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“THE NEw MECCA OF IMMIGRANTS”... THE ROLE OF IMMIGRATION BOOSTER LITERATURE AND ANTI-EMIGRATION RESPONSES As already noted, early Hungarian government measures concerning emigration targeted the activities of immigration agents largely because these played a major role in the propagation of migration in various parts of Hungary. The diverse propaganda materials, booklets, pamphlets, posters, etc. presented both the United States and Canada as attractive destinations for emigrants, with “news of prospects in America spread[ing] rapidly even to the most remote villages in Hungary. Literature promoting emigration was widely disseminated and dozens of agents representing competing companies travelled through the countryside to recruit immigrants.”** The positive images propagated in these publications were often reinforced by the letters (and money) sent by migrants to the home country, in which they often reported on high wages and great opportunities, while they tended to remain silent on possible hardships and failures. The Hungarian government tried to counteract these (often overtly positive) accounts by informing would-be immigrants of the risks they would be taking and the dangers they might face. This meant drawing attention to challenges related to the transAtlantic voyage itself, harsh and often abusive treatment, the lowly status designated to immigrants, dangerous jobs, and a sense of loneliness and homesickness, among other issues. However, as Tibor Glant argues, people tended “to disbelieve their government, although it was telling the truth, and accepted at face value what their relatives and fellow villagers told them about the New World, although these accounts were blatantly one-sided.”?” Such propaganda activities and immigration agents also played a key role in the case of Canada and Hungarians. We can find immigration booster materials already in connection with the first Hungarian settlements created under the supervision of Esterhazy, Canada advertised the Western provinces all over Europe as the “Last Best West” at the turn of the century, while during the 1920s agents of the Canadian railway companies tried to lure Hungarians to the country in various ways. In the following, I provide an overview of these activities, mostly in relation to Hungarians, providing key examples, and analyzing in more detail an attempt from the 1920s to counter such pro-immigration activities. Immigration agents and their materials often remained silent on real challenges related to the Canadian climate and difficulties due to the lack of speaking English or resulting from the huge 36 Patrias, Hungarians in Canada, 3. ” Tibor Glant, Travel Writing as a Substitute for American Studies in Hungary, Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies, Vol. 16, No. 1-2 (2010), 176. * 111 +
