rk for a living,
hoping to save enough money to return to a better life in the
country of their birth.
use the phrase "birds of passage" to describe immigrants
who never intended to make the United States their permanent
home. Unable to earn a livelihood in their home countries,
they were migratory laborers. Most were young men in their
teens and twenties, who planned to work, save money, and return
home. They left behind their parents, young wives, and children,
indications that their absence would not be long. Before 1900
an estimated 78 percent of Italian immigrants were men. Many
of them traveled to America in the early spring, worked until
late fall, and then returned to the warmer climates of their
southern European homes winter. Overall, 20 to 30 percent
of Italian immigrants returned to Italy permanently.
same forces of population pressure, unemployment, and the breakdown
of agrarian societies sent Chinese, French Canadians, Greeks,
Japanese, Mexicans, and Slavs to the United States. Yet while
these migrants tended to view themselves as "sojourners,"
as temporary migrants, most would stay in the United States permanently.