Staying Viable

Berthoff, Ann E.; Berthoff, Warner

doi:10.2307/356639

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“…11 Almost any occupation was found among return migrants: miners, stone cutters, men from the building trades, iron workers, machine builders, potters, sailors, stevedores and textile workers. 12 Reasons for return migration seem to have included family affairs, health problems, and dislike for different customs only to a very limited degree. The main calculation was job availability and wages.…”

Section: Early Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Immigration and the Working Class: The Remigration Factor

Hoerder

1982

Inter. Labor Working-Class Hist.

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While most historians of the American working class are devoting considerable attention to its ethnic composition and the the influx of European (and to a lesser degree Asian and Spanish-American) workers, few have taken into account the remigration. Even if it is argued that the majority of the newcomers stayed in the U.S. (60% on the average), the remigration factor continues to be of importance. Permanent immigrants sometimes can be categorized as such only retrospectively; they frequently came with an intention to return and kept that intention up to the end of their working lives. Thus we have to deal with three general categories, permanent immigrants, temporary immigrants who postponed departure as to finally end their lives in the U.S., and immigrants who returned after a limited period of time, sometimes crossing the ocean several times in both directions. 1 It is probable that an individual's class consciousness, degree of organizational activities and militancy hinged crucially on whether he perceived himself locked into the (American) working class or as a temporary "visitor." Furthermore remigration may have had (and may have) considerable impact on the international character of the working class in the areas of origin. In view of the importance of this problem it is surprising how few historians have dealt with it. Partly, this may be explained by the recurrent myth of America as the land of opportunity taking in the poor and huddled masses. Even Marxist historians in the U.S. are not immune to such ideological blindfolds. In addition, the history of return migration is by definition comparative history requiring knowledge of several languages and familiarity with more than one culture. This essay proposes to accomplish two things: first, review the literature on remigration from North America (mainly the United States) to Europe until the Great Depression, and second, ask which studies of contemporary working-class migration in Europe may contribute to a better understanding of historical migration. It is a call to labor historians not to leave the field to migration historians, to engage in comparative history and to learn the extent to which the working classes in the several nations were international or ethnically fragmented in character.

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Section: Early Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Immigration and the Working Class: The Remigration Factor

Hoerder

1982

Inter. Labor Working-Class Hist.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Staying Viable

Cited by 1 publication

References 0 publications

Immigration and the Working Class: The Remigration Factor

Immigration and the Working Class: The Remigration Factor

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