Removal from a place, to emigrate. In the broadest sense emigration denotes the transfer of residence from one place to another. But so broad a definition includes many phenomena, such as the movement from rural districts to the cities or the settling of the West by pioneers from the Atlantic States, which are not commonly designated as emigration.

To be an emigrant usually implies that a person leaves his own State and places himself under the jurisdiction of a foreign power, that his destination is widely distant from the mother country, and that he is one of many who are doing the same thing. Immigration is obviously the same thing as emigration, however we define the latter, viewed from the standpoint of the country which receives persons from other lands.

History

The movement of tribes and races, some account of which will be found in the article of Migrations, is one of the chief features of history from the earliest times. On the other hand, emigration is a comparatively modern phenomenon; it is a movement of individuals rather than tribes and communities, and while it may assume vast proportions, the initiative proceeds from individuals. The history of emigration in this sense really begins with the discovery of America, particularly with the establishment of English colonies on the North American continent. Though the Spanish power was planted in South America and about the Gulf of Mexico much earlier, the Spanish administration was monopolistic in the extreme and did not promote emigration to the New World.

As all foreigners were excluded from the Spanish colonies, and no Spaniards permitted to betake themselves thither without special permission of the Crown, it will be understood that no considerable stream of immigrants flowed into them. Nor were the French more successful. As they copied in the New World the feudal privileges and inequalities of the Old, the French colonies offered no refuge to the oppressed. In the period of French rule in Canada, France indeed poured forth or drove forth some of the best elements of the nation in considerable numbers, but these were Huguenots, to whom Canada was barred.

In marked contrast with these colonies were the English settlements in the New World. Widely scattered, they offered to the Pilgrim in New England, the Quaker in Pennsylvania, and the Catholic in Maryland freedom from the restrictions of the Old World, while most of the colonies offered complete religious freedom to all comers. It was therefore to the North American continent that the stream of emigration which had its principal sources in England and Germany flowed.

During the brief period of Dutch rule on the Hudson, there was some influx of Netherlanders, with whom were associated some Huguenot refugees, while the Swedish settlements on the Delaware were too ephemeral to leave many traces behind them in the population of the region. From central, eastern, and southern Europe there was no emigration in the eighteenth century; nor did it assume considerable proportions until the close of the nineteenth century. The numbers of such emigrants were very small compared with those of modern times; precise records do not exist, but it may be recalled that in 1800, after at least a century and a half of occupation, the United States had a population of 5,308,483, and this fact may be contrasted with the immigration record for the ten years 1881 to 1890 of 5,246,616 persons.

Modern emigration begins in the nineteenth century, though its earlier years showed no marked increase on the shifting population during the preceding century, as is evidenced by the paucity of records. It was not until 1820 that the first statistics on the subject, namely those o fimmigration into the United States, were established, while until 1840 only 742,564 arrivals were recorded. In the meantime Australia had been opened up for settlement, but before the gold discoveries (1850) it had not attained a population of half a million souls. The potato famine in Ireland, the economic distress of Europe generally in the period of 1845-50, and the discovery of gold in California and Australia stimulated an emigration far in excess of anything which had previously occurred. While the number fell off somewhat after 1860, due in large measure to the conditions in the United States, the principal goal of the emigrants from Europe, it rose again after 1870 until it reached its highest point in the early eighties.

Difficulty of Measurement

Precise figures cannot be given, as the records of the ports of departure as well as those of arrival are not always to be had. From a statistical standpoint there are many obstacles to a perfectly accurate record, the chief being that of double counting. Emigrants return to their native land and again emigrate, which causes double counting at the ports of departure; while emigrants pass from one country into another, particularly from Canada to the United States, and this, together with the return of persons who have been in the country before, causes double counting at the points of arrival. These difficulties, which prevent perfectly exact measurements, such as the calculation of an emigration rate for comparison with other phenomena of the population movement, do not impeach the testimony of all available records as to the general growth of emigration.

The emigration figures, so far as they are recorded in the European countries, are based upon such diverse elements that careful writers abstain from the attempt to make a total. Almost equally unsatisfactory for comparative purposes are the records of the countries which receive immigrants. Some notion of the volume of emigration from Europe can be gained from the fact that from 1841 to 1900 the records of the United States show 18,527,516 arrivals. Other regions received comparatively few immigrants until recent years. In 1870 the arrivals in the United States, 356,383, far exceeded those of Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Australia combined, which according to the records of those countries amounted to 108,772 persons, while in 1890 the arrivals in the United States, 495,021, were less than those of the five regions above named, 546,934. For later years figures are not available, as Canada has discontinued its statistics of immigration; but it may be stated in round numbers that from three-quarters of a million to one million of persons leave Europe annually for foreign lands, of whom about one-half come to the United States.