Jewish Immigration to the United States from 1881 to 1910 / Studies in History, Economics and Public Law, Vol. LIX, No. 4, 1914

by Samuel Joseph

In the period between 1899 and 1909 the proportion of children under fourteen years of age in the Jewish immigration was 24.8 per cent, while that in the total immigration was only 12.3 per cent.[100] The Jewish thus had proportionately twice as many children as the total immigration.

The exceptional position of the Jews in regard to their family movement is most strikingly shown when the composition of the Jewish immigration by sex and age is compared with that of the other immigrant peoples.[101] In a comparison with immigrant races which contributed more than 100,000 to the total immigration from 1899 to 1910, the Jews are seen to have a higher proportion of females than any other people except the Irish. The Irish present in this regard an anomaly, in that they have more females than males in their immigration. That it is not in the main a family movement is shown by reference to the proportion of children under fourteen in the Irish immigration, which is only 5 per cent, one of the lowest in the entire series. The anomaly is easily explained by the well-known fact that their females for the most part are single, who come to the United States to work as servants.[102]

Only one other people, the Bohemian and Moravian, approached the Jewish in its high proportion of females. On the other hand, the one people with a larger immigration than the Jewish, the South Italian, presents a striking contrast to the Jewish immigration, in that its proportion of females was about half that of the Jews. Although its immigrants numbered twice as many as the Jewish, the females in the Italian movement were only 408,965, as compared with 466,620 females in the Jewish immigration.

A comparison of the immigrant peoples with reference to their composition by age shows that the Jewish movement contains without any exception the largest proportion of children.[103] Out of a total of 990,182 Jewish immigrants from 1899 to 1909, 245,787, or 24.8 per cent, were children under fourteen. In this regard, again, the Bohemian and Moravian approach the Jewish, though not as closely as in the proportion of females. The contrast with the South Italians obtains here as well. As the Jewish immigration, during the twelve years from 1899 to 1910, was the second highest in numbers, contributing more than a million to the total, the number of females and children found in its movement was higher than that of any other immigrant race, not only relatively but absolutely as well.

Most striking, indeed, is the contrast in these respects between the Jewish immigrants and the other races coming from the countries of Eastern Europe, particularly the Slavic immigrant races with whom the Jews have been associated in the official statistics.[104] An examination of the proportion of females in the immigration of the eight races composing the Slavic group, shows that, with the exception of the Bohemians and Moravians (whose movement presents strong similarities to that of the Jews), the percentage of females was less than a third of the total immigration of each race, the highest being that of the Poles, which was 30.5 per cent. The contrast is even more striking in respect to children under fourteen. Here, again, excluding the Bohemians and Moravians, the highest percentage in the group was that of the Poles, 9.5 per cent. In this respect, therefore, the association of the Jewish immigrants with the other immigrants from Eastern Europe, under the rubric "Slavic races", is seen to be untenable.

Strongest of all is the contrast between the Jewish immigration and that of the Roumanian people.[105] The Roumanian movement is seen to be composed practically wholly of individuals, only 9 per cent being females, while that of the people from Roumania (nine-tenths of whom are Jews[106]) is seen to have a proportion of females higher even than that in the total Jewish immigration. Even greater is the contrast with respect to age, only 2.2 per cent of the Roumanians being children under fourteen.

The division of the peoples represented in the immigration to the United States into "old" and "new", the former consisting of the peoples from Northern and Western Europe, the latter of the peoples from Southern and Eastern Europe, is a convenient classification essentially of two periods of immigration coinciding largely with changes in the economic conditions in the United States.

A comparison of the proportion of females and children in the "old" and the "new" immigration with that in the Jewish shows that the Jewish immigration has proportionately almost twice as many females as the "new" immigration (Jews excepted), and surpasses even the "old" immigration in this regard.[107] Of children under fourteen the Jewish movement has proportionately more than two and one-half times as many as the "new" immigration (Jews excepted), and nearly twice as many as the "old" immigration.

This analysis shows conclusively that the Jewish immigration is essentially a family movement; that it is approached by no other immigrant people in this regard; that it not only cannot be classed with the "new" immigration, but shows a tendency towards family movement far stronger than that of the peoples composing the "old" immigration.

The significance of this characteristic of the Jewish immigration is obvious. Their unequaled family movement gives one of the clearest indications that the Jewish immigrants are essentially composed of permanent settlers.