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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - III. Population and Migration - 7. Population - 1. The Growth of the Negro Population
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Chapter 7. Population 159
and the restrictive legislation of the 1920’s®—not likely to be repealed
—
has continued to hold that immigration low. Economic stagnation during
the 1930’s operated to reduce the immigration below the legal quota, even
when the latter was temporarily further reduced by Executive Order.^
Only the refugees coming after 1933 made the Immigration from Europe
at all significant. It is not likely that immigration from Europe will rise
after the present War. We can assume that from now on, as during the
1930’s, the immigration from Europe will not greatly exceed the emigra-
tion to Europe.
Both white and Negro population groups are, therefore, now changing
and will continue to change—if our assumption is correct—^almost entirely
in accord with their respective birth and death rates. One Important excep-
tion to this is the continuing immigration of Mexicans and Canadians.**
These groups will continue to provide a small but steady addition to the
white population. Like immigration, passing may be ignored as relatively
negligible in the estimation of probable changes in the relative numbers of
Negroes and whites.®
While there are more statistics on population than in most other fields,
they are less adequate for many of the problems we are interested in.
There is continuous registration of births and deaths, compiled annually,
but the failure to register large numbers of births and deaths makes it
extremely hazardous to use these statistics.^ Much more complete is the
decennial census, but for our purposes this also is inadequate since young
children are frequently overlooked (in different degree for the different
regions and races), and since the census asked no direct question on internal
migration until 1940.^
The inadequacies of both vital registration and census enumeration are
greater for the South than for the North, greater for rural areas than for
urban, and even in the same areas, greater for Negroes than for* whites.
We are handicapped also by the fact that, at the time of writing (summer,
1942) the compilation of the 1940 Census is far from complete, and the
1930 Census is too old to be of much use in showing the present situation.
For all these reasons it will be somewhat hazardous to present the facts
about population beyond the crude trends we have already noted. We shall
present only those facts about which we feel fairly certain, but it should
be understood that the figures cited are approximations.
‘See Chapter 4, footnote 21 ,
**
Although there is no provision in law setting quotas on immigrants from other
American countries, actually there are serious restrictions which keep down this immigration.
Every prospective immigrant must pass a strict examination before the American consul to
whom he applies for his permit: he must meet certain standards of physical and mental
health, literacy, and show the ability to support himself. There is no appeal from the
decision of the consul.
‘
See Chapter 5, Section 7.
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