Considering The Causes Of Emigration
Emigrants at the Depot in Hamburg. The Alien Immigrant, 1903. GGA Image ID # 149abcf16a
CAUSES of emigration may be considered according to their origin and divided into three classes.
- Individual—the spontaneous desires for better things arising in the emigrant himself;
- Local—existing conditions surrounding him in his old world home, which develop
and stimulate his inherent desire for social, political, or financial betterment; - Extraneous—outside influences operating from America or other countries.
In considering the causes arising within the emigrant himself—the desire for ownership of a home will be found present in a very large proportion of cases. This desire for his own home probably exists in the heart of every man worthy of the name. It forms the foundation of our social structure and is the unit of civilization and advancement among all progressive races.
In the early days of the republic, the immigrant was undoubtedly a home seeker in nearly every instance, like his predecessor, the colonist. And probably, this desire to become owners actuates the majority of immigrants, even today.
Often coupled with the desire for ownership of a home, the independent liberty-loving immigrant desires free institutions, a country where the schools are open to all regardless of race or creed, where he may worship God in his own way, according to the faith of his fathers, and where, in time, he may, through the franchise, play at least a small part in the political life of his adopted country.
The emigrant often leaves to escape compulsory military service in support of a government in which he has little or no representation. Thousands of European immigrants who arrived in the United States just before or during the Civil War left Europe rather than submit to compulsory military service, and yet voluntarily enlisted and served faithfully in the Union armies in the great conflict. They showed that they were not afraid to fight when the cause at issue was in accord with their principles but that they resented the military system of their native land.
The restless emigrant then wants to better his financial condition. He recognizes no patriotic obligation to the new country that treats him kindly and has no quarrel with the country of his birth. Still, he intends to return to his native land when he has acquired competence in the United States.
Many of Europe's existing conditions strongly contribute to emigration—the price of land in many countries is prohibitive, especially when the masses of the people are considered poor. In other countries, systems of land tenure exist that make it impossible for the tenant to become an owner.
In parts of Europe, discrimination against certain races or religions is so severe that it bars any one of the proscribed races or religions from owning land. This same discrimination against race or religion imposes educational barriers in some countries, which prevent the poor from being elevated on the social scale because of their race or religion.
Therefore, many emigrants leave Europe because they know that in the United States, their children will enjoy educational advantages denied them at home, and without these, they can not hope to better their condition.
Emigration from some parts of Europe is explained by the great density of the population and the accompanying excessive competition in the struggle for existence. The pressure of militarism further stimulates emigration in many of these congested areas.
When some of the contributing causes originating in Europe are accentuated when militarism exists with its concomitant evils of grinding taxation and compulsory military service when persecution and over-crowding make the struggle for existence hopeless, emigration becomes the alternative of starvation, and the instinct of self-preservation forces these unfortunate creatures to flee at the first opportunity to some new country.
Convicts, paupers, people with a disability, and diseased persons have many times been shipped to America 'to be rid of them' by individuals, societies, municipal corporations, or even by government agents. Of the third class of extraneous causes operating from America or other countries, the most important is the prosperity of the United States.
During periods of great prosperity, the wave of immigration attains its greatest height and reaches its lowest ebb during periods of industrial and commercial depression. Thus, between 1882 and 1903, the total of our immigration reached its maximum, while following 1873 and 1893, a rapid falloff is noticeable.
Letters from friends and relatives in this country inform the people of Europe of our wonderful industrial growth and general prosperity. These letters contrast the conditions of life in America with the poverty or oppression of the old world and often contain considerable sums of money, which is convincing evidence to the European peasant.
During periods of depression, the tone of the letters reflects the change of circumstances, and letters are less likely to contain cash remittances. According to statements of steamship officials, from 40 to 55 percent of our immigrants come here on tickets prepaid by friends in the United States, so the successful immigrant here is the best advertisement of the advantages afforded by the United States and one of the greatest factors in inducing immigration.
Large labor employers certainly encouraged emigration from Europe in the past. Still, they are no longer necessary to induce emigration through agents or advertisement, and the practice has almost ceased.
The transatlantic steamship companies have found the business of transporting immigrants to America very profitable and have contributed greatly to the development of our immigration to its present mammoth proportions.
Although the steamship companies deny this, a well-organized system undoubtedly exists in Europe through which their agents and subagents induce emigration. The companies do not openly countenance the system of misrepresentation that the subagents employ. However, it is in their power to remedy this evil, which they still permit to be practiced.
For the commission's sake, these sub-agents were allowed to picture America as an El Dorado to the peasants, telling them that passage to America was the certain road to fortune.
One of the most potent causes of emigration from Europe is the assistance given to the poor of certain races by rich individuals or philanthropic associations. Thousands of Rumanian and Russian Jews, forced by persecution to emigrate, are assisted by the Jewish societies or individuals in the towns through which they pass and are thus helped to the seaboard.
