Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 10.djvu/563

* IMMIGRATION. 489 IMMIGRATION. Italian Polish Hebrew Scandinavian German Slovak Croatian and Slovenian. Irish Jlagvar - Knglish * Japanese Finnisli All others Per rent, of total irii migration 1901 1902 28 28 9 11 12 9 8 8 7 8 6 6 3 5 6 4 3 4 3 2 / 2 - 15 2 11 Males Females I'er cent, males English. Scotch, and Welsh Irish 10.9.32 12.727 32,737 36.431 146,961 50,368 27,097 29,197 32,737 7,202 16.274 24.951 19.349 33.574 19,252 3.136 9,737 24.951 60.4 German 56 7 Scandinavian 65 A Italian 81 4 Polish 72 3 Croatian and Slovenian.. . 89.6 79 1 Hebrew 56 7 That such a notable change in the character of immigration must affect the composition of the foreign born in the United States is obvious, and is disclosed in the following statement from the census of 1900: It will be noted that in the case of the Irish the women even outnumbered the men. that the races named which show a less percentage of men than the average already quoted, 70.1, be- long, with the exception of the Hebrews, to the older immigration. The Hebrews represent more largely than the other races immigration by fam- ilies. Among the immigrants the proportion of per- FOREIGN-B ORS Population-. 1900 HMD 1890. BT NATIONAirnEB Foreign bom 1900 Foreign bom 1890 ♦Increase 1890 to 1900 Immigration 1891 NATIVES OF Number Per cent. Number Per cent. to 1900 England. Scotland, and Wales 1.169,737 1,618,567 2,666,990 1.064.309 11.3 15.6 25.8 10.3 1,251,402 1.871. .509 2,784.894 933.249 13.5 20.2 30.1 10.1 81,665 in.aou 131,060 270,019 390 179 505,152 Sweden, Norway and Denmark 371,512 6.519.603 63.0 6.841,054 73.9 S11A51 1,536.862 579.042 484,207 807.606 5.6 4.7 7.8 303,812 182.580 330.084 3.3 2.0 3.6 275,230 301,627 477,522 592,707 Italv 651.899 602 010 1.870.855 18.1 816.476 8.9 1.054.379 1.846.616 1,966.176 tl0..3.50.634 IS. 9 ino.o 1,592,017 9.249.547 17.2 100.0 374,169 1.107,097 304,086 Total 3.687,564 ♦Figures in italics show decrease. tThe total here given differs from that of a previous table, as this does not include Alaska and Hawaii. These figures show that the older immigration, relatively stronger in the foreign born than in the new arrivals, is still losing ground. Tlie arrivals in the past decade are insufficient, ex- cept among the Scandinavians, to maintain the absolute numbers of ten years ago. On the other hand, the absolute numbers of the foreign born from Eastern and Southern Europe have more than doubled. The apparently anomalous fact that the group "Other Countries' has in- creased more rapidly than the aggregate immi- gration is explained by the entire absence in the immigration returns of any Canadians, who con- stitute more than one-half of the undistributed foreign born in the above table. The reports of the Bureau of Immigration enable us to study many characteristics of the immigrants. That males predominate over fe- males, inasmuch as the immigration embraces so many unmarried men, and so many married men who have left their families behind them, who come to seek fortune in the Xew World, is well known. It is. however, interesting to note that the proportion of males is increasing. In 1803 to 1805 it was 01, ,5 per cent, of the total; in 1806 to 1000, 6.S..5 per cent.: and in the last two fiscal years. 1001 and 1002. it averaged as much as 70.1 per cent. The older immigration wasby families to a larger extent than at pres- ent, and this is seen by comparing some of the older and newer elements in our immigration. In 1002 the figures for some of the prominent races were as follows: sons in the prime of life is always considerable. The increa.se of the proportion indicates a falling off of family immigration. Figures for the en- tire period are not uniform, but the following statement shows this characteristic plainly: Per Cent, of Tot.^l Immigr.tion FISCAL TEARS Under 15 years 1.5-40. years 1893-95 1896-98 18.8 16.1 71.1 72 7 FISC.U, TEARS L'nder 14 years 14-45 years 1899-1900 13.0 12.0 81 4 1901-1902 82 3 Considering .the same races as in the case of the sexes, we find the percentage of children under fourteen in 1002 to be as follows, the average being 11.4: English. Scotch, and Welsh 16.0 Irish 4.1 German 1 6 T. Scandinavian 7. S Italian 10. S Polish 8.6 Croatian and SIo-e- nian 3.3 Slovak 8.1 Hebrew 26.5 Here again it appears that famih' immigra- tion is especially prominent among the Hebrews, and plays a considerable rule among Germans and natives of Great Britain. The low percent- age of children among the Irish is a consequence of the large immigration of unmarried women.