On the whole, the new immigration is more subject to debarment than the old, particularly for the cause of trachoma. This is a disease to which the races of southeastern Europe and Asia Minor are especially liable. A large part of the Syrians have it. In 1910 more than 3 per cent of all the Syrians who presented themselves for admission were refused for this cause alone. Inability for self-support is also much more common among the new than the old.
Reviewing this survey of the arriving immigrants, we find that as respects age and sex they are a body of persons remarkably well qualified for productive labor. The predominating races are now those of southern and eastern Europe, which are of a decidedly different stock from the original settlers of this country. There is a large percentage of illiteracy. The statistics of conjugal condition, combined with those of sex and age, show that our present immigration is in no sense an immigration of families. The great majority of the immigrants belong to the unskilled or common labor class, or else have no occupation. The bulk of the immigrants are destined to the North Atlantic and North Central divisions of the United States. The immigrants are a selected body, as far as this can be accomplished by a strict examination under the law. In spite of the care exercised by transportation companies on the other side, a considerable number of aliens are debarred each year, mainly for the causes of disease, inability for self-support, or labor contracts. In almost all of these respects the old immigration differs to a greater or less extent from the new, with the exception of the Hebrews, who stand apart from the rest of the new immigration in a number of important particulars.
CHAPTER XI
CONDITIONS OF IMMIGRANTS IN THE UNITED STATES. EFFECTS ON POPULATION. DISTRIBUTION
The student who turns to the investigation of immigration conditions within the United States at once finds himself hindered by a serious lack of material. As has been stated above, the Immigration Bureau furnishes practically no data concerning our alien residents after it bids them farewell at the immigration station. The Census Bureau furnishes certain valuable data, and the Immigration Commission has recently collected a vast amount of useful information. Occasional articles appear in the periodicals, and there are a few books touching on the subject. But there is a great need for more concrete, exhaustive, and sympathetic studies of single racial groups of immigrants, such as has been made by Miss Emily G. Balch in regard to the Slavs. There ought also to be a number of conscientious studies of different phases of immigrant life in this country—what might be called transverse sections of the problem, as the other studies are longitudinal sections. A number of valuable studies of the latter sort have been made by the Immigration Commission in its reports upon immigrants in industries, immigrants in cities, immigrants as charity seekers, etc. Other topics which might well be considered in a similar manner will be suggested by the following subjects: housing conditions among immigrants, the food of immigrants, the problem of assimilation, family life of the immigrants, religious life of the immigrants, etc. Until more work of this sort has been done most general conclusions must be admittedly tentative and subject to revision. Nevertheless, knowledge grows from the general to the particular, as well as in the reverse order, and it will not be without profit to review the data which are already at hand, and establish as many conclusions with a fair degree of certainty as may be possible.
At the time of the census of 1900 the population of the United States numbered 76,303,387. Of these 10,460,085 were foreign-born. In 1910 out of a total population of 91,972,266 there were 13,515,886 foreign-born. Out of about forty-five different groups, designated by the country of origin, the following are the most important:
| FOREIGN-BORN POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES WHOSE BIRTHPLACE WAS IN THE COUNTRY SPECIFIED | ||
|---|---|---|
| Birthplace | 1900 Number | 1910 Number |
| Austria | 276,702 | 1,174,973 |
| Canada (English or other) | 787,798 | 819,554 |
| Canada (French) | 395,427 | 385,083 |
| England | 843,491 | 877,719 |
| Germany | 2,669,164 | 2,501,333 |
| Ireland | 1,619,469 | 1,352,251 |
| Italy | 484,703 | 1,343,125 |
| Norway | 338,426 | 403,877 |
| Poland (all) | 383,595 | [[179]] |
| Russia | 424,372 | 1,602,782 |
| Sweden | 574,625 | 665,207 |
[179]. Distributed under Austria, Germany, and Russia.
When we remember the remarkable homogeneity of the inhabitants of the United States at the time of the Revolution, we seem justified in saying that one conclusion, at least, is established beyond any doubt, viz. that immigration to the United States since 1820 has resulted in a decided mixture of racial stock. For good or ill, the racial unity of the American people is a thing of the past.
There is another conclusion which might be drawn from the above figures, and which is in fact assumed by many writers, and in most popular discussions of the subject, which is not so well supported by facts. This is, that these foreign-born residents of the country, amounting to one seventh of the total, constitute a net addition to the population; in other words, that immigration has increased the total population of the country by an amount approximately equal to the number of immigrants, allowing, of course, for removals and deaths.
At first glance this may seem almost a self-evident proposition. That it is not, however, is evidenced by the strikingly large number of the deeper thinkers on the subject who hold the opposite view. Of these, the best known in this connection is General Francis A. Walker. In his discussion of this problem he says: “Space would not serve for a full statistical demonstration of the proposition that immigration, during the period from 1830 to 1860 instead of constituting a net reënforcement to the population, simply resulted in a replacement of native by foreign elements; but I believe it would be practicable to prove this to the satisfaction of every fair-minded man.”[[180]] Mr. Prescott F. Hall, who quotes this passage, holds firmly to the same opinion himself, and cites a number of other writers who are more or less positive in their statements of the causal relation between immigration and the diminishing native birth rate.