Many are passed on through Hamburg, Rotterdam, Libau, or some other continental port to London. Here, they are met by a representative of the 'Hebrew Shelter.' This institution was founded in 1885 to provide a temporary refuge and assist Hebrews en route to America.
The Jewish Board of Guardians was founded in London in 1859. According to the report of the British Royal Commission on alien immigration, its policy is to lessen the pressure of alien immigration upon England.
Through circulars issued abroad, they persuaded undesirables of their own race to embark on countries other than England. If such undesirable persons arrived in England, they rendered them assistance and helped them emigrate to other countries. The majority of the undesirable Jews, thus persuaded and assisted, eventually landed in New York.
They are hopeless, poverty-stricken people, fleeing anywhere, without objects other than to escape persecution in Russia or Romania. When they finally reach New York, their pauperization is complete. In many instances, they require assistance for years after landing.
Thus, the causes of emigration will usually indicate the relative desirability of emigrants. The best is likely among those whose emigration is voluntary or spontaneous, and the worst is expected among those assisted and pauperized by societies or wealthy individuals. Between the two extremes, the others can be graded in varying degrees of desirability.
The first legislation relating to immigrants was passed on March 2, 1819. A clause in this act provided for the enumeration upon arrival and a statement of the immigrants' age, sex, and place of birth.
This provision of the law was expected to regulate the transportation of immigrants, prevent overcrowding on ships, and mitigate some other abuses on shipboard. Laws regulating or restricting immigration have always been the result of popular demand and have been enacted from time to time either to correct existing abuses or to prevent the entrance of certain undesirable classes.
Therefore, the fact that no immigration legislation was enacted from 1819 to 1875 speaks well for the immigrants arriving during that period.
It must not be supposed that the coming of immigrants was entirely unopposed during this period. Still, the clamor raised against them about 1850 was based on racial or religious grounds, was sectional, not general, and so manifestly selfish and bigoted that the great majority of Americans took no part in it, and no restrictive legislation resulted.
In about 1875, it became evident that some regulation of immigration was necessary to prevent certain undesirable classes, regardless of race, from landing. As a result, the Act of March 3, 1875, was recorded in the statutes.
The classes barred by this act were prostitutes and convicted felons. By 1882, other undesirable classes attracted attention, and a law passed in that year added to the list of excluded classes all idiots, lunatics, and 'persons unable to care for themselves without becoming a public charge.
It also provided that a head tax of fifty cents be collected from each arriving alien, the money to be paid into the treasury of the United States and to constitute the 'Immigrant Fund.' This fund was to defray the expenses related to the regulation of immigration.
Before 1885, large employers imported workers on contract for less than the American standard of wages, and through the combined efforts of labor organizations, legislation was enacted in 1885 to prevent the entrance of these contract laborers.
The first Contract Labor Act of 1885 was strengthened by the Amendatory Act of 1887, which vested the Secretary of the Treasury with the power to make regulations and rules and issue instructions not inconsistent with law for carrying out the act's provisions.
Up until this time, immigrants were inspected by state authorities, acting, of course, under federal law. This system was unsatisfactory because of the lack of uniformity of inspection and the difficulty of applying the law in imposing and collecting fines.
It became evident that if an efficient uniform standard of inspection was to be established and maintained, it must be under the direct supervision of the federal authorities.
The act of March 3, 1891, besides adding to the excluded classes 'persons suffering from a loathsome or a dangerous contagious disease,' polygamists, and assisted immigrants, provided for the assumption of the work of inspecting immigrants by federal officers. The office of superintendent of immigration was created, and the President was authorized to appoint such officer by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.
From this time, medical inspections were to be made by officers of the Marine Hospital Service. This act also prohibited steamship companies from encouraging immigration through alluring advertisements and provided for the deportation, within one year after landing, of any alien landed in the United States in violation of the law.
The act of March 3, 1893, provided that the steamship companies should furnish lists or manifests made at the time and place of embarkation. These manifests were to contain valuable information concerning the immigrant's age, occupation, destination, moral and physical fitness, etc.
These lists were to be signed and sworn to by the vessel's master and surgeon. This requirement of manifests was expected to increase passengers' careful scrutiny at the port of embarkation, and the manifests themselves would undoubtedly prove of great value to the inspectors in their work.
Under federal supervision, inspecting immigrants became more uniform and thorough. Suitable buildings had to be erected, and other expenses necessary to the rigid enforcement of the law were incurred. It became evident that the head tax of fifty cents was inadequate for defraying the costs related to immigration. A provision in the sundry civil bill, approved August 18, 1894, increased the head tax to one dollar.
In June 1900, Congress enacted that the commissioner general of immigration should administer the Chinese Exclusion Law.
After ten years of trial, the law 1893 was found inadequate in some particulars, and a great popular demand for further restriction was manifested. As a result of this popular demand, the law of 1903 was enacted.
