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Vladyslava Moskalets, The Great Migration of the 19th and early 20th Centuries: The Personal Experience of Eastern European Migrants in Folklore and Memories, Reesources.Rerhinking Eastern Europe, Center for Urban History, 13.02.2023
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The Great Migration of the 19th and early 20th Centuries: The Personal Experience of Eastern European Migrants in Folklore and Memories

Publication date 13.02.2023
The end of the 19th century through the beginning of the 20th century is known as the period of mass migration from Europe to other continents, when more than 55 million people changed their place of residence. In particular, this process captured the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires, where a difficult economic situation, job shortages, and persecutions stirred various groups of the population to leave. Such groups included both Ukrainian and Polish peasants, and Jews from urban centers who were small-scale craftsmen or workers. Most often, they moved to the United States, Canada, Argentina, and Brazil, where labor was needed at factories or farms.

The end of the 19th century through the beginning of the 20th century is known as the period of mass migration from Europe to other continents, when more than 55 million people changed their place of residence. In particular, this process captured the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires, where a difficult economic situation, job shortages, and persecutions stirred various groups of the population to leave. Such groups included both Ukrainian and Polish peasants, and Jews from urban centers who were small-scale craftsmen or workers. Most often, they moved to the United States, Canada, Argentina, and Brazil, where labor was needed at factories or farms. At the turn of the century, the mechanisms of mass migration attracted people in different roles, as participants or organizers. Next to the legal labor market, there was an illegal market for human trafficking. In particular, the intercontinental trafficking of women reached an unprecedented scale, which became one of the most burning social problems in Eastern Europe. Migration impacted societies in the countries of origin, and in the countries of destination. People from villages or towns in Europe often faced new conditions and lifestyles, either in large industrial cities or when cultivating land under new harsh conditions. Mass migration did not necessarily mean a one-way ticket. Often, families, such as peasants, sent one of the adult children to the United States or Canada in order to improve their financial situation thanks to the money they sent back. Sometimes, migrants considered work abroad a temporary way to earn money, and returned to their native places, bringing new capital and skills. However, politicians were concerned about the outflow and rapid adaptation of young people in the United States and Canada. In fact, they could be involved in the development of the future state. Socialist movements in the United States and Canada tried to attract new migrants to their activities. 

Sources that testify to the Great Migration at the turn of the century are quite diverse and include autobiographical writing (ego-documents), letters, works of art, remnants of material culture, and visual materials. The phenomenon of migration caused interest and concern among public and political figures, therefore, it was actively discussed in the printed media. Although the sources were created in the environments of the respective diasporas, common motifs, themes, and contexts of creation make it possible to consider texts in different languages together. 

The process of integrating migrants into a new environment often contributed to the creation of a hybrid culture that combined their old experiences with new ones. Migrants created songs, short jokes, and stories. The hybridity of migrant culture was primarily manifested in the language, because migrants’ native languages – Ukrainian, Polish, and Yiddish– were receiving English words. Migrant folklore was a temporary phenomenon, as it arose among the first generation of migrants. For their children and grandchildren, integrated into new realities, it became less relevant. Characteristically, the works also migrated with their carriers between continents, returning to their family places or moving from the diaspora to the diaspora. 

A selection of songs included in this module presents Ukrainian, Jewish, and Polish migrant songs collected in the 1950s – 1970s in the U.S. and Canada. Some of them have known authors, in particular, Yiddish songs were performed in theatrical productions. Some migrant songs in Ukrainian were collected in the diaspora or in Ukraine as folklore, and their authors are not known to us. Written in different languages, these songs reveal the similarities of shared experiences in America. The common motive is the naivety of the “greens”, i.e. the new emigrants, who had high expectations and did not know how to adapt. Often, the conflict in the songs is based on disappointment about the promised “golden land” which does not bring enough money or exhausts workers. Another common theme is about divided families. Often, in the case of long-term migration, one family member left first, taking the others along later. In the case of Jews, the lack of contact with men who emigrated exacerbated the precedent of the agunahs – women whose status remained uncertain because they were neither widows nor divorced. Quite often, migrants in new countries were attracted to the labor movement; they became active participants in demonstrations or strikes, which is also reflected in the texts. Jewish, Ukrainian, or Polish migrants could often have different directions of migration. While Jews worked in clothing factories or sweatshops in big cities like New York, Ukrainian workers were employed in mines or at farms, and the context of creating the texts is different.

