Cities and towns; Social psychology; Sociology; Sociology, Urban
With a few trifling exceptions, all the countries from which the
present law _encourages_ immigration contributed to almshouse
pauperism in 1923 in _excess_ of their representation in the
population in 1920. On the other hand, again with a few trifling
exceptions, those countries from which the present immigration law was
especially framed to _discourage_ immigration appear in the lower part
of the diagram, because they contribute a _smaller_ proportion to
almshouse pauperism in 1923 than their representation in the general
population in 1920.
Two things strike me as significant in this connection: (1) It is the
recent immigrants who contribute least to the almshouse population; (2)
among these recent immigrants it is, apparently, those who for one
reason or another are least willing or able to participate in American
life who contribute the least to our almshouse population.
Why is this true? My own inference is that the decisive factors are not
biological, but sociological. The explanation of the almshouse
statistics, in other words, is less a matter of racial temperament than
of social tradition. It is the immigrants who have maintained in this
country their simple village religions and mutual aid organizations who
have been most able to withstand the shock of the new environment.
The whole subject needs to be investigated further. What would a
comparative study of different racial and language groups with reference
to disease, delinquency, and family disorganization show? What would a
comparison of the Japanese, Chinese, and Mexicans show with reference to
crime? I mention these three groups because they are living and working
side by side on the Pacific Coast.
The census of 1910 showed the Mexicans to have the highest crime rate of
any immigrant group in the United States. My conviction is that when we
obtain the facts we shall find that the Japanese have the lowest crime
rate, at least the lowest of any immigrant group on the Coast.
The explanation is that the Japanese—and the same is true of the
Chinese—have organized what we may call “control organizations” to deal
at once with disputes arising among themselves and with the larger
community outside.
The Japanese Association, like the Chinese Six Companies, is organized
to keep their nationals out of the courts. But the Japanese Association
is more than a court of arbitration and conciliation. Its function is
not merely to settle disputes, but to maintain the morale of the local
Japanese community and to promote in every practical way, mainly by
education, the efforts of the Japanese people to make their way in the
communities in which they live. With the possible exception of the Jews,
the Japanese are better informed than any other group about the
condition of their own people in America.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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