Research Group for European Migration Problems - Böcker

Dr de Gadolin's study calls attention to a country, a people, and a problem about which in general much too little is known outside Finland. To the extent that it was possible, the valiant and industrious Finnish people have endeavored to overcome the difficulties created by two wars and the consequent onerous peace terms. One of the most stupendous problems was that of the Finnish refugees evacuated from the Karelian isthmus, Salla, Petsamo, and the leased peninsula of Porkala. The lost territory, with a total area of 45,000 square kilometers, had important industrial plants and traffic networks, including the very important Saima Canal, and large expanses of arable land and forest. Some 450,000 persons, or 12 percent of the total population at that time, had to be resettled in the remainder of Finland, particularly in the southern provinces. In his detailed description of how this difficult problem was solved, even if at the cost of a sharpened inflation, Dr de Gadolin strongly emphasizes the financial and economic aspects. It is fortunate for Finland that, though situated within the Russian sphere of influence, it nevertheless belongs to the Swedish-Finnish neutral bloc, and thus was able to maintain its economic relations with the West.

As Mr Petersen points out in this study, since the war there has been a very strong belief in the Netherlands that emigration is necessary. Even those who never before occupied themselves with these matters now speak of the large natural increase, the overpopulation, and the lack of opportunities in the Netherlands. Thousands are considering the possibility of leaving their home­ land and creating a new existence for themselves overseas. It is a mistake to suppose, however, that these ideas stem from the special demographic and economic conditions that arose in the Netherlands since the war; the opposite is the case. From this point of view, there has never been less reason for emigrating during the past decades than in these postwar years. As far as the demographic situation is concerned, by 1930 the natural increase had decreased markedly as compared with the preceding decades, so that the number of young persons entering the labor market after the war has been relatively small. On the other hand, there have been more openings in industry and in other sectors of the economy than ever before, so that unemploy­ ment pretty much disappeared. Only in 1951 did it again become at all significant.

Professor Hofstee has collected together, in compact and highly readable form, some of the most important conclusions so far reached in the study of selective aspects of internal and external migration. Of still greater value, however, than this sum­ mary of findings, and more stimulating to those of us who are directly concerned with demographic research, are Professor Hofstee's comments on the undocumented hypotheses with which the literature of migration abounds, and his suggestions concern­ ing the kinds of questions to which objective answers are needed if effective progress is to be made in this branch of social studies. The study of migration has had a curiously unsatisfactory history. Statistics of migration developed as by-products of governmental policy and, even so, with scant regard to those ques­ tions on which light needed to be thrown if policy was to have a sound basis. And as, for long periods, internal movement was not considered a fit subject for policy, the statistics in that field tended to be even less useful. In many countries, net balances of movement by major administrative areas were the only indicators that could be obtained. No less important, however, as an expla­ nation of the unsatisfactory state of the subject is the fact that so much of non-governmental research has been piece-meal and un-coordinated - often of considerable interest in itself but, as is the case with sociology in general, not building up into a systematic structure.

It amounts to a truism to say that amongst the great problems left by the Second Great War very few called for national and international planning so urgently as the problem of human migrations. During and after the conflicts a mass displacement of population was brought to bear heavily on the demographic situation of Western Europe. On the other hand, in the turmoil of the aftermath some western countries came to lose, one by one, their African and Asiatic colonies, and were in consequence deprived of an outlet for their surplus population. The economic implications of the problem were tremendous. Where to find a remedy to such a tragic situation? I would not venture to say that large scale migrations are like­ ly to bring about, all by themselves, a harmonious distribution ~f population. It must be recognized, nevertheless, that economists and geographers alike are ready to admit that this problem, and the problem of economic pressure which derives therefrom, cannot be satisfactorily settled unless a well devised policy of regulation is set up, in order to bring all manpower available closer to the natural resources of wealth. It follows that in the present days the migration policy of any given country has to be considered in the light of international co-operation. This planetary vision of all great human problems is a welcome sign of our times.

