As a matter of fact the Government has, as a rule, attempted to discourage emigration rather than increase it. Where that was not possible it has still tried to maintain its hold upon its citizens in America; to keep alive their interest in their native land and make the emigration, as far as possible, a temporary absence, in order that the state should not suffer a permanent loss of its labouring population, and in order, apparently, that the stream of gold which had poured into the country as a result of this emigration might not cease.
The actual amount of money which is brought back by returning emigrants, or those living temporarily in America, cannot be definitely determined. For example, not less than 47,000 emigrants returned to Hungary in 1907. It is estimated, if I remember rightly, that each returned emigrant brought home at least $200, while the average immigrant, not permanently settled in America, sends back every year about $120, which is probably more money than he could earn at home. In the years 1900 to 1906, inclusive, there was sent to Hungary by money orders alone, $22,917,566. In the year 1903 an official investigation shows that, in addition to the money which went from America in other ways, $17,000,000 was sent to Hungary through banks.
One result of this influx of money from America has been that the peasant has been able to gratify his passion to obtain for himself a little strip of land or increase the size of the farm he already possesses. In fact, in certain places mentioned by Miss Balch in her book, "Our Slavic Fellow Citizen," the demand for land has been so great that it has increased in value between 500 and 600 per cent.[1]
In one year, 1903, according to Miss Balch, 4,317 emigrants from one county in Croatia sent home $560,860, which is an average of not quite $130 per immigrant. With this money 4,116 homes were bettered, by paying debts, buying more land, or making improvements.
These facts give, however, but a small indication of the influence which immigration has had, directly and indirectly, upon the conditions of life among the masses of the people in Hungary and other portions of southeastern Europe. For one thing, in arousing the hopes, ambitions, and discontent of the so-called "inferior" peoples, it has added fuel to the racial conflicts of the kingdom.