FOOTNOTES:
[77] Buzek, "Das Auswanderungsproblem in Oesterreich," Zeitschrift für Volkswirtschaft, Sozialpolitik und Verwaltung, p. 458.
[78] Cf. [table XXI], p. 169.
[79] Cf. [table XXII], p. 169.
[80] Cf. [table XXIII], p. 170.
[81] Cf. [table XXIV], p. 170.
[82] Cf. [table XXIV], p. 170.
[83] Cf. [table XXV], p. 171.
[84] Cf. [table XXVI], p. 171.
[85] Cf. Hersch, op. cit., p. 43. This comparison gives a lower rate of immigration to the Jews than they really possess, owing to the fact that it is based upon the total Jewish population of Austria-Hungary, and not upon that of Galicia, from which province the great majority of the Jewish immigrants come.
CHAPTER VI[ToC]
Total Jewish Immigration
The movement of the total Jewish immigration for the thirty years becomes clear in the light of the preceding pages. It is a rising movement, divided into two parts, the first culminating in 1892 and the second culminating in 1906. Like the Russian Jewish immigration which underlies it, the movement is one of geometrical progression.[86] From 1881 to 1890, 193,021 Jewish immigrants entered this country, 12.3 per cent of the total Jewish immigration. From 1891 to 1900, 393,516 Jewish immigrants, or 25.2 per cent entered. In the last decade there entered the enormous number of 976,263 Jewish immigrants, representing 62.5 per cent of the total Jewish immigration for the thirty years. This was more than twice as many as had entered the preceding decade, and more than five times the number of those who had entered the first decade. The Jewish immigration is in its largest part a product of the last decade.
The rise has not, however, been uniformly steady, as a division of the entire period into five six-year periods shows.[87] In the period from 1893 to 1898, there was a fall in the Jewish immigration. This period coincides with the years of depression in the United States following the panic of 1893. The fall was chiefly due to that in the Russian Jewish immigration. The Jewish immigration from Austria-Hungary on the contrary showed a relative rise. For this period, as well as for a few years before, the Roumanian Jewish immigration contributed smaller numbers than in the previous decade. As in the case of the Russian Jewish movement, if we compare the immigration of the six-year period from 1885 to 1890, with that from 1893 to 1898, omitting the years 1891 and 1892 which are influenced in their great rise by the exceptional circumstances occurring within these two years, we find that the Jewish immigration was higher during the latter period of depression in the United States than during the earlier period, the total number of immigrants being 167,567 for the latter period, and 153,951 for the former.
In the period from 1899 to 1904 there was a great rise. A quarter of the entire immigration came in this period. The largest number of immigrants—more than two-fifths of the total of thirty years—came in the period from 1905 to 1910. If we included the immigration of 1904, which properly belongs to the later movement, we find that half of the entire Jewish immigration came within the seven years from 1904 to 1910.
The yearly variations of the total Jewish immigration correspond closely in the main to those of the Russian Jewish movement.[88] The influence of the other movements is, however, felt, at times quite strongly. Before 1885 the total Jewish immigration was quite small; less than 10,000 (except in 1882) or less than 1 per cent of the total, arrived each year. The rise of the immigration in 1882 to 13,202 was wholly due to the increase in the number of Russian Jewish immigrants. The second half of this decade was marked by a rising tide in the Jewish immigration from all the countries of Eastern Europe, which reached a height in 1887, with an immigration of 33,044, constituting more than 2 per cent of the total number. This was but a prelude to the great rise at the opening of the second decade which in 1892 reached the number of 76,373 Jewish immigrants, the highest number attained in the first two decades. The immigration for this year alone constituted nearly one-twentieth of the total Jewish immigration. The increase of these years is due solely to the increase in the Russian Jewish immigration. From this point a fall ensued, which lasted until 1899. The fall was strongest in the Russian and the Roumanian movements. The absolute numbers and the relative proportions in the Jewish movement from Austria-Hungary increased. The tremendous rise of the last decade began in 1899. In 1900 the number of Jewish arrivals rose to 60,764. This increase was general, though it reached unusual proportions in the immigration from Roumania.
The fall in the next two years was due to a decrease in the number of immigrants from Austria-Hungary. That from Russia remained the same as in 1900, and the Roumanian Jewish immigration maintained the high level established in that year.
The immigration of 1903 surpassed the great numbers attained in 1892. The rise of nearly 20,000 of this year was general, though relatively greatest in the Jewish immigrants from Austria-Hungary.
The next three years marks the heights of the movement. In 1904, the 30,000 immigrants which represented the increase from the preceding year were Russian Jews. This is equally true of the large increase of 1905. In this year a fall took place both in the Austrian and Roumanian Jewish immigration. The Jewish immigration from the United Kingdom rose tremendously from 817 of the preceding year to 14,299,[89] an increase which reflects the influences of the Russian Jewish movement for this year, and indicates that this movement from the United Kingdom must be considered as largely Russian Jewish.
The year 1906 marked the high-water mark of Jewish immigration for thirty years. 153,748 immigrants, practically one-tenth of the total movement, came in this year. As in the preceding year, the increase in the immigration from Russia (including the numbers from the United Kingdom) was the basis of the increase in the total.
From this point on we have a decline. The decline in 1907 to 149,182 immigrants reflected the decline in the numbers of the Russian Jewish immigrants, those from Austria-Hungary increasing. In this year the number of immigrants from British North America became conspicuous. In 1908 the immigration fell to 103,387, reflecting almost wholly the fall in the numbers of the Russian Jewish immigrants. The year 1909 marked a tremendous decline of the Jewish immigration to 57,551 immigrants. This decline was general, though relatively the greatest in the Austro-Hungarian and the Roumanian immigration.
A speedy recovery in numbers was shown in 1910 when the immigration rose to 84,260, recurring to the numbers at the beginning of the recent great rise, and higher than the immigration of any year before 1904. The rise was felt equally in the Russian and Austro-Hungarian immigration, relatively little in the Roumanian.
Thus by far the chief influence in the movement of the Jewish immigration for these thirty years has been the Russian Jewish immigration. In its growth of numbers, and in its rise and fall, the total Jewish immigration of the last thirty years is a reflection of the movement of the Russian Jews to this country.