Jewish Immigration to the United States from 1881 to 1910: Studies in History, Economics and Public Law, Vol. LIX, No. 4, 1914Joseph, Samuel
History
Jewish Immigration to the United States from 1881 to 1910: Studies in History, Economics and Public Law, Vol. LIX, No. 4, 1914
Joseph, Samuel
Jews -- Europe; Jews -- United States; United States -- Emigration and 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.
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