International migration statistics in the nineteenth century are acknowledged to be deficient and biased, but there are few source-critical studies to determine the extent of underreporting and omissions. This article provides a critical analysis of the statistics of Dutch emigration to North America in the period 1835–1880, based on the method of nominal record-linkage of computer files derived from Netherlands emigration lists and U.S. ship passenger manifests. Published and unpublished official records in the Netherlands, U.S.A. and Canada are used to determine the extent of underreporting, the structural biases in the migration data and the “true” annual Dutch immigration rate to the United States.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
EricksonI.1970“Passenger Lists and the Annual Parish Reports on Emigrants as Sources for the Study of Emigration from Sweden”. Edited by S. Ackerman. Nordic Emigration Research Conference in Uppsala, Sept. 1969. Uppsala: Soderstrom & Finn.
2.
GanzevoortH.1975“Dutch Immigration to Canada, 1892–1940”. Ph.D. dissertation. Toronto: University of Toronto.
3.
GouldJ.D.1979“European Inter-Continental Emigration 1815–1914: Patterns and Causes”, Journal of European Economic History, 8(2): 593: 679.
4.
GutmanM.P.1977“The Future of Record Linkage in History”, Journal of Family History, 2: 151–158. Summer.
HutchinsonE.P.1958“Notes on Immigration Statistics of the United States”, Journal of the American Statistical Association, 53: 963–1025. Dec.
7.
KappF. [1988] Immigration and the Commissioners of Emigration of the State of New York. New 1969 York: Arno Press.
8.
KeroR.1974Migration from Finland to North America in the Years Between the United States Civil War and the First World War.Turku: Turun Yliopisto.
9.
LucasH.S.1955Netherlanders in America.Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
10.
OlssenN.W.1967Swedish Passenger Arrivals in New York, 1820–1850.Stockholm: Kungl. Boktryckeriet P.A. Norstedt & Soner.
11.
PetersenW.S.1955Planned Migration: The Social Determinants of the Dutch-Canadian Movement.Berkeley: University of California Press.
12.
SamsonM.L.1977Population Mobility of the Netherlands 1880–1910.Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis.
13.
SemmingsenI.1979“Nordic Research into Emigration”, Immigration History Newsletter, 11(2): 6–9. Nov.
14.
SwierengaR.P.1980“Dutch Immigrant Demography, 1820–1880”, Journal of Family History, 5: 390–405. Winter.
15.
SwierengaR.P.1978Dutch Immigrants in U.S. Ship Lists, 1820–1880: An Alphabetical Listing by Household.Kent, Ohio: Privately published.
16.
SwierengaR.P.1977Dutch Emigration Records, 1835–1880: A Computer Alphabetical Listing of Heads of Households and Independent Persons. Revised edition. Kent, Ohio: Privately published.
17.
SwierengaR.P., and StoutH.S.1976“Socio-Economic Patterns of Migration From the Netherlands in the Nineteenth Century”. In Research in Economic History, I, 1976. Edited by UseldingP.Greenwich: JAI Press.
18.
SwierengaR.P., and StoutH.S.1975“Dutch Immigration in the Nineteenth Century, 1820–1877: A Quantitative Overview”, Indiana Social Studies Quarterly, 28: 7–34. Autumn.
19.
TaylorP.1971The Distant Magnet: European Emigration to the U.S.A.New York: Harper & Row Publishers.
20.
ThomasB.1973Migration and Economic Growth, 2nd ed.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
21.
WillcoxW.F., ed. 1931International Migrations, Volume 2, Interpretations.New York: National Bureau of Economic Statistics.
22.
WillcoxW.F., ed., and FerencziI., comp. 1929International Migrations, Volume 1, Statistics.New York: National Bureau of Economic Research.
23.
WinchesterJ.1972“Bibliography of Historical Record Linkage”. In Canadian Social History Project, Interim Report No. 4. Edited by KatzM.B.Hamilton: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.
