Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 07.djvu/55

* EMIGRATION. 39 EMIGRATION. article Migrations, is one of the cliief features of history from the earliest times. <>n the other hand, emigration is a comparatively modem phenomenon; it is a movement of individuals rather than tribes and communities, and while it may assume "vast proportions, the initiative proceeds from individuals. The history of emi- gration in this sense really begins with the dis- oovery of .America, particularly with the estab- lishment of English colonies on the North Ameri- can continent. Though the Spanish power was planted in South America and about the Gulf of Mexico much earlier, the Spanish administration was monopolistic in the extreme and did not pro- mute emigration to the New World. As all for- eigners were excluded from the Spanish colonies, and no Spaniards permitted to betake themselves thither without special permission of the Crown, it will be understood that no considerable stream of immigrants flowed into them. Nor were the French more successful. As they copied in the New World the feudal privileges and inequalities of the Old, the French colonies offered no refuge to the oppressed. In the period of French rule iu Canada, France indeed poured forth or drove forth some of tie best elements of the nation in considerable numbers, but these were Huguenots, tn whom Canada was barred. In marked contrast with these colonies were the English settlements in the New World. Widch seal tend, they offered to the Pilgrim in New England, the Quaker in Pennsylvania, and the Catholic in Maryland freedom from the re- strictions of the Old World, while most of the colonies offered complete religious freedom to all comers. It was therefore to the North Ameri- can continent that the stream of emigration which had its principal sources in England and Germany flowed. During the brief period of Dutch rule on the Hudson, there was some influx of Netherlander, with whom were associated some Huguenot refugees, while the Swedish set tlements on the Delaware were too ephemeral to leave many traces behind them in the population <>f the region. From central, eastern, and south- ern Europe there was no emigration in the eighteenth century; nor did it assume consider- able proportions until the close of the nineteenth century. The numbers of such emigrants were very small compared with those of modern times; precise r irds do not exist, but it may be re- el lied that in 1800, after at least a century and a half of occupation, the United States had a population of 5, 308,48". and this fact may be contrasted with the immigration record for the ten years 1881 to 1890 of 5;246,616 persons. Modern emigration begins in the nineteenth century, though its earlier years showed no marked increase on the shifting population dur- ing the preceding century, as is evidenced by the paucity of records. It was not until 1820 that the first statistics on the subject, namely those of immigration into the United States, were established, while until 1840 only 742,564 ar- rivals were recorded. In the meantime Aus- tralia had been opened up for settlement, but before the gold discoveries (1850) it had not attained a population of half a million souls. The potato famine in Ireland, the economic distress of Europe generally in the period nf 1849-50, and the discovery of gold in California and Australia stimulated an emigration far in excess of anything which had previously oc- curred. While the number fell off somewhat after 1800, due in large measure to the condi tions in the United States, the principal goal of the emigrants from Europe, it rose again after 1870 until it reached its highest point in the early eighties. Difficulty of Measurement. Precise figures cannot be given, as the records of the ports of departure as well as those of arrival are not alway- to be had. From a statistical standpoint there are many obstacles to a perfectly accurate record, the chief being that of double counting. Emigrants return to their native land and again emigrate, which causes double counting at the ports of departure; while emigrants pass li one country into another, particularly from Canada to the United States, and this, together with the return of persons who have been in the country before, causes double counting at the points of arrival. These difficulties, which pre- vent perfectly exact measurements, such as the calculation of an emigration rate for comparison with other phenomena of the population move- ment, do not impeach the testimony of all available records as to the general growth of emigration. The emigration figures, so far as they are recorded in the European countries, are based upon such diverse elements that careful writers abstain from the attempt to make a total. Almost equally unsatisfactory for com parative purposes are the records of the countries, which receive immigrants. Some notion of the volume of emigration from Europe can be gained from the fact that from 1841 to 1000 the rec- ords of the United States show 18,527,516 ar- rivals. Other regions received comparatively few immigrants until recent years. In 1870 the arrivals in the United States. 356,383, tar ex- ceeded those of Canada, Brazil, Argentina. Uru- guay, and Australia combined, which according to the records of those countries amounted to 108,772 persons, while in 1S90 the arrivals in the United States, 405.021, were less than those of the five regions above named, 546,934. For later years figures are not available, as Canada has discontinued its statistics of immigration; but it may lie stated in round numbers that from three-quarters of a million to one million of persons leave Europe annually for foreign lands, of whom about one-half come to the United States. CAUSES. No attempt to summarize the causes of emigration in a single phrase can be success- ful. They are as numerous as the motives which determine conduct. At one time it is the spirit of adventure which calls men forth to seek their fortunes in the unknown. This i- peculiarly the case with the gold-seekers, whether they followed the Spanish arms to the conquest of Mexico and Peru, or Hocked to the mines of California and of Australia, or in our own day bear the hard- ships of an arctic climate in the Klondike and at Nome. Eeligious oppression has been a powerful element in causing emigration, as illus- trated in, our own early history, and to-day in the influx of Russian and Rumanian .Tews. Crop failures, like the potato famine in Ireland, and industrial depression at home, are potent factors in determining men to emigrate. The hope of economic betterment, the attraction of cheap land, and the prospect of becoming land-owners, tin' solicitation and representations of friends or relatives who have preceded them — in short, an I