The provisions of this act amplified previous legislation and placed further necessary restrictions on undesirable classes of immigrants. The head tax was increased to two dollars. The authority to deport aliens who landed in violation of law was extended to three years from the alien's landing.
In addition to the undesirable classes excluded under previous laws, this act excludes people with epilepsy, anarchists, and persons who believe in or advocate the overthrow, by force or violence, of the Government of the United States or all Governments or of all forms of law or the assassination of public officials.
The utter disregard shown by the steamship companies for United States laws in permitting diseased persons to take passage for America when their diseased condition must have been apparent was responsible for the imposition of a penalty of one hundred dollars for bringing to our ports any alien suffering from a loathsome or dangerous contagious disease, which might have been detected using a competent medical examination, at the time of embarkation.
From the foregoing summary of immigration legislation, it will be noted that nearly all the laws have been passed since 1980. It is significant that prior to that time, immigration came chiefly from Great Britain and Ireland, Germany, and the Scandinavian countries.
With the rapid and progressive increase of immigration from Russia, Austria-Hungary, Italy, and other countries of southern and eastern Europe, the deterioration in the quality of immigration was sufficiently marked to indicate the necessity for more thorough regulation and restriction. The favorite method of evading our immigration laws was to send the questionable immigrant through Canada.
By the courtesy of the Canadian Government and by an agreement with the transportation companies, our officers are permitted to examine immigrants destined for the United States through Canada at Canadian ports. Still, defective immigrants evaded this inspection by manifesting as destined for Canada.
Canadian law was formerly much less exacting than our own, and after landing and remaining in Canada for a short time, these people could slip over the border without inspection.
The United States immigration authorities instituted an effective system of border inspection to prevent the smuggling of these immigrants across the Canadian border.
The difficulty of guarding over three thousand miles of frontier can be appreciated, however, and the passage of a Canadian law (1902), at least approaching our standard, has been welcomed as an addition to our defenses.
The provision for excluding anarchists and persons of like tendencies has already been applied to some of these disturbers. It promises to be very effective in this direction.
Our contract labor laws have been materially strengthened by the Act of 1903. There is no longer ground for misapprehension as to whether the laws were to apply to unskilled or both skilled and unskilled labor.
McLaughlin, Dr. Allan, "Immigration," in The Popular Science Monthy, June 1904
Dr. Allan McLaughlin, of the Bureau of Public Health and Marine Hospital Service, of the Treasury Department, has contributed to THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY several articles on 'Immigration,' which have been of much interest to readers and have been highly commended by experts. We are pleased to state that Dr. McLaughlin has consented to continue this series of articles, covering in a systematic way the whole problem of immigration. --Editor
Considering the Causes of Emigration
A Key Resource for Understanding Immigration History
For teachers, students, genealogists, family historians, and immigration researchers, this in-depth article on Considering the Causes of Emigration provides a comprehensive analysis of the driving forces behind immigration to the United States and how they shaped immigration policies and legislation over time. It is an essential read for anyone looking to understand why millions left their homelands and the broader historical factors that influenced global migration patterns.
Why This Article is Essential for Understanding Immigration History:
- Three Major Causes of Emigration – The article categorizes emigration into individual (personal motivation), local (social and economic conditions), and extraneous (external influences like recruitment and U.S. labor demand), providing a multi-layered perspective on why people left their homelands.
- The Desire for Freedom and Opportunity – Many emigrants sought economic independence, land ownership, and religious freedom—core motivations that played a critical role in shaping the immigrant experience in America.
- Military Conscription and Political Oppression – The article highlights how compulsory military service and political repression in Europe forced many to flee in search of greater personal freedoms in the United States.
- Overpopulation, Land Scarcity, and Economic Hardship – The rising cost of land, rigid class structures, and economic inequality were key push factors for emigrants, especially from countries where land ownership was restricted by law.
- Influence of American Prosperity and Labor Demand – The fluctuations in U.S. economic conditions directly impacted immigration waves, with booms leading to higher immigration and downturns reducing arrivals.
- Steamship Companies and Assisted Immigration – Discover how shipping companies and philanthropic groups played a role in facilitating—and at times exploiting—emigration.
- Development of U.S. Immigration Laws – This article traces the evolution of immigration laws from 1819 to 1903, showing how public sentiment, economic factors, and concerns over "undesirable" immigrants shaped policies over time.
Who Should Read This Article?
- Teachers & Students – Offers a thorough historical analysis for classroom discussions on immigration, labor history, and economic migration.
- Genealogists & Family Historians – Provides insight into why and how ancestors may have emigrated, particularly from Europe to the United States.
- Historians & Policy Researchers – A valuable resource for studying the link between economic conditions, policy changes, and migration patterns.
This article brings historical emigration trends into sharp focus and explains the complex personal, social, and economic forces that shaped immigration waves to America. Explore this in-depth examination today to gain a deeper understanding of the realities faced by those who left everything behind in pursuit of a new life.
