There is one matter connected with the volume of immigration which marks the last few years of the modern period and is of the greatest importance. This is the provision for estimating the exact net gain or loss in population each year through immigration movements. Until very recently the only immigration figures which were considered worth while were those of arriving aliens. It was tacitly assumed that our immigrant traffic was a wholly one-sided one. But gradually people began to realize that there was a large countercurrent of departing aliens. In the Report of the Commissioner General of Immigration for 1906 (p. 56) an effort is made to supply as far as possible these data for the years 1890 to 1906. But in the absence of any legislation requiring shipmasters to furnish lists of departing passengers, these figures are admittedly incomplete, and no attempt is made to distinguish aliens from citizens of the United States. The nearest approach that can be made to ascertaining the number of departing aliens is to assume that all the passengers other than cabin belonged to this class. This is probably not very far from the truth, and taking these figures as a guide, we can get some idea of how large the outward movement has been at certain times, particularly during the period of commercial depression which marked the middle nineties. Thus in 1895 while there were 258,536 arrivals of immigrant aliens, there were 216,665 departures of the class mentioned, making a total gain of only 41,871; in 1898 the net gain was only 98,442 against a total immigration of 229,299. Unfortunately, figures are not available for 1896–1897. The importance of this phase of the subject eventually became so evident that in the immigration law of 1907 a provision was included requiring masters of departing vessels to file accurate and detailed lists of their alien passengers, giving certain important facts concerning them. Accordingly, in the fiscal year 1908 we have for the first time complete and accurate data regarding departing aliens.
In that year another important distinction is made, that between immigrant and nonimmigrant aliens on the inward passage, and emigrant and nonemigrant aliens on the outward passage. Immigrant aliens are those whose place of last permanent residence was in some foreign country, and who are coming here with the intention of residing permanently. Nonimmigrant aliens are of two classes: those whose place of last permanent residence was the United States, but who have been abroad for a short period of time, and those whose place of last permanent residence was in a foreign country, and who are coming to the United States without the intention of residing permanently, including aliens in transit. Departing aliens are classified in a corresponding way. Emigrant aliens are those whose place of last permanent residence was the United States, and who are going abroad with the intention of residing there permanently. Nonemigrant aliens are of two classes: those whose place of last permanent residence was the United States, and who are going abroad for a short visit only, and those whose place of last permanent residence was abroad, but who have been in the United States for a short time, including aliens in transit. In all cases the expressed intention of the alien is regarded as final concerning residence, and an intended future residence of twelve months is considered a permanent residence. The recent reports of the Commissioner General contain tables almost as detailed for departing as for arriving aliens.
Thus it is now possible to make an exact reckoning of the net gain or loss in population each year through immigration movements. The classes in which we are particularly interested are naturally the immigrant and emigrant aliens, for they are the only participants in true immigration movements, according to our definition. The others are merely travelers. Yet they are important and interesting travelers, and the modern problems of immigration cannot be thoroughly understood without taking some consideration of them. As for the aliens in transit, they can be quickly disposed of. They are counted as nonimmigrant aliens on their arrival, and nonemigrant aliens at their departure, which is supposed to occur within a period of thirty days. Thus they cancel, and do not in any important way affect the life of the United States. The other class of nonimmigrants and nonemigrants is much more important, for they include a group of aliens who have attracted considerable attention of late—the so-called “birds of passage.” These are, in the strictest sense, aliens who have chosen the United States as their place of permanent residence, but who go back to the old country for brief sojourns on certain occasions. In a broader sense, the birds of passage may also be taken to include aliens whose permanent residence is abroad, but who come to this country for a brief stay.[[109]]
As an illustration of the method of reckoning the gain or loss in population, let us take the year 1910. In that year there were 1,041,570 immigrant aliens, and 156,467 nonimmigrant aliens admitted, making a total of 1,198,037. There were 202,436 departures of emigrant aliens and 177,982 of nonemigrant aliens, making a total of 380,418. Thus there was a net gain in the year of 817,619 aliens all together. But not all of these were permanent residents. To get an idea of the actual increase of permanent residents we need to add together two classes,—the immigrant aliens, who come here for the first time with the intention of residing permanently, and those nonimmigrant aliens who are such, not because they do not expect to reside here permanently, but because their permanent residence has already been established here and who have been abroad for a brief period. Of the former class, the immigrant aliens, there were 1,041,570; of the second class, nonimmigrants whose places of last permanent residence and of intended future residence were both the United States, there were 94,075. This makes a total of 1,135,645 permanent alien residents who came into the United States in the year in question. The actual decrease in permanent residents may be computed in a similar way. In the year in question there were 202,436 emigrant aliens who departed, and 89,754 nonemigrant aliens whose places of last permanent residence and intended future residence were both the United States,—that is, permanent residents of this country who left for a brief period only. This makes a total of 292,190 permanent residents of this country who left it in the year in question. Subtracting this number from the total of permanent residents who arrived, we have a remainder of 843,455. This represents the actual gain in permanent alien residents during the year in question. This figure, in the year in question, happens to come very near to the gross gain estimated in the simplest way. But it is not necessarily so, and in the year 1908 there was considerable difference between the two figures. It is not always necessary to make this somewhat involved calculation. In many cases, the mere comparison of the figures for immigrant and emigrant aliens is sufficient for the purpose. But there are many other instances in which accuracy and consistency require this exact calculation to be made, and it is a decided acquisition to the study of immigration to have these data available.[[110]] Thus in the year 1909 the net gain in permanent alien residents was 584,513, while in 1908 it was only 341,075; yet there were more immigrant aliens admitted in 1908 than in 1909.
