Two-Way Passage.

Tens of millions of "New Immigrants" arrived in the United States between 1880 and 1921. Before 1900 most were young men who had left parents and young families behind to seek economic opportunity in the New World. Between 1908 and 1914, however, one third of the immigrants who arrived in America returned to Europe, with the proportion of Italians, Hungarians, and Croatians who returned to Europe as high as one-half. As time passed, women and children made up larger percentages of the number of immigrants who came to stay, as the vanguard of young men established themselves and then sent for loved ones. Only European Jews, facing political persecution in eastern Europe, consistently remained in America. Beginning in 1913 and 1914, the looming war disrupted emigration patterns and sent more than two million people fleeing from central Europe. At the same time, many immigrants to America streamed back home, fearing...