The Emigrants' Information Office also warns the emigrant:—
"That farm-work at home is one thing, and in the colonies quite another, and that the conditions of country life in Canada, Australasia, and South Africa, are as a rule far rougher and lonelier than in England. Men who have not been from their childhood engaged on the land, must remember that in new countries there is not the same strong line drawn between different trades, and different branches of the same trade as in our own; and that therefore the more specialised a man has become in his work and calling, the less fitted he is to emigrate, partly because he is unlikely in most cases to find an opening in his own speciality in the colonies, partly because he is not well suited to turn his hand to general labour."[1]
All information of this kind must prove valuable to intending emigrants, and will save them from much needless suffering; but the only useful function of the state is to give more light on the subject, and to trust to individual prudence and effort for the rest. Nor does there seem any reason to fear that the result will be to drain the older countries of the best and most active labourers. It is more likely that the highly specialised trades will have their chief seats in Europe for a long time to come, while the more general employments will tend to concentrate themselves in newer countries. The figures of Table XII., already referred to, strongly bear out this view, which is indeed only the statement in a particular case of the general law—that in spite of all hindrances, the tendency all the world over is towards greater complexity of relations and increasing specialisation of social functions.
Immigration in Older Countries.
One part of the subject has been as yet purposely left unnoticed—namely, the existence of immigration into European countries. The fact which we have heard so much of lately—that certain classes of foreigners find it to their advantage to settle in London, has possibly surprised many persons; but is capable of very simple explanation. It is evident that every city of any size will attract some special classes of foreigners, and there is no reason why London should prove an exception to the rule. All attainable evidence shows that special trades, as sugar-bakers and tailors, may be largely supplied by immigrants, but that British labour in general is not appreciably affected by foreign competition.[2] This conclusion will be strengthened by a reference to Table XIV. where the number of foreigners in different European countries is shown. If any country has reason to dread immigration it is France, where the percentage of foreign born persons is greater, and where the increase of the native population is so slight. There is nothing, however, which is less amenable to sober considerations of fact than popular feeling on such matters, and therefore the agitation with which Mr. Arnold White has identified himself may help to give us some idea of the effect which an annual immigration, counted by hundreds of thousands, may, under certain conditions, produce on public sentiment in the United States.
