TIMOTHY L. POWELL with collaboration and editing by GIANANTONIO (JONATHAN) MICHELON

About the authors:

Timothy L. Powell, senior undergraduate student, St. Mary’s University, San Antonio, TX

Gianantonio (Jonathan) Michelon, Adjunct Professor of Political Science, St. Mary’s University, San Antonio, TX

A Brief Examination of the Causes of Immigration to the United States Before and After the Two World Wars

Introduction

The United States, for good reason, is often called a nation of immigrants. Almost every person in the country is a descendant of an immigrant. Immigration has been a major source of cultural change and population growth in the United States, although those of foreign born status have never accounted for more than fifteen percent of the population since 1675. But where did these immigrants come from and why did they leave their home countries? Did an immigrant from a particular nation have any kind of specific advantage over an immigrant from another country? Numerous articles and books have been written about this subject, so I propose to narrow the field even more and briefly examine not only the movement of immigrants into the United States during the years prior to World War One, specifically the years 1900 to 1914, and the years between the first and second World Wars, particularly 1918 to 1938, but also for the reasons of their movement, and to look specifically at the countries of Italy and The United Kingdom.

History

Immigration has always played a very large part in the ever changing history of the United States. Between 1870 and 1914, 34 million Europeans left their home country, and over 27 million of them headed to the United States[1]. But what about the people from Italy and the United Kingdom? Why did they decide to make the long journey across the Atlantic Ocean to the United States?

England at the turn of the century was the workshop of the world[2]. Her commerce, exports and industrial activity were all booming as never before. The sun never set on the British Empire as it stretched across the globe and led the world in manufacturing. However, many citizens of the United Kingdom saw the future in uncertain terms. To them, the days of prosperity and optimism were over. The movement of people from the country side to urban centers such as London and Manchester created poverty, disease and suffering at such an extreme level that even the royal family was not immune to the horrors of cholera that were caused by the tainted water supply flowing through London.

At the dawn of the twentieth century, Italy had achieved statehood only thirty-nine years earlier in 1861 under King Victor Emmanuel II. Before gaining statehood, Italy existed as a collection of nation states. The bulk of the land in Italy, as in many other rural non-industrialized countries, was in the hands of the state, church, or large land owners. In the rural areas, a large landless proletariat began to emerge. These landless peasants were predominantly tenants, or at best, partial owners of the land they occupied. After Italy gained statehood, it still faced serious challenges, from both within the country and without.

What were the causes of immigration? While no single factor can explain all immigration, several common factors can be discerned. Issues such as the difference between real wages between the United States and other countries, the rate of population growth in a country twenty to thirty years before, perceived political and economic conditions in the United States, the varying degrees of industrialization and urbanization and the number of previous immigrants from the home country in the United States.

The Pre World War I Years: 1900 to 1914

The arrival of the twentieth century was a major turning point for the entire world. Accelerated scientific understanding, better transportation and faster communication transformed the world in ways that were impossible to imagine just fifty years before, and these changes occurred seemingly overnight. The beginning of the new century saw a remarkable shift in the way a vast number of people lived their lives. But those same changes, including economic, political and social change, often had unforeseen and quite unexpected effects on the countries’ population.

Between 1900 and 1914, a total of nearly 13 million immigrants entered the United States[3]. As one may expect, the majority of immigrants to the United States came from Europe, with the greater majority of them coming from the countries of Germany and Ireland. Smaller numbers of immigrants also entered the United States from countries as varied as Russia, Norway and Sweden. But what about the immigrants that came from the United Kingdom and Italy? Why did they decide to make the trip across the Atlantic? Did one group have a particular advantage over the other?

Indeed, by the end of 1914, before the start of The War to End All Wars, immigration from England to the United States numbered almost 3.5 million people. Many sought to escape the increasing horrors of urban life brought on by the mass migration of people from the rural country side. Those that continued to live in these massive urban centers such as London, Manchester and Liverpool faced constant threats such as eviction from their homes due to the burden of high rents from uncaring landlords, the risk of severe injury or even death because of poor working conditions due to unscrupulous factory owners, and finally, they lived with tremendous health problems because of improper sanitary conditions throughout the cities and towns.

The death of the beloved Queen Victoria in 1901 saw the popular Prince of Wales ascend the throne and become Edward VII. Although known as Edward the Peacemaker, there were growing forces of discontent and resentment felt by many parts of the population. England existed in a kind of ‘twilight zone’[4] as the balance of power in Europe began to change in many different areas. The rise of the Labour Party from impoverished workers unions in England also signaled a drastic change in the local political climate. The issue of using tariffs to protect local and national industry also helped to create very trying times in the United Kingdom. For many people of England, immigration was seen as a way out.

