelihood in agricultural pursuits either as laborers or proprietors. Agricultural labor is paid extremely low wages, and employment is quite likely to be seasonal rather than continuous. In cases where peasant proprietorship is possible, the land holdings are usually so small, the methods of cultivation so primitive, and the taxes so high, that even in productive years the struggle for existence is a hard one, while a crop failure means practical disaster for the small farmer and farm laborer alike. In agrarian Russia, where the people have not learned to emigrate, a crop failure results in a famine, while in other sections of southern and eastern Europe it results in emigration, usually to the United States. Periods of industrial depression as well as crop failures stimulate emigration, but the effect of e former is not so pronounced, for the reason that disturbed

financial and industrial conditions in Europe are usually coincidental with like conditions in the United States, and at such times the emigration movement is always relatively smaller.

The fragmentary nature of available data relative to wages in many European countries makes a satisfactory comparison with wages in the United States impossible. It is well known, however, that even in England, Germany, France, and other countries of western Europe wages are below the United States standard, while in southern and eastern Europe the difference is very great. The commission found this to be true in its investigations in parts of Italy, Austria-Hungary, Greece, Turkey, Russia, and the Balkan States. In fact, it may safely be stated that in these countries the average wage of men engaged in common and agricultural labor is less than 50 cents per day, while in some sections it is even much lower. It is true that in some countries agricultural laborers receive from employers certain concessions in the way of fuel, food, etc., but in cases of this nature which came to the attention of the commission the value of the concessions was insufficient to materially affect the low wage scale.

It is a common but erroneous belief that peasants and artisans in the European countries from which the new immigrant comes can live so very cheaply that the low wages have practically as great a purchasing power as the higher wages in the United States. The low cost of living among the working people, especially of southern and eastern Europe, is due to a low standard of living rather than to the cheapness of food and other commod-✔ ities. As a matter of fact, meat and other costly articles of food, which are considered as almost essential to the everyday table of the American workingman, cannot be afforded among laborers in like occupations in southern and eastern Europe. The same is true of the American standard of housing, clothing, and other things which enter into the cost of living.

Notwithstanding the bad economic conditions surrounding the classes which furnish so great a part of the emigration from southern and eastern Europe, the commission believes that a laudable ambition for better things than they possess rather than a need for actual necessities is the chief motive behind the movement to the United States. Knowledge of conditions in

America, promulgated through letters from friends or by emigrants who have returned for a visit to their native villages, creates and fosters among the people a desire for improved conditions which, it is believed, can be attained only through emigration.

It is the opinion of the commission that, with the exception of some Russian and Roumanian Hebrews, relatively few Europeans emigrate at the present time because of political or religious conditions. It is doubtless true that political discontent still influences the emigration movement from Ireland, but to a less degree than in earlier years. The survival of the Polish national spirit undoubtedly, is a determining factor in the emigration from Prussia, Russia, and Austria of some of that race, while dissatisfaction with Russian domination is to a degree responsible for Finnish emigration. In all probability some part of the emigration from Turkey in Europe and Turkey in Asia, as well as from the Balkan States, is also attributable to political conditions in those countries. There is, of course, a small movement from nearly every European country of political idealists who prefer a democracy to a monarchial government, but these, and in fact all, with the exception of the Hebrew peoples referred to, whose emigration is in part due to political or religious causes, form a very small portion of the present European emigration to the United States.

Contributory or immediate causes of emigration were given due consideration by the commission. Chief of these is clearly the advice and assistance of relatives or friends who have pre1viously emigrated. Through the medium of, letters from those already in the United States and the visits of former emigrants, the emigrating classes of Europe are kept constantly if not always reliably informed as to labor conditions here, and these agencies are by far the most potent promoters of the present movement of population.

The commission found ample evidence of this fact in every country of southern and eastern Europe. Of the two agencies mentioned, however, letters are by far the more important. In fact, it is entirely safe to assert that letters to friends at home from persons who have emigrated have been the immediate cause of by far the greater part of the remarkable movement

from southern and eastern Europe to the United States during the past twenty-five years. There is hardly a village or community in southern Italy and Sicily that has not contributed a portion of its population to swell the tide of emigration to the United States, and the same is true of large areas of Austria, Hungary, Greece, Turkey, and the Balkan States. There is a tendency on the part of emigrants from these countries to retain an interest in the homeland, and in consequence a great amount of correspondence passes back and forth. It was frequently stated to members of the Commission that letters from persons who have emigrated to America were passed from hand to hand until most of the emigrants' friends and neighbors were acquainted with the contents. In periods of industrial activity, as a rule, the letters so circulated contain optimistic references to wages and opportunities for employment in the United States, and when comparison in this regard is made with conditions at home it is inevitable that whole communities should be inoculated with a desire to emigrate. The reverse is true during seasons of industrial depression in the United States. At such times intending emigrants are quickly informed by their friends in the United States relative to conditions of employment, and a great falling off in the tide of emigration is the immediate result.

Emigrants who have returned for a visit to their native land are also great promoters of emigration. This is particularly true of southern and eastern European emigrants, who as a class make more or less frequent visits to their old homes. Among the returning emigrants are always some who have failed to achieve success in America, and some who through changed conditions of life and employment return in broken health. It is but natural that these should have a slightly deterrent effect on emigration; but, on the whole, this is relatively unimportant, for the returning emigrant, as a rule, is one who has succeeded. In times of industrial inactivity in the United States the large number of emigrants who return to their native lands of course serve as a temporary check to emigration, but it is certain that in the long run such returning emigrants actually promote rather than retard the movement to the United States.

The importance of the advice of friends as an immediate cause of emigration from Europe is also indicated by the fact