Periods

Primary Sources

Documents (6)

Image for Mykhailo Zubrytskyi. Our Emigration, Dilo, 1902
Mykhailo Zubrytskyi. Our Emigration, Dilo, 1902
Mykhailo Zubrytskyi is a Greek Catholic priest and a public figure who analyzes the phenomenon of migration to the United States from the Carpathian village of Lyutovytska, in the Ukrainian newspaper Dilo. The author describes the migration strategies of peasants, the stages of the migration process, adaptation to a new place, and difficulties with returning. Although the text focuses on Ukrainian migration, the author mentions Jews who were also leaving for the United States, as well as Jews who acted as intermediaries in migration. At the same time, for the author, as for a public figure, the influence of migration on Galicia was important, which he saw as multidimensional. Migration meant the outflow...
Image for Excerpt from the memoirs of Ukrainian еmigrant in Canada Vasyl Plaskonis about his migration experience in 1925
Excerpt from the memoirs of Ukrainian еmigrant in Canada Vasyl Plaskonis about his migration experience in 1925
An excerpt from the autobiography of Ukrainian migrant, Vasyl Plaskonis, describes his experience of leaving interwar Poland for Canada in 1925. The motivation for emigration was not only economic, but also political, as Vasyl Plaskonis felt persecuted in Poland as a former participant in the Polish-Ukrainian war. The author considered his decision to migrate as temporary. The text describes the process of making a decision about the departure, journey, and the first months of adaptation in Canada. An important issue is the mediation of agents who helped emigrants to purchase tickets and leave. In Canada, new Ukrainian migrants found work in mines, or as day laborers on farms. The text explains how the...
Image for Excerpt from the Ben Reisman autobiography, a native of the Galician town Kalush, who emigrated to America in 1896
Excerpt from the Ben Reisman autobiography, a native of the Galician town Kalush, who emigrated to America in 1896
The autobiography was sent to a competition of migrant autobiographies organized by the YIVO Jewish Institute. Its author is Ben Reisman from the Galician town of Kalush, who recalls his childhood in Galicia, his arrival to America in 1896, and his involvement in the socialist movement. The selected passage shows the process of travel and the importance of a network of social contacts between migrants from the same region. Such connections made it possible and easier to make a decision on migration, job search, or an adaptation to a new place. One of the typical moments of involvement in a new place is interest in politics. Ben Reisman arrived in the United States...
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“My Mummy Is Back Home, When I’m In America”, song about emigration
The song is built on the emigration-home dichotomy. It reflects the popular strategy of rural families who sent some of their children to emigration, so that they could help support the household with money transfers. In the song, a daughter who has a hard job in the factory and suffers as a “green”, that is, an inexperienced migrant, from not speaking the language, unfair wages, and difficult work conditions. Women were often migrant workers, but they worked in worse and less paid jobs. She reproaches the mother who sent her to earn money and does not know about the hardships of labour. The experience of young migrants who went through numerous trials, but...
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“It Feels Good in America”, song about emigration, recorded in 1949
The song highlights the difference between life in America and life back home, in Europe. Unlike the songs that mention disappointment from the unfulfilled hopes in the United States, this piece shows work as a safeguard for higher economic status. America allows immigrants to lead a comfortable lifestyle, one of the attributes of which is a pocket watch. But the conflict of the song is built on the opposition of the wealth of the migrant and the poverty of his wife and children at home. Despite the economically comfortable life, there is a problem of emotional discomfort and a feeling of alienation from family and home.
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“Amidst America, There’s a Solid Brick Inn”, song about emigration
The song covers several topics at the same time. It focuses on the difficulties of migrant work, adaptation in a new country, and separation from the family. New migrants sit and drink in the inn (korchma). The use of this term demonstrates the domestication of a new space through familiar concepts and rituals. At the same time, migrants have an important connection with the “old land”, with Europe, where their wives stayed behind. Contacts with home mainly happen when they transfer money and the man is worried lest the woman gets a lover. From this song, we can also understand that it is more profitable to work in the mines, underground. One such...
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Images (4)