As the world progressed from the nineteenth to the twentieth century, the situation was vastly different over one thousand miles to the south of England. Italy was still a very young, mostly rural, non-industrialized country. This new nation faced many daunting problems. A large debt combined with almost no industry or transportation facilities, few natural resources, extreme poverty, a high illiteracy rate, and an uneven tax structure created substantial burdens for the Italian people. Regionalism ran rampant through the country and very few people held the right to vote. The Pope, still angered about the loss of Papal lands and Rome, refused to recognize Italy as a country. Heavy handed government repression resulted in banditry and peasant anarchism in the countryside. The gap in income increased as the north grew richer and the south fell deeper and deeper into poverty. It is clear that Italy was becoming a crisis ridden, dissatisfied country. Those that wished for a change saw emigration as the only possible solution to their problems.

Between 1900 and 1914, nearly 8 million immigrants left Italy, with about 3 million remaining in Europe. By 1914 nearly one and a half million Italians lived in the United States. Italian immigrants settled primarily in the large urban areas of the United States such as New York and Chicago.

The arrival of World War I signaled a drastic change in immigration to the United States. From 1905 until the start of the war, immigration to the United States numbered almost one million annually. After the beginning of the war, immigration was only a small percentage of what it had been before the war.

The Inter War Years: 1918 to 1938

The inter war years of 1918 to 1938 were unstable and frightening times for many of the countries and inhabitants of Europe. Three hundred years of European hegemony came to an end. Most of Europe lay in ruin thanks to the advancement of national military forces and war technology. New national boundaries were drawn; entirely new countries emerged from the devastation of The Great War as former world empires disappeared. As the population tried to recover from the devastation and horrors of World War I, many people saw their future elsewhere, perhaps in the land of one of the victors of World War I, the United States.

The flow of immigrants from the same countries continued as before during these years, only this time there were new countries from which immigrants could come. The nation of Czechoslovakia rose from the tattered remains of the Austro-Hungarian Empire[5]. Poland was once again recognized as its own country in 1918 after an absence from the world stage of almost 130 year. But, in spite of all these factors, the reasons for immigration, with a few exceptions, had not significantly changed.

There was one change, however, that severely impacted the flow of immigrants into the United States after World War I. On May 19^th, 1921 the Emergency Quota Act, also known as the Johnson Quota Act was passed. This act was a quota that limited the number of immigrants from Europe allowed into the United States to about 350,000 per year. The Johnson Quota Act limited the annual number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country to 3% of the number of persons living in that country in the United States in 1910. This act was a direct result of the swelling tide of isolationism and non-interventionism that swept through the United States in the wake of World War I. Other actions taken by the United States at this time include the refusal of the U.S. Congress to endorse the Treaty of Versailles or the League of Nations.

As her soldiers returned from the unprecedented horrors of World War I, they found a United Kingdom beset by increasing labor unrest and strikes, increasing unrest in her colonies around the world, continuing political and social unrest in Ireland as it sought to untangle itself from the United Kingdom, and a weakening economy. Mass unemployment ensued after Winston Churchill returned the country to the gold standard in 1925.

When Hitler rose to power in post World War I Germany, a tide of nationalism spread over the continent. Clouds of war could be seen forming on the horizon. Many citizens of the United Kingdom saw a better life for themselves across the ocean.

Italy went through a similar situation in some ways, but very different in others: because of World War I, the country was plunged into deep political and social crisis. Veterans returning from the war, desperate and hungry peasants, thousands of unemployed workers and a frightened middle class helped to make Italy a very unsettled nation. Extreme nationalists from the Socialist and new Popular political parties advocated for territorial expansion, while worker strikes and the constant threat of revolution added to the palpable sense of unease.

This constant tension was a key factor in the rise to power of the dictator Benito Mussolini, a former revolutionary socialist who imposed a totalitarian regime, destroyed civil liberties and outlawed all other political parties. His rise to power came about by the use of terror and constitutional subversion. His foreign policy, based on aggression and expansion, ultimately lead to the alliance between Italy and Hitler’s Germany and later to World War II. All of these factors, either individually or a combination of some, lead to thousands of citizens to seek a better life elsewhere, either in Europe, South America or the United States.

Conclusion

As it can be seen, there were numerous reasons why the citizens of the United Kingdom and Italy sought a new life for themselves away from their countries. Conditions such as labor unrest, unjust or repressive political conditions, poor working conditions, poor or unhealthy living conditions, or the threat of war all lead the people of these countries to look for a better future somewhere other than their homeland. In the United States at the beginning of the twentieth century, immigration was seen as less of a threat than during the interwar years of 1918 to 1938. During those particular years, government intervention was seen as the proper response to immigration as the United States sought a more isolationist standing. Unfortunately, it seems that the United States is mired in this same mindset at the dawn of the twenty-first century. Only time will tell if history is going to repeat itself or if other, more open minded options can be discovered.

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