As a general rule, the proportion of the Jewish in the total Russian immigration rises during the critical periods of these thirty years. Thus in 1891, the year of the Moscow expulsions, the Jewish immigrants constituted 91.6 per cent of the total immigration from Russia, and in the following year, under the same influences, 78.8 per cent. The years 1886 and 1887 are also signalized by the great proportion of the Jewish immigrants, who formed 79.2 per cent and 75.1 per cent, respectively, of the total Russian immigration for these years. In the last decade, when the Jewish participation in the total immigration had become relatively lessened, the three years which represented the climax of the movement, 1904, 1905 and 1906, show a higher relative proportion, 53.4 per cent, 50 per cent and 58.1 per cent, respectively, than the average for the decade or for the entire period.
Considering the proportions by decades,[68] we find that of the total of 213,282 Russian immigrants entering in the decade from 1881 to 1890, the Jewish immigrants contributed 135,003, or 63.3 per cent. Of a total of 505,280 Russian immigrants in the decade from 1891 to 1900, the Jewish immigrants numbered 279,811, or 55.4 per cent. In the last decade, from 1901 to 1910, of a total of 1,597,306 Russian immigrants, the Jewish immigrants were 704,245, or 44.1 per cent. The diminishing importance of the Jewish in the total Russian immigration, in spite of the fact that the former shows so great an increase, is due to the rapid growth of the immigration tendency among the other races in Russia, especially in the last decade.
Nevertheless, a closer examination of the relative participation by the various peoples of Russia in the immigration from that country from 1899 to 1910[69] shows that the Jews maintain their position of predominance, contributing a larger proportion to the total Russian immigration than any other people throughout this period, except in 1910, when the Poles contributed a slightly higher proportion to the immigration of that year. The Polish contribution is next to that of the Jews, attaining its maximum at a point where the Jewish immigration is at its lowest, relatively, in the twelve years.
The preceding sufficiently indicates the abnormal extent of the Russian Jewish immigration but its intensity may be judged further from the fact that though the Jews in Russia were less than one-twentieth of the total Russian population, they formed nearly half of the Russian immigrants to the United States. In other words, they were represented in the Russian immigration by more than eleven times their proportion in the Russian population. As, however, the emigration movement of the Russians proper is directed chiefly to Siberia, we may limit the comparison to the Pale, where the Jews are overwhelmingly concentrated, and where they constitute more than a tenth of the total population. Even with this limitation they were represented in the immigration to the United States by more than four times their proportion of the population.
Another method of judging the degree of intensity of the Russian Jewish movement is to compare the proportion the number of Jewish immigrants for a period bears to the total Jewish population in Russia—their rate of immigration—with that of the other Russian peoples represented in the immigration to the United States. The rate of immigration of the Jews is by far the highest among the peoples of Russia. From 1899 to 1910 the Jewish immigrants to the United States constituted on the average one out of every 79 of the Jewish population in Russia.[70] The Finnish immigrants constituted one out of every 191 Finns, the Polish immigrants one out of every 200 Poles, and the Russian immigrants proper one out of every 11,552 of the Russian population. The relative position of the Jews is thus strikingly indicated. The rate of immigration truly becomes an index of the economic and social pressure to which the Jews have been subjected for a third of a century. This rate of immigration for the Jews, moreover, shows large fluctuations in the twelve years from 1899 to 1910.[71] Of every 10,000 Jews in Russia there came to this country on the average for the twelve years from 1899 to 1910, 125 Jews. From 1899 to 1903 the annual rate of immigration was much lower than the average. In 1904, with the beginning of the critical years, the annual rate rose to 152, and in 1905, to 181. It reached its climax in 1906, with 246, almost twice as large as the average for the entire period. It fell slightly below this in 1907 with 226. In 1908, there was a great fall to 141, though the rate was still above the average for the period.
The movement of the Russian Jews to this country in the last thirty years is seen to be steadily rising and to reach enormous dimensions in the last decade. The Jews are more largely represented in the movement from Russia than any other people, and predominate practically for the entire thirty years. The rate of immigration is abnormally high, as compared with that of any other of the immigrant races from Russia. For the most part the Russian Jewish immigration reflects the unusual situation confronting the Jews in Russia.
FOOTNOTES:
[63] Cf. [table IX], p. 162.