Image for “Jewish Grandmother”, photo by Lewis Hine
“Jewish Grandmother”, photo by Lewis Hine
Lewis Hine (1874-1940) was an American photographer who tried to draw attention to social issues such as migration or child labor. He took two series of photos on Ellis Island, an island near New York City that was the first stop and gateway for new arrivals. Photos of Lewis Hine are trying to show the identity of migrants, who were often exoticized and othered in the American press. The Jewish woman in the photo is dressed in clothes that do not distinguish her from other migrants from Eastern Europe. However, although Jewish migration was often also motivated by economic motives, in the public discourse and historiography of the early twentieth century, it was...
Image for “Slavic Mother”, photo by Lewis Hine
“Slavic Mother”, photo by Lewis Hine
Lewis Hine (1874-1940) was an American photographer who tried to draw attention to social issues such as migration or child labor. He took two series of photos on Ellis Island, an island near New York City that was the first stop and gateway for new arrivals. Photos of Lewis Hine are trying to show the identity of migrants, who were often exoticized and othered in the American press. The name of the photo "Slavic Mother" shows that Eastern Europe for Americans was still a space, which differences and nuances they hardly noticed. Hine perceives the woman in the photo as a person who left Europe forever, taking along all her posessions, and having...
Image for Galician Migrants, Quebec, about 1911
Galician Migrants, Quebec, about 1911
The photo shows a group of migrants from Galicia, probably Ukrainians in Canada. Despite the information that before emigration, peasants bought urban clothes, in this photo we see people in traditional attire, which is different from the Canadian environment. Attitude towards Eastern European migrants was arrogant. In particular, clothing would often become the basis for otherness. Thus, the process of successful integration involved “dressing up” in Western clothes. In the photo, we can see a large family, because often the first migrants who were young men and women, later transported their children or older parents.
Image for Advertising leaflet of Zofia Biesiadetska’s bureau
Advertising leaflet of Zofia Biesiadetska’s bureau
Zofia Biesiadetska's office in Oswiecim in Western Galicia was organizing transportation to America. The promotional leaflet offers tickets for steamboats to America and Canada. The transport revolution in the 19th century proved to be one of the most important factors that enabled mass intercontinental migration. Transport was relatively convenient and fast, as well as relatively inexpensive. With the beginning of mass migration, networks of agents developed, like Zofia Biesiedetska's bureau, who helped with the organization of the trip. This facilitated the migration of people from villages or small towns. At the same time, agents were often accused of lack of integrity and profiteering on migrants. Biesiadetska Bureau was one of the most respectable...
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Audio (3)

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Grine kuzine (Green Cousin), song about emigration, 1921
The song, with a debatable authorship, was written for a Jewish theater. It was performed both in Europe and in the United States, and it became one of the most popular migrant works. The word “green” was an ironic definition of new immigrants who did not navigate well in American reality. The song “Green Cousin” raises the issue of disappointment of migrants in America, where hard work exhausts new-comers and does not bring the expected profit. The “Columbian state” appears not as a dream country where dreams come true, but a society of inequalities. Despite the hilarious music and satirical plot, the song shows the anxiety of emigrants due to the lack of...
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A brivele der mamen (A Little Letter to Mama), song about emigration, 1907
The song was written by a Belarusian composer and singer, Solomon Smulewitz (1868-1943) in 1907. The author also had experience of migration to the United States. The song became very popular. In particular, it was used as a basis for a theatrical production and a film in Yiddish. The work raises the issue of migration caused separation of families. While the son who went to America has a successful life and a new family, his mother feels abandoned. Before her death, she asks her son not to forget to read Kaddish, a memorial prayer for her. The problem of separated families remained common to all migrants, but in this text the Jewish prayer...
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“Goldene land” (Golden land), song about emigration, 1889
The song was written by a Lithuanian Jewish poet, Eliakum Zunser (1840-1913) based on his own experience of emigrating to the United States. The song "Golden Land" touches on the issue of new migrants, whose high expectations fail. The American city turns out to be a space full of dirt, noise, and poverty. Although jobs are available, they are poorly paid and dangerous to health. America is also not a place of social equality, because like in Europe, there is a disproportion in the distribution of wealth. This is an urban experience that was shared by many Jewish migrants who found work in the textile industry, or like Zunser himself, in the printing...
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Recommended literature

Oskar Czendze: In Search of Belonging: Galician Jewish Immigrants Between New York and Eastern Europe, 1890–1938, In: Hasia Diner, Markus Krah, Björn Siegel (Eds.): Foreign Entanglements: Transnational American Jewish Studies (PaRDeS ; 27), Potsdam, Universitätsverlag Potsdam, 2021, S. 69–83. DOI https://doi.org/10.25932/publishup-53285

Lachs, Vivi. Whitechapel Noise: Jewish Immigrant Life in Yiddish Song and Verse, London 1884-1914. Wayne State University Press, 2018.

Rudnycʹkyj, Jaroslav B. Readings in Canadian Slavic Folklore. Winnipeg: Univ. of Manitoba Press, 1961. 

Hrytsa, Sofiia. Bud zdrava zemlytse: ukrainski narodni pisni pro emihratsiiu. Kyiv: Muzychna Ukraina, 1991.

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