Children of the Great Atlantic Migration: Narratives of Young Jewish Lives

Abstract

Abstract The experiences of children during the process of migration are explored with reference to the Great Atlantic Migration, specifically the Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe around the turn of the 20th century. These experiences, as recorded by them later in their lives, are also represented in literary works penned by immigrant and second-generation authors. The subjective and representational aspects of child-immigrant lives add substance and perspective to an array of social data available about that era, including the proportion of children and youth in the migration stream, the effect of mass immigration on social services (including public education), employment of children and youth in industry, and welfare and institutional care. The article asserts that child-immigrants can be studied not only from the perspective of achievement outcomes in American society, as is currently common in the literature, but also in terms of assigning child-immigrants a separate voice in the historiography of U.S. migration.