Szili Ferenc: Kivándorlás a Délkelet-Dunántúlról Horvát-Szlavónországba és Amerikába 1860-1914 (Kaposvár, 1995)

Résumé

FERENC SZILI EMIGRATION FROM THE SOUTH-EASTERN TRANSDANUBIA TO CROATIA-SLAVONIA AND AMERICA 1860-1914 RÉSUMÉ In the decades of the turn of the century, the frightening scales of the emigration called the attention of both the contemporary scientists - historians, economists, sociologists - and politicians, journalists, poets, writers and the chief officials of the administration. The literature of this topic could fill up libraries, but this social phenomenon was nearly every day dealt with in the county and the local press of towns. In the past decades fundamental works that provided syntheses have been put out, just like „The migration of peasants and its political judgment in Hungary 1849-1914" by Rácz István, and the monograph)' by Puskás Julianna called „Emigrating Hungarians to the United States 1880-1940". We also consider as an important work the two-volume monography published with the contribution of Albert Tezla and Kathy Elaine Tezla. This is called „Somewhere yonder in the realm of fairy tales... American Hungarians 1895-1920". We think that the vertical and thorough examination of the emigration from the South-eastern Transdanubia justifies the global statements that the above-mentioned authors drew up in their works. But at the same time, we can also put our fingers on the differences which were not characteristic of other regions. We can also follow the particular conditions of certain settlements and micro-regions of this area. In the course of our research, it has become evident that the emigration to America cannot be examined in itself since it is closely intermingled with the inner migration that was permanent from the 18th century on. We can also see the correlation between the emigration to America and to Croatia-Slavonia from the 1860's. We wish to emphasize the fact that the emigration was, in both cases, motivated by the same economic, social and sociological reasons. We keep track of how the migration of the population took place in the region - in the counties of Somogy, Tolna and Baranya - in the 18-19th centuries. Subsequent to this, in a whole chapter we examined how the agricultural-capitalist development affected the different layers of peasantry and what correlation there is between pauperization and emigration. We also showed the growing social conflicts that came to a head in the agrarian-socialist movements emphasizing the different specific features even inside a given region. The tardy development of industry in the region induced both the inner migration and the emigration. But mainly it was the distorted agrarian structure that played a role in the fact that a large number of people left their homelands. On account of its tardiness the economic development that was dynamic compared to the earlier periods could not ease and muffle the social tensions and nor could it provide a solution to the newer contradictions.