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BALÁZS VENKOVITS
ran Canadas immigration selection system, particularly on the European
Continent.”*! The agents of these companies also appeared in Hungary and
promoted immigration to Canada in various forms.
Several newspaper articles from the time bear witness to this. Békésmegyei
Közlöny, for example, already warned in 1924 in an article titled “Beware of the
emigration agents” that in several villages agents of shipping companies had
appeared “and unscrupulous people are tempting the poorest to emigrate to
Canada” (and also South America) with the old tale of getting land for free:
Canada today authorizes landing only in case there is an affidavit (a statement
by a relative or acquaintance already living there that they would support them)
and every agricultural emigrant also has to have 1,600 dollars to prove that they
can and want to buy a farm. This is what the ‘free land’ of shipping companies has
become, with which the heartless agents working for their own profit try to recruit
passengers for their company, not caring that they may as well set the ignorant,
uninformed peasants on the path to starvation or deportation.”
In 1923 the Hungarian Minister of the Interior also sent a letter with the
subject “Advertisements tempting people to emigrate” to all Hungarian
counties, warning them that shipping companies show advertisements in
movie theaters that may be used to entice people to emigrate and reminds
them that according to Act II of 1909 such action was considered illegal.°®
Although it is not specified, the advertisements most probably concern Canada
or South American countries as this was already past the first introduction
of US quotas. The new wave of emigration was also a hot political topic:
the dangers associated with emigration to Canada (and South America) were
highlighted in speeches. On 21 January 1925, for example, when discussing
the permits granted to shipping companies carrying Hungarian emigrants
to the Americas in the National Assembly, politicians called attention to the
hazards of emigration to Canada (both for individuals and also post-Trianon
Hungary in general) and the negative impact of immigration propaganda.
It was argued that people deciding to emigrate had no idea
[w]hat awaited them in the cursed earthly hell called Brazil, Mexico or Canada,
from where there is no turning back and where these unfortunate people (lured
away by despicable persuasion) will recite only when it is too late that ‘Only when
51 Vineberg, Settlement Needs, 14.
"Vigyázzunk a kivándorlási ügynökökre!" Békésmegyei Közlöny, 28 June 1924. Available at:
https://library.hungaricana.hu/en/view/BekesmegyeiKozlony_1924_2/?pg=O&layout=s
(accessed 10 May 2020). Translation is mine.
Magyar királyi belügyminiszter, Kivándorlásra csábító hirdetmények, Hajdú-Bihar County
Archives, IV.B 406/b. 2480.
* 116 +