Die demographische Prognose ist durch vereinte Bemiihungen der intemationalen Wissenschaft wahrenddesletzten Vierteljahr- hunderts, ausgehend von England und von Deutschland, zum ge- sicherten Bestand unserer Einsicht geworden. Auf begrenzte Zeit, mit gebotener Bescheidung vermogen wir vorauszusehen, welche Veranderungen der Menge und der Schichtung in einem generativen Ganzen aus eigener Kraft erwartet werden diirfen. Die Moglichkeit zu dieser Erhellung unserer Zukunft beruht zuletzt darauf, daB jedes Gattungsleben - auch das geschichtliche des Menschen - wie seine Vergangenheit als Pragung und Bestim- mung, so seine Zukunft als Anlage und Ansatz in sich beschlieBt. Aus der geschichtlichen Bewegung, die als unser Dasein gegen- wartig ist, folgen die Moglichkeiten der Voraussicht. Nicht als ob die Wissenschaft damit am Zie1e ware. So ist die wissenschaftliche Gewinnung von Neuland nie beschaffen.Es bleiben Fragen der Methode - besondere und allgemeine; es bleiben Fragen nach den eigenen Voraussetzungen, nach dem Sinn der Annahmen, nach der Tragweite der Aussagen; es bleiben Fragen nach den gebotenen und zulassigen Grenzen der Giiltig- keit, Fragen der Selbstbeschrankung und des AugenmaBes. Aber der Grundsatz ist unanfechtbar und wissenschaftlich vergewis- sert, daB demographische Prognose moglich sei.

Some years ago the N etherlands Research Committee for European Refugee Problems commissioned an investigation into the adjustment problems of foreigners who for various reasons have taken refuge in the Netherlands. This investigation is of great interest. In these times of rapid change we all have our problems of adjustment. How very much greater these problems must be for those who had to leave all they cherished behind them and start all over again in new and strange surroundings. I wholeheartedlyendorse the Committee's initiative in publish­ ing in this monograph the main results of the investigation. These results should be useful in the work of the organizations concerned with refugee welfare. But in wider circles, both in the Netherlands and abroad, this publication should also awaken interest in the refugee question in general and the situation of refugees in the Nether­ lands in particular. How necessary this interest still is has been shown once again by the recent events in Hungary, which brought untold misery to many thousands. These Hungarian refugees and countless others who before them fled can best be helped to adjust to the new patterns of life if all who in their daily lives come into contact with them approach them in the right way. But to be able to do that we must first realize the difficulties the refugees have to contend with. Therefore the study of this monograph should be of posi­ tive value to many people.

This book is a logical consequence of a book published in 1965 under the title Immigrants Assimilation - A Study of Polish People in Western Australia. In the original study, adult Polish immigrants were asked, amongst other things, about their attitudes to their children's assimilation to the culture of the Australian society. Needless to say, some parents were eager for their children to remain Polish, whilst others express­ ed a desire for them to become Australians. Naturally, it seem­ ed practical to investigate the children's attitudes to their own assimilation. The present study is therefore mainly concerned with these attitudes. Much has been written about second generation immigrants and a lot has been of a speculative nature, since nobody has yet gone into the homes of immigrants and asked them and their children about the way they feel regarding a culture which is new to them. The present study is unique in this sense because it fills a vital gap by studying assimilation of two generations of immigrants belonging to the same family. Second generation immigrants have occupied the attention of many writers in the sociological and psychological litera­ ture. Vital social phenomena such as delinquency, mental breakdowns, and marginality have been ascribed to the second generation immigrants on account of their status as midway people between two cultural milieus. Some of these phenome­ It is generally accepted that na are traced in the present study.

The plans for this study were formulated between 1956 and 1958. For some time then, I had been interested in the processes of personal and social accommodation and in the factors that were responsible for resistance to change. While a graduate student at Columbia University at that time, I was also affiliated with a multidisciplinary research group at Cornell University Medical Colleges studying the reactions of people of various cultural and social backgrounds to situations of stress. The Hungarian refugees were one of the groups being studied. I thus decided to undertake a study of the process of acculturation, the Hungarian refugees providing an ideal population. I did not expect to encounter any serious difficulties. Needless to say, the work was beset with every sort of difficulty, financial, conceptual, etc., that usually accompanies research projects. It is only now, more than a decade later, that I am able to present my findings in their final form. I am pleased to have this opportunity to express my in­ debtedness to the many people who made thIS study possible. I have been fortunate in having teachers, colleagues, and friends, the same person, who helped me in the formulation often all in of the problem, offered encouragement along every step, and taught me the very skills I was to use.

