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Migration and the Great Depression
Environmental Disaster and Farming Problems
During the Great Depression, a big environmental disaster in the Great Plains made America's farming problems much worse and made the Depression's effects even stronger.
From 1932 to at least 1936, there were very bad droughts (not enough rain) in an area stretching from Texas all the way up to the Dakotas.
These droughts happened partly because farmers had been managing their land poorly for a long time.
Farmers plowed up the natural grasses that had protected the soil for many years to plant their crops.
In earlier years, there was plenty of rain, so this wasn't a problem. But in the early 1930s, without rain, the rich topsoil was left uncovered and dried out into dust.
Strong winds, with no trees or natural plant cover to stop them, picked up this dust, creating huge dust storms.
These storms made the sky dark and made it hard for people and animals to breathe (suffocating them).
Dust from these storms traveled very far, even reaching Washington, D.C., New England, and across the Atlantic Ocean.
The Dust Bowl
This area became known as the Dust Bowl. It showed everyone how important it was to protect the soil in farming.
Before this, farmers were already losing their farms (foreclosure) and getting less money for their crops (declining prices).
Many farmers became desperate, especially in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Arkansas.
People in these areas, called "baked out, blown out, and broke" because of their hardship, moved to California. They hoped to find good harvests and job opportunities there.
Migration statistics:
Many people left Oklahoma; 440,000 people moved out, which was 18.4% of everyone living there in 1930.
Famous Pictures of Migrants' Struggles
Photographer Dorothea Lange took very important pictures that showed how hard life was for people during this time.
Her famous photo from 1936, "Migrant Mother," shows a very poor mother with seven children in Nipomo, California.
The photo shows her looking tired and worried. It perfectly captures the difficulties faced by many migrants who left the Midwest to work on farms in California.
In the picture, the mother is holding a baby, and two older children are close to her, showing the tough challenges families had.
How People Moved and Its Cultural Impact
In the mid-1930s, many people moved west. They were often called "Okies," a rude name for those leaving places like Oklahoma.
These migrants hoped for a better life. Their movement significantly changed the population in certain areas.
Many men from all over the country also moved, sometimes leaving their families behind, to search for jobs.
By 1932, experts believed millions of men were traveling across the country looking for work.
Stories and books like William Wellman’s "Wild Boys of the Road" and John Steinbeck’s "The Grapes of Wrath" brought to life the difficult experiences of people who had been forced to leave their homes.
"The Grapes of Wrath," published in 1939 and later made into a movie, showed the very hard times migrant families went through.
Moving from Cities to Farms
For the first time in the 1930s, many people moved from cities to the countryside. They left cities where jobs were scarce to look for work in rural areas.
Because so many migrants were coming, many government officials at the state and local levels tried to stop them:
They took steps to prevent new migrants from getting help or finding jobs.
Laws were put in place in different states:
In some places, it was against the law to bring poor migrants into the state.
Local officials could send migrants back to nearby states.
In the winter of 1935-1936, states like California, Florida, and Colorado set up blockades at their borders to stop poor migrants from coming in and reduce the competition for jobs.
For example:
A sign outside Tulsa, Oklahoma, told people wanting to move that there were "NO JOBS in California" and warned them to "KEEP Out."
Growing Kindness for Migrants
Later in the Depression, people started to feel more sympathy for migrants, mostly because John Steinbeck's stories showed how much they suffered.
The story of the Joad family in "The Grapes of Wrath" got a lot of attention across the country.
After the book came out, in 1940, Congress created a special committee to look into the movement of poor citizens between states, and they held public meetings about it.
These efforts came too late to make a big difference for the migrants, especially since World War II was starting and changing what kind of jobs were needed.
Immigration Rules and Feelings During the Depression
Many people feared foreign workers, which influenced immigration laws and how people felt about immigrants:
Because so many Americans were jobless, the Hoover government ordered stricter checks on applications for immigrant visas.
Steps taken to cut down immigration:
Government officials abroad were told to carefully check applicants who might need public assistance, leading to many visas being denied.
Overall, fewer Europeans got visas (about 60% fewer), and more people were sent out of the country:
From 1930 to 1932, 54,000 people were officially deported, and another 44,000 chose to leave on their own.
Mexican immigrants had a very hard time:
The U.S. government actively tried to reduce the number of Mexican immigrants, continuing actions that started in 1929.
There were organized efforts to deport people, especially in California. Thousands of Mexicans and Mexican Americans, many already receiving help, were affected.
Numbers show that between 1930 and 1940, the number of people born in Mexico living in Southwestern states went down from 616,998 to 377,433.
President Franklin Roosevelt was not as eager to support anti-immigrant feelings as President Hoover had been:
His New Deal programs stopped some of the practices that divided people, but since jobs were still hard to find, negative feelings towards immigrants grew stronger.
Fewer immigrants came into the U.S. and more people were deported, meaning that during the Depression, more people left the country than came into it.