The Gift of Black Folk: The Negroes in the Making of AmericaDu Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt)
History
The Gift of Black Folk: The Negroes in the Making of America
Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt)
African Americans -- History; United States -- Race relations
Ireland, Scotland and Wales came only 88,000 or about 6 out of every 100;
and from Norway, Sweden and Denmark came about 31,000 or 2 out of every
100.
Greece, France, Portugal, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Spain, Turkey, the
Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, and Roumania contributed virtually all
the remainder of our 1914 immigrants from Europe, given in the order of
importance.
However, we should bear in mind always that the country of origin or
nationality or jurisdiction (as determined by political boundaries) is
not always identical with race. Immigration statistics have followed
national or political boundaries. Take the immigrants from Russia. The
statistics say that 262,000 arrived from that country in 1914. But of
this number, less than 5 out of every 100 are Russians; the rest or 95
out of every 100, are Hebrews, Poles, Lithuanians, Finns and Germans.
Austria-Hungary was another country made of a medley of races. The
Germanic Austrians who ruled Austria and the Hungarian Magyars who ruled
Hungary were less than one-half of the total population of the one time
Austria-Hungary.
The record of alien arrivals from Poland is not accurate because it is
divided into three national statistical divisions—Russia, Germany and
Austria-Hungary. The best estimate is that the total Polish arrivals to
the United States since 1820 approximates 2,500,000.
The Slav, the Magyar, the German, the Latin, and the Jew were all in
Austria-Hungary and moreover, these were all numerously subdivided. The
most numerous of the Slavs are the Czechs and Slovaks. These gave the
United States in 1914 a combined immigration of 37,000. Poles, Ruthenians
and Roumanians also came here from northern Austria, and from the
vicinity of the Black Sea came Roumanians more Latin than Slavic. Besides
these, the one time dual kingdom sent Jews, Greeks and Turks.
Although the most important Slavic country of Europe is Russia, yet it
was from Austria-Hungary that we received most of our Slavic immigrants.
In 1914, as many as 23 out of every 100 of our total immigration were
Slavic, and the larger part of this racial group which reached 319,000
that year, came from Austria-Hungary.
That mere recording of country or origin does not give accurate racial
information is illustrated in the case of the many Greeks under Turkish
rule, and the large number of Armenians found in almost all large Turkish
towns. The Armenians are probably the most numerous of the immigrants
from Asia. In 1914, the total immigration from Turkey was about 20,000,
but the actual Turkish immigration was only 3,000. The remaining 27,000
were Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbians, Montenegrins, Syrians, Armenians and
Hebrews.[30]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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