Page 106 [106]
OCR
BALÁZS VENKOVITS Despite this, emigration from the Kingdom of Hungary did not stop after the enactment of the Emigration Act; on the contrary, it continued to increase, with more than 200,000 people arriving in the United States in the peak year of 1907 alone. Since the existing restrictions had proved ineffective, a new Act was adopted, which took the form of Act II of 1909 on Emigration, which specified the definition of emigrants more precisely, introduced tighter restrictions and limitations for various groups to reduce emigration in different ways.’ This Act remained in force until 1961.’° However, despite the concerted efforts of the Hungarian government, it was not these regulations, but the changes in American immigration policies and the First World War that ended the largest wave of emigration and shaped the 1920s. In reaction to the First World War, Hungary introduced measures (prohibiting the migration of people who had to start their military service), but the decisive restrictions came in 1917 (and the entry of the US into the Great War) from the other side of the Atlantic. 1924 marks a major borderline in Hungarian emigration with the final form of the US quota system introduced, ending mass emigration to the country. Hungarians started looking for alternative destinations, primarily in France, Belgium, Argentina, Brazil, and most importantly, from our perspective, Canada." As has already been noted, the United States witnessed one of the largest waves of immigration to the country at the turn of the century, with approximately 24 million people arriving between 1881 and the 1920s. During this period of New Immigration, the composition of immigrants (in terms of ethnicity, race, and religion) differed significantly from those arriving decades before and already living in the country. A large proportion of these people came from Eastern and Southern Europe, mostly peasants from the less-developed regions of Europe, and mainly from villages and small towns.” By and large, Hungarian immigration was typical of migration from Eastern European at the time: most of the immigrants were young and male, had no industrial skills, and took “dirty, industrial jobs at wages that were low for America but high for Hungary.”!* Their primary aim was to save as much money as possible, and send or take the money back with them. Thus although the country needed a large number of immigrants for its development, due to the different ethnic Preamble to Act II of 1909 on Emigration, available at: https://net.jogtar.hu/ezer-ev-torveny? docid=90900002.T VI&searchUrl=/ezer-ev-torvenyei%3Fpagenum%3D46 (accessed 10 May 2020). Péter Bencsik, Útiokmányok, utazási lehetőségek és határforgalom a 20. századi Magyarországon, Regio, Vol. 13, No. 2 (2002), 32. Balázs Pálvölgyi, A magyar migrációs politika átalakulása a 20. század első negyedében, Magyar közigazgatás, Vol. 1 (2018), 204—222. Roger Daniels, Coming to America: A History of Immigration and Ethnicity in American Life, New York, Perennial, 2002. 8 Ibid., 233. + 104 +
