MIGRATION AND THE EMPIRE
MIGRATION is again becoming a living issue. One evidence of that is the conference to be held in London next month, at which the case for organised migration will be discussed and explained. Two years ago a similar conference was held at Newcastle-upon- Tyne. Its object was to draw up a case to put before the Government, but at that time conditions were not favourable for an organised appeal. Indeed, it might be said that then a revival of migration was, even if desirable, not possible. For the world as a whole had not yet recovered from the effects of the worldwide economic depression, and past experience has clearly shown that migration movements reach their peak in periods of boom, and decline in the slump. Such a conclusion may be surprising to some people, and indeed unwelcome, for it does away with the hope that migration can be a cure for unemployment. But in fact it is unavoidable. People move from one country to another in the hope of finding better conditions ; if all countries are depressed, where are they to go ?
By now, however, conditions have altered for the better, and especially in those new countries, chiefly producers of raw materials, which are most suitable for settlement. Thus, two at least of the Dominions—Australia and South Africa—having escaped the pressure of unemployment, have now come to realise again the advantages of reopening their doors to immigration. It is, however, not only the economic and social advantages that have become apparent. The pressure of population in certain countries of Europe and of Asia has led to a new desire for colonisa- tion; and of. the relatively underpopulated areas of the globe Africa offers the greatest attractions to Europeans, Australia perhaps to Asiatics. It is significant that, of the Dominions, Canada, which is comparatively safe against attack, has shown least concern with attempts and plans to create new opportunities for migration.
This is the background against which the problem must be set ; first, the new possibilities which exist, and secondly, the dangers implicit in the overpopulated areas of Europe and Asia on the one hand, and the com- paratively underpopulated areas of newer countries on the other. It is natural that in Britain and the Dominions at least these conditions should inspire most of all a desire for increased migration within the Empire. Thus some alarm has been felt lately at the high proportion of non-British immigrants who entered Australia last year ; so far as South Africa is interested in attracting new settlers, it is white men and above all British that she desires, one of their chief values to her being as added man-power to call to her defence against possible attack. It is significant that at the forthcoming conference one of the most important sessions is devoted to migratio_, as a means of strengthening Imperial defence. Nor is this all. It is not merely white and British settlers who are regarded with favour ; they must be of a particular type : preferably skilled workmen and technicians, young and able-bodied. Thus, the plan for renewed immigration into New South Wales, on a strictly limited scale, provides chiefly for juveniles and young workers, chiefly though not wholly of British stock, while Southern Europeans are to be entirely excluded. It should be noticed that such a planned scheme of immigration, whether by " infiltration " or by "group settlement," necessarily involves increased export of capital if it is to be successful.
Such projects are attractive ; increased mobility of population within the Empire is in itself desirable, and it is an excellent suggestion that, with this object in view, "among equal member States of the British Common- wealth it may be possible for a man to move from one country to another carrying his full rights of economic as well as political citizenship with him, and that his insurance and pension rights may be capable of transfer, with the necessary adjustments, from one country to another." It is by such means that we can be most certain of securing an equally desirable object, that the Dominions should remain predominantly Anglo- Saxon, and that Anglo-Saxon traditions of government and life should be permanently assured. Yet it is to be hoped that when the renewal of the Empire Settlement Act is shortly brought before Parliament, a too exclusively Imperial view of the problem will not be allowed to prevail. Indeed, the policy of promoting merely Empire migration gives rise to many doubts. So far as the immigrants are to come from this country, they will be precisely of the type of the young skilled worker, of which there is a lack rather than a surplus at the present time ; while population statistics show conclusively that over the next Ioo years Great Britain will be in no sense over- populated, with a surplus of young men and women to spare for the Dominions or colonies.
It is not Great Britain which suffers from the pressure of over-population ; on the other hand, there are countries in which it is so severe, for various reasons, that it is one of the most effective causes of war. There are also countries, like Germany, from which men and women are being driven out who would make the best possible kind of immigrants into the Dominions. So far as we encourage a rigidly exclusive policy of Empire migration we shall be only provoking the dangers we wish to avoid. The real object of an active migration policy should be, not merely to promote exchanges between Britain and the Dominions, but to remove artificial obstacles to move- merits of populations which may adjust their present maldistribution. To achieve that end as completely as it ought to be achieved may be impossible under present conditions ; and certainly the security and welfare of the Anglo-Saxon populations abroad must be given their value. But without a just and proper regard for the claims, the merits, and the needs of other peoples also, a revival of migration is likely to defeat rather than achieve its true objects. There may be strong reasons, especially sentimental ones, why Empire migration policy should concern itself exclusively with the export of Britons to British territories. But in the last analysis it must remain doubtful whether either the security or the prosperity of the Empire is to be achieved by such means. It is more than doubtful whether they will give any relief to the problems of other nations.
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