The Borders of Integration: Polish Migrants in Germany and the United States, 1870-1924

1 Migration and Settlement

1 l l l migration and settlement Building Polish Communities in the Ruhr and Northeastern Pennsylvania more than 10 percent of the population of partitioned Poland left for north america or Western europe during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; many migrated to the ruhr and northeastern Pennsylvania.1 Between 1870 and 1890, 31,629 Poles settled in the ruhr, and 15,142 arrived in northeastern Pennsylvania.2 From the 1890s onward, the size of Polish communities in each region grew exponentially, and by 1914, the Polish presence was substantial. In the ruhr, 297,322 Poles were living in this region along with 159,743 masurians, a slavic ethnic group from southern areas of east Prussia (present-day northeast Poland) who spoke a dialect of Polish; combined they represented 9.4 percent of the total population.3 meanwhile, approximately 160,000 Poles, constituting 13.8 percent of the total population, worked and lived in northeastern Pennsylvania.4 Why did Poles migrate? To what extent did homeland origins influence immigrant outlook? What was the topographical, social, and cultural terrain of areas in which Poles came to live? how did informal and formal institutional support mechanisms within the ethnic community aid Poles in building vibrant ethnic communities? This chapter addresses these questions in order to understand Polish community development in each region. causes for Polish migration migration to the ruhr and northeastern Pennsylvania was driven by a variety of causes. classic economic push-and-pull factors associated with modernization played one important role. Over the course of the nineteenth century, the growth in population in Polish lands led to a decrease in 18 l Migration and Settlement sustainable farms within the agricultural sector, contributing to the creation of a large, landless labor pool that drove down wages. The lack of significant industrialization, with the notable exception of Upper silesia, limited the ability of nearby urban centers to absorb the excess population. From the 1870s onward, domestic agriculture was also in crisis due to foreign competition and government policies that favored larger agricultural estates over small farms. as a consequence of these demographic and economic developments, growing numbers were pressed to migrate, both overseas to north america and to parts of Western europe. added to these push factors was the pull generated by industrial growth in countries such as Germany and the United states, where labor shortages and high wages attracted many. In the ruhr and northeastern Pennsylvania, demand for coal drove an ever-increasing need for workers. By the early 1880s, traditional sources of labor in both regions were becoming exhausted and employers sought to attract “foreign” workers in order to ensure the continued expansion of the industry. Beginning in the 1870s, operators either directly, or indirectly through agents, began recruiting Poles, especially those from Upper silesia with mining experience. This practice of recruitment soon expanded to include the predominately agricultural regions of Poland. By the late 1880s, the role of employers in driving migration receded in importance as more informal networks between early and later Polish migrants became established , spreading news of the opportunities to be found in Western europe and the United states.5 migration westward was also spurred by political struggles in Polish lands, which at the time were partitioned by Prussia, austria, and russia. In both the Prussian- and russian-controlled areas of Poland, extensive efforts were made from the 1860s onward to restrict Polish culture and contain nationalist sentiment. In austrian-controlled Galicia, Poles enjoyed much greater freedom of expression and thought, though here too the government did take steps to guard against the political threat of peasant populism.6 such attacks and restrictions on Polish culture factored prominently into the decision of small numbers of middle-class national agitators and priests to migrate west, including to the ruhr and northeastern Pennsylvania, where they could organize Polish immigrants for the nationalist cause and hinder their assimilation into German or american society. For Polish peasants, most of whom lacked a national consciousness prior to migrating, the policies of the partitioning powers also influenced the decision to leave, though indirectly. In russian-controlled Polish lands, Building Polish Communities l 19 younger Poles chose to go abroad in order to escape service in the armies of the tsar. Whereas only a few russian Poles found refuge in the ruhr, usually illegally, thousands left for the United states every year, many of whom settled in the anthracite fields...