Immigration : $b A world movement and its American significanceFairchild, Henry Pratt
History
Immigration : $b A world movement and its American significance
Fairchild, Henry Pratt
Emigration and immigration; United States -- Emigration and immigration
That the situation was partially, at least, comprehended also in England
is evidenced by a burlesque poem entitled “Immiscible Immigration,”
written in that country, which commences with the following words:
“The tide of emigration still flows fast;
Millions of souls remove their bodies corporate—
Columbia’s shores will be o’erstocked at last,
And Yankees must support them by a pauper rate.
Others,
With their brothers,
Fathers and mothers,
Rush to Australia,” etc.[72]
While the dangers from pauperism and criminality were probably the
leading causes for opposition to immigration, at this time, other
broader and deeper objections were beginning to be felt and to be
expressed in current writings. In the _North American Review_ for April,
1835 (p. 457), there is a very sane, calm and convincing article by Mr.
A. H. Everett, in which the disadvantages of immigration are set forth.
Many of the stock arguments of to-day are well set forth here, among
them, of course, the dangers from pauperism and crime, but also the
dangers of a heterogeneous population, of poor assimilation, congestion
in cities, misuse of political power, and the growth of foreign
colonies. The author questions whether the immigrants are really filling
the demand for labor, and urges the necessity of furnishing the
immigrants with information about different sections of the country, and
advising them about their destination. He also feels the need of much
greater discrimination in the admission of aliens.
In the same magazine, in the issue for January, 1841, there is an
article entitled “The Irish in America,” in which the author names as
one of the great grievances against the immigrants that they do more
work for less money than the native workingmen, and live on a lower
standard, thereby decreasing wages. This is one of the earliest
expressions which we find of this objection, and shows that by this time
the country had passed beyond the primitive stage where there was room
enough for everybody, and no fear of economic competition. It is the
foreshadowing of modern conditions and modern thought.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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