Economic Opportunities and Some Pilgrims' Progress: Jewish Immigrants from Eastern Europe in the U.S., 1890–1914

Abstract

The purpose of the following essay is to evaluate the existing economic opportunities for Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe and to indicate the pace of their economic progress during the period 1890–1914. This purpose can best be achieved by viewing the mass migration of these European Jews in the proper perspective, that is, in terms of the dynamics of their situation at the places of original habitat; second, by differentiating successive cohorts of immigrants in terms of their skill composition, literacy, and degree of experienced urbanization, all elements important for the adaptability to and utilization of existing economic opportunities; third, by analyzing the structure of the U.S. industries that provided employment opportunities to the East European Jewish immigrants; fourth, by assuming the income level and standard of living of the native-born labor force as the yardstick for measuring the economic progress of the immigrants. Such an approach may broaden our understanding of the mechanism of adjustment that enabled the Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe both to take advantage of existing economic opportunities and to create new ones.

A gravity model of immigration

“…Evidence shows that current immigration is correlated with earlier immigrant flows because the cost of adapting to a new society is mitigated by the presence of compatriots familiar with both the source and destination country cultures. For example, Kahan (1978), Murayama (1991), Rephann and Vencataawmy (2000) find distinctive ethnic concentrations of immigrants in the United States, and Zawodny (1997) finds that family ties overwhelm other factors in determining immigration. Evidence also shows that immigration is larger, ceteris paribus, when the language and culture in the destination country is familiar.…”

Immigration and the American industrial revolution from 1880 to 1920

“…Immigrants provided the majority of added workers in the rapidly growing iron and steel industry, machinery manufacturing, and textiles and apparel. The dominance of the Eastern European immigrants in apparel manufacture (and trade) in New York City is well known (Kahan 1978), but immigrants were also over-represented in mining and construction and throughout the heavy industries in the Northeast and Midwest.…”

Parental belief and parental engagement: how do they interact?

“…By Jewish peculiarity, he means that success accrues from beliefs and/or behaviours which are specific to this population, such as the Rabbinic value placed on education (Chiswick 1993;Lehrer 2004a;McDermott 2002), or an orientation toward the present world rather than the future (Lehrer 2004a;Featherman 1971). Burstein also cites mutual assistance arising out of the Diaspora experience (Kahan 1978) but this actually fits in better under the heading of social capital.…”