In respect to the composition of this great current, the period in question has witnessed a profound and most significant change. We have seen that prior to 1882 practically the entire body of immigrants was made up of individuals from Germany, the United Kingdom, and the Scandinavian countries. From that year on, these have steadily decreased in importance, and their places have been taken by contingents from Italy, Austria-Hungary, Russia, and other south European countries. This change has been so pronounced as to lead to a separation of immigrants into the “old immigration” and the “new immigration,” a distinction which has become familiar to every casual student of the subject. The Immigration Commission has recently given its official sanction to this classification, and in its reports follows this scheme: the old immigration includes those from England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland; the new immigration, those from Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Montenegro, Poland, Portugal, Roumania, Russia, Servia, Spain, Syria, and Turkey. This schedule refers only to European countries (with the exception of Syria and Turkey, which ethnically belong to Europe), without reference to non-European sources. But immigration to the United States is as yet almost wholly a European movement, so that other countries may be neglected in any general consideration. In so far as there are any immigrants from non-European sources they would naturally be classed with the new immigration. Roughly speaking, the old immigration came from the north and west of Europe, the new immigration comes from the south and east of that continent.
The sweeping nature of this change can be comprehended only through the comparison of figures. The immigration from the United Kingdom and Germany, which up to 1882 had made up so nearly all of the total, never again reached the same figure, and gradually dwindled, both relatively and positively, until in 1907 it amounted to only 11.8 per cent of the total immigration for the year. On the other hand the currents from Austria-Hungary, Italy, and Russia, all of which, as we have seen, began to attain prominence approximately in 1882, grew steadily until in the year 1907 they amounted respectively to 26.3 per cent, 22.2 per cent, and 20.1 per cent of the total. Putting them together, we have a total for these three countries of 68.6 per cent of the total immigration, and adding to them the immigration from the other countries belonging to the new movement, we have a total of 81 per cent of the European immigrants admitted to the United States in 1907. In the years from 1819 to 1883 the old immigration had furnished about 95 per cent of the total movement from Europe to the United States. Comparing the two years 1882 and 1907, it appears that the old immigration made up 87.1 per cent of the total immigration in the first year, and 19 per cent in the latter, and the new immigration 12.9 per cent in the former and 81 per cent in the latter.[[111]]
This is a most radical change, the importance of which can hardly be overestimated. The old immigrants, as we have before observed, were of a racial stock very closely related to the early settlers of the country, and to the original type of the American people. Their language was the same or similar, and their national traditions wholly harmonious. Consequently assimilation was a comparatively simple matter. It was practically a reforming, on American soil, of the English race, from the same component elements which had gone into it from the beginning in England. The new immigration is made up from people of a very different racial stock, representing the Slavic and Mediterranean branches of the Caucasian race rather than the Teutonic. With the difference in race go differences in mental characteristics, traditions, and habits of life. As a result, the problem of assimilation in this country has taken on a completely different aspect. Moreover, this change is a very recent one. It was not until the year 1896 that the three currents from Austria-Hungary, Italy, and Russia exceeded in volume the contributions of the United Kingdom, Germany, and Scandinavia. The real dilution of the original American stock is a matter of scarcely half a generation. These facts will become clearer by glancing at the following table:
| PER CENT OF TOTAL IMMIGRATION COMING FROM SPECIFIED COUNTRIES BY DECADES, FROM 1861 TO 1910. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Country | Years | ||||
| 1861–70 | 1871–80 | 1881–90 | 1891–00 | 1901–10 | |
| Austria-Hungary | 0.33 | 2.6 | 6.7 | 16 | 24.4 |
| German Empire | 35 | 25.5 | 28 | 14 | 3.9 |
| Italy, Sicily, and Sardinia | 0.51 | 2 | 5.9 | 18 | 23.3 |
| Russian Empire and Finland | 0.2 | 1.9 | 4.4 | 14 | 18.2 |
| United Kingdom: | 38 | ||||
| England | 15.6 | 12 | 6 | 4.4 | |
| Ireland | 15.5 | 12 | 10 | 3.9 | |
In seeking to determine the causes of this change it will be well to note first certain general causes which have underlain the whole movement, and then to consider the specific causes which have operated to stimulate immigration in certain of the more important countries.
Among the general causes may be mentioned first of all the great development of transportation during the last thirty years. As has been previously observed, emigration movements are very dependent upon easy and cheap transportation facilities. One great reason why there were so many more immigrants from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and the Scandinavian countries, during the first three quarters of the nineteenth century, was that communication between those countries and the United States was so much easier than with southeastern Europe. The latter part of this century saw the establishment of many direct steamship lines from Mediterranean ports to the United States, which served to open up this new territory. There was also a great improvement in internal transportation in the more backward countries of Europe, which completed the line of access from the United States to the more remote interior districts of Europe.