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“THE NEw MECCA OF IMMIGRANTS”...
we enter the crowd do we notice our mournful mistake’. We do demand vigorous
and swift action to stop those tempting people to emigrate, we demand that the
people be thoroughly and conscientiously informed as soon as possible about the
terrible danger and almost entirely hopeless situation that awaits emigrants there,
in that far-away foreign land [...]°*
One of the key publications practically addressing such a call for “thorough
and conscientious information” came from Sämuel Zägonyi, who published
a book in 1926 and also went on a country-wide tour trying to persuade
people not to emigrate to Canada.” Zägonyi was a retired lieutenant colonel
who was commissioned by the Hungarian government to travel to Canada
and spent several weeks there as an immigrant worker. He published his
experience and warnings after his return home, with the clearly stated
intention of discouraging people from emigrating to the country. After his
return home, he contacted the leaders of Hungarian counties, offered his
book for distribution, and started on a nationwide tour (focusing especially
on the regions most affected by emigration). The image depicted by Zägonyi,
in line with the intentions of the publication, was the exact opposite of the
features advertised by the immigration agents.
Parts ofthe book are similar to immigrant handbooks, introducing Canada
in detail (its history and geography), providing information about immi¬
gration principles, acts, even offering translations of necessary documents
and practical tips (on proper clothing or taxation issues). The overall and key
message of the book, however, is to offer a stance against Hungarian emigration
to Canada and it attempts to discourage Hungarian people from going to the
country. Besides these admonitions, Zagonyi shares the experience of three
emigrants (called A, B, and C), introducing their journey from the home
country to the New World.
The image of Canada in the book is clearly negative. The “current Mecca of
immigrants”, as Zagonyi refers to it, is presented as being much less attractive
than the United States before.*® According to the author, choosing Canada as
a new home is clearly a bad decision: “Canada is not the country that provides
easy and fast ways for Hungarians to earn money” and “none should feed
54 Records of the National Assembly, Vol XXVIII, 12 December 1924 — 29 January 1925.
Available at: https://library.hungaricana.hu/hu/view/OGYK_KN-1922_28/?pg=O&layout=s
(accessed 10 May 2020). Translation is mine.
°° A much shorter, Hungarian version of this introduction to Zagonyi’s book was published
in AETAS: Balázs Venkovits, Záródó kapuk, új lehetőségek: magyar kivándorlás Eszak¬
Amerikába a 20. század elején. Aetas Történettudományi Folyóirat, Vol. 33, No. 1 (2018),
131-143.
publication, 1926, 10. Translations are mine.
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