The saga of Jewish flight, suffering and death has been investi­ gated from different points of view, and various aspects of this sad chapter of Jewish history have been carefully studied. There is, however, one aspect which has had little attention from Jewish sociologists; perhaps because it is an anticlimax to heroism and monumental suffering; even more, because the whole group imbues a feeling of discomfort, an aftermath that should not have been, a chapter that had better not been written ... "Historically, this group has survived its own past; but humans do not experience their own life as history ... "1 This group is but a very small remnant: those who returned to the very "doomed soil" the very countries in which all the worst atrocities against European Judaism originated. Usually, they do not come back with an easy heart, they experience the anger and sadness of fellow-Jews who condemn them. They also feel their own guilt - yet they return ... How many of them there are is impossible to calculate. Not only were post-war records faulty; but Jewish organisations differed with others and in their own records in the definition of "return" so that all comparisons can be only on the level of careful esti­ mates at best. Lastly, in common with other return groups, there is the unknown number who never registered with those organi­ sations keeping any type of records (e.g. Jewish organisations).

This study represents but the initial phase of a multidisciplinary endeavor sponsored by the Russian and East European Studies Center of the University of California, Los Angeles, the ultimate goal of which is to provide a comprehensive description and analysis of the cultural, linguistic, economic and social integration of the Slavs living in California into American society. As the first step of this planned cross-disciplinary investigation, the Center recommended the implementation of a preliminary study of a limited scope, the present linguistic investigation of the Yugoslav community of San Pedro, California. As there is a dearth of information of a sociological as well as a linguistic nature pertaining to the local Slavs, the investigators decided to treat briefly the sociological situation of Yugoslav immigrants and then proceed with a more detailed discussion of the linguistic problems of immigrant bilingualism. Consequently, we have divided the present study into the following major chapters : Chapter I, the Yugoslav Immigration to America, not only examines the several phases of Yugoslav immigration to the United States, but also discusses the various motives which prompted people to immigrate to this country and especially to the small maritime community of San Pedro; against this background the investigators describe the Yugoslav ethnic minority and its contributions to the San Pedro community.

English and the community functions on the basis of a variety of ethnic institutions that operate in the immigrant's own mother tongue. These include local stores and markets, churches, clubs, welfare agencies and other organizations that serve the needs of the local population. Frequently employment opportunities in occupa­ tions where English is unnecessary are also available to men and women in the neighbourhood. These ethnic neighbourhoods exhibit a high degree of functional interdependence which would be severely disrupted by urban renewal schemes involving widespread clearance. The proposed extension of freeways could give rise to problems in this respect. Even the "spot clearance" schemes of a more limited kind would have more serious social and human repercussions in such areas in view of the high incidence of "doubling". It is significant that certain planning areas in which urban renewal has already proceeded, such as the Don area including the Regent Park public housing scheme, have consisted predominantly of native-born Canadians of British origin. The experience gained in these schl~mes is not likely to be a useful guide to the probable consequen -;es of improvement and other schemes in those areas with a mt l"e heterogeneous population. An examination of the population .::haracteristics in those areas designated for renewal in the future suggests that the social effects and human implications of these plans may be somewhat different from past experience.

In the period since the end of world War II numerous develop­ ing countries have employed colonization, or planned pioneer settlement, as one method of building a more reliable and bal­ anced economy. It is felt that the traditional, single-sided sys­ tems of farm ownership and production with their latifundium and minifundium holdings will gradually and peacefully become less prominent as better settlement systems are introduced and extended. Marked increases in population pressure, large tracts of unused or underused land, and modern improvements in set­ tlement planning are among other compelling reasons for star­ ting colonization programs. Of all the areas in the world, the continent of South America probably has the widest variety of planned pioneer settlements as well as the most sizeable programs. Brazil, the largest country on the continent, is actively engaged in populating the vast, emp­ ty spaces of its interior, and provides excellent opportunities for the scholarly investigation of new frontier settlement types. In addition to the academic discussion of the origin and develop­ ment of these expressions of man's expansion into marginal ar­ eas, the critical examination of relatively new attempts at land settlement is a useful thing because what is to be learned from such studies may be directly applicable to other pioneer zones and, moreover, may be of vital significance to overall economic improvement on the continent. In this monograph, my student, K. Muller, analyzes the South Brazilian frontier colony of Toledo, Parana, founded in 1946.