THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS MONDAY, AUGUST 22, 1927. AMERICA'S IMMIGRANTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19721, 22 August 1927, Page 8

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS MONDAY, AUGUST 22, 1927. AMERICA'S IMMIGRANTS.

Figures published to-day concerning immigration in the United States during the last fiscal year indicate an increasing flow of population to that country. It is evident that the revised law which took effect on July 1, 1924, is not checking the flow. To appreciate the totals reported, however, it must be remembered that the quota provisions of that legislation do not apply to the countries named as supplying the largest numbers of immigrants —Canada and Mexico. The importance of the quota lies in its application to the countries of Europe and the Near East. Its increased stringency was aimed at Mediterranean lands chiefly, whence went to America for many years a disproportionately and dangerously large influx of people ill equipped for intelligent citizenship. In addition to Canada and Mexico, there are other lands in the western hemisphere unaffected by the quota— Newfoundland, San Domingo, Haiti, Cuba, and the independent territories of Central and South America. There is excepted also, although in quite a different way, a large Asiatic region: the peoples of this region, including China, Japan, India, Ceylon, Malaysia and some other countries, are excluded by special legislation, save as they enter as students, mex-chants, officials, and others travelling merely for pleasure. Before the new quota provisions came into operation, the records showed that 75 per cent, of immigrants entered from southern and eastern Europe, 21 per cent, from northern and western Europe, and the remaining 4 per cent, from other countries. It is claimed for- the new law that it has practically reversed the figures, 75 per cent, entering from northern and western Europe, 12 per cent. from southern and eastern Europe, and 13 per cent. from elsewhere. In its intended negative effects, the enforcement of the revised quota has apparently achieved its end, without reducing the total volume of the stream of immigration.

The restrictive legislation, nevertheless, has not accomplished all that was expected of it. What was hoped was a stimulation of the influx from all the countries of the western hemisphere as the European immigrant tide ebbed. In the,aggregate, this has happened; but if the influx from Canada and Mexico had not swollen enormously there would have been a marked total decrease. A very sharp decline has taken place in the instance of the West Indies. Thence, including Cuba but not including Porto Rico, which is a part of the national territory, it was once no uncommon thing for over 10,000 people to migrate in a year to the United States. In 1914 the figure was nearly 14,500. Since the present law retarded the European influx the migrants from this free region have decreased to less than a third of the previous number. This decrease. combined with a similar experience in the flow from South America, has awakened some apprehension. It relates to the supply of labour, ever the dominant interest in connection with American immigration, from the old days of the policy of an absolutely open door down to the recent attempts to pick and choose among competing sources of supply. What is obtainable under the quota restrictions, even where, ■as in the instance of the Irish Free State, the quota is high, is not sufficient for a sustained development of American industry. There must be a steady accession from the other countries of the western hemisphere. It is not coming, save from Canada and Mexico. • The Canadian influx is socially welcome, but it is not of the industrial type most needed. That type enters from Mexico, but it is less desirable socially; and means are being sought to restrain its flow accordingly. After three, years' experience of the revised legislation there are so many grounds for complaint about its working that Congress itself has become critical. The chairman of the House committee to which recommendations of amendment were referred a little while ago was frankly perplexed. He confessed to the House that the problems before the committee were "still many and intricate." He went further: the passage of an immigration restriction act in 1024," he said, "by no means settled the problems which have confronted the United, States along immigration lines for twentyfive years or more." Some of these problems have to do with the law's enforcement: that has not been above criticism, in Congress and out of it. Detailed charges of smuggling alien immigrants across the Mexican border have been frequent and damaging. A further complaint, supported by some high officials in the immigration service, has been that the administration of the naturalisation laws is often scandalously lax. It is not enough to have restrictions on the inflow of migrants. For safe and full national benefit there must accompany this an effective absorption of the immigrants as useful and loyal citizens. Without this, an accession of labour may mean eventual economic and social weakness. President Roosevelt's last public appeal to his countrymen was to guard against their heritage degenerating into "a polyglot boarding-house." In the prevalent criticism of the immigration and naturalisation laws his appeal is being recalled, and there seems to bo considerable ground for remembering it.