Chapter CXXV: Section CCLXII: (a)

TEMPORARY EMIGRATION.

Besides definitive emigration, temporary emigration deserves special consideration. If the wages of labor are much lower in one locality than in another which is easily accessible,[262a-1] the workmen of the former place resolve much more readily on periodical migrations thither than on permanent settlements in the place. It is especially the difficult work of harvesting, where farmers are pressed for time,[262a-2] and that of house-building,[262a-3] which are undertaken by these birds of passage; and mountainous regions, with their limited agriculture, their late crops and their longing look into the far-off which is found united with a deep-rooted attachment to home, are the places whence they come.[262a-4] When their home is distinguished in certain branches of labor, they are wont to carry these with them abroad, and in such case their sojourn away from home is generally longer.[262a-5] The shorter and the more vagabond-like their migration, the less apt is it to be an economic blessing to the wanderers themselves.[262a-6] There must necessarily result, as a consequence, a species of equalization between the rates of wages in the country receiving and the country furnishing them.[262a-7] This may be a great national misfortune for the latter, inasmuch as its working class may thus be forced to a lower standard of life, and all their providence and self-control in the founding of a family be made fruitless by the arrival of less capable foreigners.[262a-8] The hatred existing among the members of a higher class for parvenus from a lower corresponds in this respect to the mutual hatred of two countries for the natives of the other, (_v. Mangoldt_.) Considered from the point of view of the country furnishing these migratory classes, temporary emigration has this advantage over definitive emigration, that the persons leaving the country always maintain their economic connection with their home.[262a-9] The most striking example of this is afforded by those merchants, ship-owners, etc. who are, so to speak, pioneers in foreign markets for Switzerland and Bremen. Only there is always danger of a crisis when the usual flow is suddenly checked.[262a-10]

[Footnote 262a-1: The locust-like emigration from Ireland to
England takes three principal directions: from Dublin to
Liverpool, from Cork to Bristol, from the North-East to
Scotland. This even before 1835. (_Berkeley_, Querist, Nr.,
526 ff.) Great increase since the fare has been reduced on
the steamers to from 4 to 6 pence. (Edinburg Rev., XLV, 54
ff.; XLVII, 236 ff.)]

[Footnote 262a-2: Thus mowers emigrate from Württemberg and
the Odenwald into the valley of the Rhine; inhabitants of
the Alps into the South German plains, and the inhabitants
of the sandy and healthy localities into the Hanoverian
marshes and Holland; inhabitants of the Brabant into France.
Many go from Waesland, 5 and 6 miles distant from Holland,
to sow a field manured and plowed by the owner with flax,
and afterwards to weed and harvest it, etc., and at their
own expense. (_Schwerz_, Belg. Landwirthschaft, II, 105.)
Even in the sixteenth century, 20,000 Frenchmen went every
year to Spain in harvest time. (_Boden_, Responsio ad
Paradoxa, 49.) Migration of the East-goers (_Ostgeher_) from
Wartebruch as far as Poland and Russia (_Frühling_, N.
Landwirthsch., Ztg., 1870, 451 ff.) Galicians go into the
Polish plains, and Poles into the Prussian low country (_v.
Haxthausen_, Ländl. Verfassung, I, 99); Russians from the
populous district of Oreland Poltawa etc. into the Southern
steppes (_Kohl_, Reise, II, 118), and also out of Northern
woody districts to Jaroslay, where they give themselves to
the cultivation of the fields (_v. Haxthausen_, Studien, V,
198); Gallegos into the Portuguese wine region; inhabitants
of the Abruzzi into the Roman Campagna (_Galiani_, Della
Moneta, V, 4); Calabrians to Naples. In Tuscany, almost the
entire cultivation of the unhealthy plains is done by the
inhabitants of the mountains. Even in Africa migrations by
the _fulahs_ into the plains before them (_Ritter_,
Erdkunde, I, 349); of the inhabitants of the cataracts of
the Nile into Lower Egypt, where they remain from six to
eight years, and where they are in great favor because of
their honesty as gate-keepers and pack-carriers.
(_Burckhardt_, Travels, 147.)]

[Footnote 262a-3: In Paris, a great many masons and
carpenters from Lothringen and Limousin, who return after
from 6 to 7 months. The number of these migratory building
workmen is estimated at over 40,000. (_Wolowski._) Thus
thousands of brick makers migrate from Vicentini and Friaul
into Austria and Hungary; from the vicinity of lakes Como
and Lugan, masons have been spread over all Italy, and this,
it is said, has been going on a thousand years, (_v.
Rumohr_, Reise in die Lombardei, 135 ff.) Yearly migration
of about 3,000 brick finishers from Lippe-Detmold, which is
very opportunely directed by the government. (_F. G.
Schulze_, Nat. Oek., 606.)]

