Oldal 102 [102]
BALÁZS VENKOVITS
INTRODUCTION
In the 1920s, a young man called Andras Takacs set out from Novajidrany,
a small village in the north-eastern part of Hungary and emigrated to Canada,
where he hoped he would be able to provide a better future for his family. His
two eldest daughters soon followed him, while the rest of the family stayed
behind, waiting for the father to return or for a more suitable time to follow the
head of the family. While the eldest daughters, Terike (Theresa) and Erzsike
(Elisabeth), got married and settled down in Canada, Andras returned to his
wife and other children in his native Hungary and used his hard-earned money
to start a new life there. Andras’ immigration story is one of thousands from
a time when Canada represented a major destination for Hungarian emigrants
looking for better opportunities after the devastation of the Great War and
its consequences for Hungary: emigrating from Hungary with an agricultural
background, leaving (parts of) the family behind with the ultimate goal of
earning money and returning home. Just a few years before, he would have
likely joined the tens of thousands of Hungarians who immigrated into the
United States at the height of the New Immigration. However, by the 1920s
the “Nation of Immigrants” had effectively closed its gates to East-Central
European immigrants, while Canada was opening up. Thus, for a few years
Canada became one of the primary destinations for Hungarian immigrants;
indeed, as a result of the opportunities in Canada, immigration propaganda,
and the activities of immigration agents, the country became the “New Mecca
of Immigrants”.
Figure 1: András Takács standing between his daughter Borbála and son Béla in
1934 in Novajidrány after returning from Canada. Photo courtesy of Snawn Danko.
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