Michigan State University

Race and occupation of immigrants to the U.S. for the year 1903

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Race and Occupation of immigrants by destination. Also the yearly increase and decrease of each state’s proportion and the number.

This map is an interesting early attempt to embed complex statistical information into map form. It shows us the countries of origin of new immigrants to each state and the occupations of the adult male immigrants (women and children were categorized as “no occupation”). Michigan saw the influx of 20,920 immigrants that year with the largest groups coming from Finland, Scandinavian countries, and Poland.

The report’s author, Sargent, was no friend to immigration and in his report expressed dismay at the quantity of immigrants, their relative poverty, and their ethnic make-up which had swung in recent years to eastern and southern European groups.

This map will be on display in the MSU Map Library beginning the week of February 10, 2014.

1903 immigration map

Citation:

Race and Occupation of immigrants by destination. Also the yearly increase and decrease of each state’s proportion and the number. Made in 1903 to accompany the Annual Report of the Commission-General of Immigration for the Fiscal Year ended June 30, 1903 by Frank P. Sargent, Commissioner-General of Immigration and published in Washington in 1903 by the Government Printing Office.

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