Journal of Political Economy Vol. 19 No. 8 1911
The Causes of Earlier European Immigration to the United States
Abstract
The history of iimmigration to the United States since official statistics began to be kept may be divided into two periods. Though it is impossible-and, indeed, unnecessaryto draw the line between them in any particular year, yet the decade I870 to i88o saw the end of one and the beginning of the other. The two periods differ from each other in the volume of immigration, in the races mainly contributing to it, in the attitude of the American government and public opinion toward it, in the conditions of transportation, and in the causes that promoted it. It would be impossible to enumerate all the causes that induce men to leave old homes for new. Sometimes it is a mere spirit of adventure, a love of change. Very often the reasons are personal; sometimes they are involved and complicated, and however strongly felt, are but vaguely understood even by those that move under their influence. Whatever weakens the ties of home-bereavement, altered surroundings, domestic infelicity, social or political disappointment, economic difficulties, in short, any one of many things that may darken the current of lifeurges men to a change of habitation. At the present day when the means of transportation have become cheap, quick, and secure the motives for emigration need not be so strong as was necessary to induce men to leave Europe for America in the first three-quarters of the nineteenth century. The general causes for immigration during the period from
- DOI
- 10.1086/251909
- Volume
- 19
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 676-693
- Language
- en
- Sources
- semanticscholar openalex crossref