[Footnote 262a-4: In the Apennines, almost every valley has
its own migration-district. Thus the Modeneses go to
Corsica, and the Parmesanes to England. The migration from
the German Tyrol amounts yearly to between 16,000 and 17,000
men. (_v. Reden_, Zeitschrift für Statistik, 1848, 522.) In
the Canton of Tessin, over 11,000 passes are given for this
purpose yearly; that is, to more than 10 per cent. of the
entire population. The majority go to Upper Italy, but some
go to Russia. The cheese-makers, pack-carriers and dealers
in chestnuts, migrate from fall to spring; masons, glaziers,
etc. in summer.]

[Footnote 262a-5: Savoyards as "shoe-blacks" etc. in Paris
(_L. Faucher_, La Colonie des S. à Paris); Portuguese, as
peddlers and pack-carriers in large cities in Brazil
(_Jahn_, Beitr., 33); Gallegos in the large cities of Spain
and Portugal as water-carriers; Bergamasks, in Milan and
Genoa as pack-servants, where they constitute a kind of
guild; the inhabitants about Lake Orta (south of the Lago
Maggiore) as waiters, and hence the inns there are very
good; Bohemian musicians, who carry on quite a different
business at home during the winter; Grisons, as
confectioners all over Europe. Many villages obtain from
this source 20,000 florins. (_Röder und Tscharner_, C.
Graübundten, I, 337.) There are at this time about three
million people from China, and almost exclusively from the
conquered and oppressed province of Fokien, in Farther
India, where they execute the finer kinds of labor.
(_Ritter_, Erdkunde, IV, 787 ff.)]

[Footnote 262a-6: In Tessin, the fields are tilled, and
badly enough, by old men, women etc. The men spend in the
taverns and in all kinds of vice what they saved during the
working season (_Franscini_, C. Tessen, 156 ff.) Those who
migrate from the vicinity of Osnabrück into Holland are said
to bring back with them yearly about 100,000 thalers; but
their abstinence from warm food, their bivouacking etc., to
which they have recourse for the sake of frugality, lays the
germs of numberless diseases. (_J. Möser_, P. Ph, I, 14 ff.)
There are serious complaints of the demoralization of women
produced in England by the gang-system, in which roving
workmen, mostly Irish, are employed under a gang master to
perform contract work. (_L. Faucher_, Etudes sur l'Angleterre,
2, ed. I, 383, ff.)]

[Footnote 262a-7: Hence, for instance, Osnabrück complained
bitterly of the migration to Holland, because it raised the
wages of servants. However, the absolute freedom of removal
from one place to another produces not only a leveling of
wages, but also an absolute rise of the rate of wages, as
may be seen by contrasting it with the _glebae adscriptio_.
Compare _supra_, § 160.]

[Footnote 262a-8: Great danger to the national life of the
English people by immigration from Ireland. The Irish
laborers, bare-footed and ragged, restricting themselves to
potatoes and whisky, have carried their disgusting habit of
living in cellars, and of congregating several families
together into one room, even with pigs as companions, over
to England. (_Th. Carlyle_, On Chartism, 28 ff.; _G. C.
Lewis_, The Condition of the Irish in England.) It is said
that, in 1819, in London alone, there were over 70,000
Irish; in 1826, over 119,000. (Edinb. Rev. XLVII.) Even _J.
S. Mill_ would have no hesitation to prohibit this
emigration to prevent the economic contagion spreading to
English workmen. (Principles, I, ch. 14, 6.) Fortunately now
Irish emigration has taken the direction of America, where
there is more room. Whether in future Chinese emigration may
not greatly endanger the condition of the lower classes,
first in America and Australia, and then indirectly in
Europe, _quære_. It is estimated that between 1856 and 1859,
78,817 Chinese emigrated to the United States. In Australia,
to deter them from immigration, a tax of £10 per capita has
been imposed on their entry into the country. (_Fawcett_,
Manual, 107.)]

[Footnote 262a-9: Of the East Indian coolies who had gone to
Demarara, 469 returned in September, 1869, after having
saved in five years, £11.235. (_Appun_, Unter den Troppen,
II, 34).]

[Footnote 262a-10: The Grisons had, during the 17th century,
accustomed themselves to living some time in the Venetian
territory as shoemakers, 1,000 at a time. The blow was all
the more severe when Venice, in 1766, expelled all the
families. Since that time most of the Grison confectionaries
in the principal cities of Europe have had their origin.
(_Röder und Tcharner_, C. Graudbundten, I, 56.) The practice
of engaging mercenaries as troops was of great assistance,
especially in the interior of Switzerland. During the war of
1690 ff., there were nearly 36,000 Swiss hirelings in the
French army. Shortly before 1789, even during the period of
peace in France, Italy, Spain and Holland, their number may
be estimated to have been at least 30,000. (_Meyer v.
Knonau_, Gesch. der Schweiz. Eidgenossenschaft, II, 104,
464.) No wonder, therefore, that the cessation of the Swiss
guards caused a frightful crisis. Expulsion of the
Tessinians from Lombardy, 1853.]