Abstract
During the period 1960–1976, seven countries absorbed nearly nine-tenths of American emigrants: Mexico, Germany, United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Australia, and Israel, in descending order. Availability and comparability of data only permit us to conduct a comparative analysis of emigration to Australia and Israel from the United States, examining factors in motivation, absorption and adjustment, and return migration. Durkheim’s insight that individual behavior is related to the strength of the social bond is significant for explaining American emigration. We suggest a typology of goals, or foci, of migrants’ activities: self-expressive, others-expressive, self-instrumental, and others-instrumental. This typology permits a clearer comparison of different groups of Americans, for the type of voluntary permanent international migration between developed societies, which is the subject of this book. Several data sources were utilized: Australian Sample Survey (N = 328), Australian Interview Study (N = 50), Israel Immigrant Absorption Survey (N = 560), Americans in Israel Study (N = 131), and the PNAI (Parents of North American Israeli migrants) Study (N = 107). These data were collected during the period 1969–1984.
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- 1.
Most cases (N = 1037) were drawn from the compiled Passenger Arrival Cards. The rest (N = 69) were taken from a list of naturalized citizens. Of the final sample of 1100 names, 332 were returned as nondeliverable (invalid addresses, returned to the United States) and 440 did not respond. If the nondeliverables are deleted, the response rate is 43%. Comparisons with published statistics of Americans living in Australia (Australian Department of Labour and Immigration 1973) suggest that this was a reasonably representative sample.
- 2.
Respondents were drawn through “snowball” or chain referral sampling, whose techniques and problems are described by Biernacki and Waldorf (1981).
- 3.
For further details, see Tabory (1988/1989).
- 4.
It may be asked whether data largely gathered in the 1970s has any relevance for the 1990s. Since we are seeking to analyze the relationships among variables, the recency of the data is not so important. In other words, we would expect the emigrants to Australia or Israel to be younger than the American population as a whole whether we drew a sample in 1970, 1980, or 1990. Nevertheless, we do, however, provide more recent data on the extent of such emigration from the United States in this chapter. Furthermore, we believe based on our own ongoing observations of these migration streams that replication of our research today would be largely consistent with our earlier work.
- 5.
For a study of Americans in Israel during the 1948–1949 Israeli War of Independence, see Heckelman (1974).
- 6.
For a fairly comprehensive bibliography on American migrants to Israel, see Kaufmann (1987).
- 7.
We are interested in the overseas migrations of all Americans who have been brought up within the framework of American society and its culture. We would recommend research on American migrants to Mexico, England, France, Italy, and so forth. There are English-speaking enclaves in a number of countries as exemplified by their having English-language newspapers. Unfortunately, to the best of our knowledge, American migrants have only been studied in Australia, Israel, and Canada. The two countries we present here do represent widely differing societies, and our data permit us to study our research questions in depth.
- 8.
As the research to be introduced in the coming pages indicates, a variety of triggering situations can lead to a decision to emigrate. We are more concerned about the circumstances that lead our migrants to choose the “new countries” they did. Of course, severe personal problems could have existed for a few of our migrants. The authorities in charge of examining migrant applicants screen for individuals with mental health problems. The people we are dealing with do not enter either Australia or Israel as mere tourists. The research introduced in this book was conducted with proper professional standards, and we judge our data to be both reliable and valid.
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Dashefsky, A., Woodrow-Lafield, K.A. (2020). American Emigration: Past and Present. In: Americans Abroad. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1795-1_3
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