Lenin: Capitalism and Workers Immigration

CAPITALISM AND WORKERS' IMMIGRATION

Capitalism has given rise to a special form of migration of nations.
The rapidly developing industrial countries, introducing machinery on
a large scale and ousting the backward countries from the world
market, raise wages at home above the average rate and thus attract
workers from the backward countries.


Hundreds of thousands of workers thus wander hundreds and thousands of
versts. Advanced capitalism drags them forcibly into its orbit, tears
them out of the backwoods in which they live", makes them participants
in the world-historical movement and brings them face to face with the
powerful, united, international class of factory owners.


THERE CAN BE NO DOUBT THAT DIRE POVERTY ALONE COMPELS PEOPLE TO
ABANDON THEIR NATIVE LAND, AND THAT THE CAPITALISTS EXPLOIT THE
IMMIGRANT WORKERS IN THE MOST SHAMELESS MANNER. BUT ONLY REACTIONARIES
CAN SHUT THEIR EYES TO THE PROGRESSIVE SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS MODERN
MIGRATION OF NATIONS. EMANCIPATION FROM THE YOKE OF CAPITAL IS
IMPOSSIBLE WITHOUT THE FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF CAPITALISM, AND WITHOUT
THE CLASS STRUGGLE THAT IS BASED ON IT. AND IT IS INTO THIS STRUGGLE
THAT CAPITALISM IS DRAWING THE MASSES OF THE WORKING PEOPLE OF THE
WHOLE WORLD, BREAKING DOWN THE MUSTY, FUSTY HABITS OF LOCAL LIFE,
BREAKING DOWN NATIONAL BARRIERS AND PREJUDICES, UNITING WORKERS FROM
ALL COUNTRIES IN HUGE FACTORIES AND MINES IN AMERICA, GERMANY, AND SO
AMERICA HEADS THE LIST OF COUNTRIES WHICH IMPORT WORKERS. The
following are the immigration figures for America :


Ten years 1821-30 99,000
" " 1831-40 496,000
" " 1841-50 1,597,000
" " 1851-60 2,453,000
" " 1861-70 2,064,000
" " 1871-80 2,262,000
" " 1881-90 4,722,000
" " 1891-1900 3,703,000
Nine " 1901-09 7,210,000


The growth of immigration is enormous and continues to increase.
During the five years 1905-09 the average number of immigrants
entering America (the United States alone is referred to) was over a
million a year.


It is interesting to note the change in the place of origin of those
emigrating to America. Up to 1880 the so-called old immigration
prevailed, that is, immigration from the old civilised countries, such
as Great Britain, Germany and partly from Sweden. Even up to 1890,
Great Britain and Germany provided more than half the total
immigrants.


From 1880 onwards, there was an incredibly rapid increase in what is
called the new immigration from Eastern and Southern Europe, from
Austria, Italy and Russia. The number of people emigrating from these
three countries to the United States was as follows:


Ten years 1871-80 201,000
" " 1881-90 927,000
" " 1891-1900 1,847,000
" " 1901-09 5,127,000


Thus, the most backward countries in the old world, those that more
than any other retain survivals of feudalism in every branch of social
life, are, as it were, undergoing compulsory training in civilisation.
American capitalism is tearing millions of workers of backward Eastern
Europe (including Russia, which in 1891-1900 provided 594,000
immigrants and in 1900-09, 1,410,000) out of their semi-feudal
conditions and is putting them in the ranks of the advanced,
international army of the proletariat.


Hourwich, the author of an extremely illuminating book, Immigration
and Labour, which appeared in English last year, makes some
interesting observations. The number of people emigrating to America
grew particularly after the 1905 revolution (1905-1,000,000;
1906-1,200,000; 1907- 1,400,000; 1908 and 1909-1,900,000
respectively). Workers who had participated in various strikes in
Russia introduced into America the bolder and more aggressive spirit
of the mass strike.


Russia is lagging farther and farther behind, losing some of her best
workers to foreign countries; America is advancing more and more
rapidly, taking the most vigorous and able-bodied sections of the
working population of the whole world.


Other countries on the American Continent besides the United States
are also rapidly advancing. The number of immigrants entering the
United States last year was about 250,000, Brazil about 170,000 and
Canada over 200,000; total 620,000 for the year.


Germany, which is more or less keeping pace with the United States, is
changing from a country which released workers into one that attracts
them from foreign countries. The number of immigrants from Germany to
America in the ten years 1881-90 was 1,453,000; but in the nine years
1901-09 it dropped to 310,000. The number of foreign workers in
Germany, however, was 695,000 in 1910-11 and 729,000 in 1911-12.
Dividing these immigrants according to occupation and country of
origin we get the following:


Foreign workers employed in Germany in 1911-12 (thousands)
Agriculture Industry Total
From Russia 274 34 308
Austria 101 162 263
other 22 135 157
total 397 331 728


The more backward the country the larger is the number of "unskilled"
agricultural labourers it supplies. _The advanced nations seize, as it
were, the best paid occupations for themselves and leave the
semi-barbarian countries the worst paid occupations. Europe in general
("other countries") provided Germany with 157,000 workers, of whom
more than eight-tenths (135,000 out of 157,000) were industrial
workers. Backward Austria provided only six-tenths (162,000 out of
263,000) of the industrial workers. The most backward country of all,
Russia, provided'only one-tenth of the industrial workers (34,000 out
of 308,000).


Thus, Russia is punished everywhere and in everything for her
backwardness. But compared with the rest of the population, it is the
workers of Russia who are more than any others bursting out of this
state of backwardness and barbarism, more than any others combating
these "delightful" features of their native land, and more closely
than any others uniting with the workers of all countries into a
single international force for emancipation.


The bourgeoisie incites the workers of one nation against those of
another in the endeavour to keep them disunited. CLASS-CONSCIOUS
WORKERS, REALISING THAT THE BREAKDOWN OF ALL THE NATIONAL BARRIERS BY
CAPITALISM IS INEVITABLE AND PROGRESSIVE, ARE TRYING TO HELP TO
ENLIGHTEN AND ORGANISE THEIR FELLOW-WORKERS FROM THE BACKWARD
COUNTRIES.


Za Pravdu No. 22, October 29, 1913
Vol. 19, pp. 454-57
Signed: V. I. Lenin