Disputes
in Latin America Social ecological Conflict and Resistance on the Front Lines 1st Edition Penelope Anthias
Visit to download the full and correct content document: https://textbookfull.com/product/neoextractivism-and-territorial-disputes-in-latin-americ a-social-ecological-conflict-and-resistance-on-the-front-lines-1st-edition-penelope-ant hias/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant download maybe you interests ...
Civil Resistance and Violent Conflict in Latin America
Mobilizing for Rights Cécile Mouly
https://textbookfull.com/product/civil-resistance-and-violentconflict-in-latin-america-mobilizing-for-rights-cecile-mouly/
Ecological Networks and Territorial Systems of Ecological Stability László
Miklós
https://textbookfull.com/product/ecological-networks-andterritorial-systems-of-ecological-stability-laszlo-miklos/
Attacks on the Press Journalism on the World s Front Lines 1st Edition Committee To Protect Journalists
https://textbookfull.com/product/attacks-on-the-press-journalismon-the-world-s-front-lines-1st-edition-committee-to-protectjournalists/
Customer service in academic libraries tales from the front lines 1st Edition Mossop
https://textbookfull.com/product/customer-service-in-academiclibraries-tales-from-the-front-lines-1st-edition-mossop/
The Girls Next Door: Bringing the Home Front to the Front Lines Kara Dixon Vuic
https://textbookfull.com/product/the-girls-next-door-bringingthe-home-front-to-the-front-lines-kara-dixon-vuic/
American Carnage On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump Tim Alberta
https://textbookfull.com/product/american-carnage-on-the-frontlines-of-the-republican-civil-war-and-the-rise-of-presidenttrump-tim-alberta/
Inside the Hot Zone A Soldier on the Front Lines of Biological Warfare Mark G. Kortepeter
https://textbookfull.com/product/inside-the-hot-zone-a-soldieron-the-front-lines-of-biological-warfare-mark-g-kortepeter/
Social Urbanism in Latin America: Cases and Instruments of Planning, Land Policy and Financing the City Transformation with Social Inclusion Carlos Leite
https://textbookfull.com/product/social-urbanism-in-latinamerica-cases-and-instruments-of-planning-land-policy-andfinancing-the-city-transformation-with-social-inclusion-carlosleite/
Post-conflict Security, Peace and Development: Perspectives from Africa, Latin America, Europe and New Zealand Christine Atieno
https://textbookfull.com/product/post-conflict-security-peaceand-development-perspectives-from-africa-latin-america-europeand-new-zealand-christine-atieno/
Neoextractivism and Territorial Disputes in Latin America
This book reflects on the continuing expansion of extractive forms of capitalist development into new territories in Latin America, and the resistance movements that are trying to combat the ecological and social destruction that follows.
Latin American development models continue to prioritise extractivism: the intensive exploitation and exportation of nature in its primary commodity form. This constant expansion of the extractive frontier into new territories leads to forms of place-based resistance, negotiation and struggle in which competing territorial projects and claims are at stake. This book uncovers the underlying trends and dynamics of these ‘territorialities in dispute’, and the socio-ecological resistance movements that are emerging as marginalised communities struggle to reclaim their territorial rights and defend and protect their right of access to the global commons. A focus on territorialities in dispute renders visible the unsustainable expansion of extractivist territories and opens up new horizons to learn from these processes and to consider post-extractivist/post-development imaginings of another world and alternate futures – as well as the challenges to their realisation.
This book will be of interest to both students and researchers in the fields of international development, political ecology, critical geography, social anthropology as well as to activists engaged in socio-ecological/eco-territorial movements.
Penelope Anthias is Assistant Professor in Human Geography at Durham University, UK. Her research investigates struggles over territory, resources and citizenship in Bolivia based on long-term ethnographic and participatory research with Indigenous and peasant communities. She is the author of Limits to Decolonization: Indigeneity, Territory and Hydrocarbon Politics in the Bolivian Chaco (Cornell University Press, 2018), a Spanish translation of which was recently published in Bolivia (Plural Editores, 2022). In 2022, she directed and produced Tariquía no se toca, a documentary film on women’s resistance to hydrocarbon development in the Tariquía National Reserve of Flora and Fauna. She has a PhD in Geography from the University of
Cambridge (2014) and completed postdoctoral positions at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Copenhagen.
Pabel C. López Flores is Bolivian-Italian social researcher, with a PhD in Sociology at Scuola Normale Superiore/University of Milan ‘Bicocca’ (Italy). He is Associate Researcher in Postgraduate in Development Sciences, Universidad Mayor de San Andrés CIDES-UMSA (Bolivia) and distinguished visiting researcher at the Institute of Latin American Studies at the University of Sevilla, IEALC-US (Spain). His current research interests include fields of political sociology, sociology of social movements and sociology of territory, in a trans-disciplinary perspective.
Routledge Critical Development Studies
Series Editors
Henry Veltmeyer is co-chair of the Critical Development Studies (CDS) network, is Senior Research Professor at the Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas, Mexico, and Professor Emeritus of International Development Studies (IDS) at Saint Mary’s University, Canada
Paul Bowles is Professor of Economics and International Studies at UNBC, Canada
Elisa van Wayenberge is Lecturer in Economics at SOAS University of London, UK
The global crisis, coming at the end of three decades of uneven capitalist development and neoliberal globalization that have devastated the economies and societies of people across the world, especially in the developing societies of the global south, cries out for a more critical, proactive approach to the study of international development. The challenge of creating and disseminating such an approach, to provide the study of international development with a critical edge, is the project of a global network of activist development scholars concerned and engaged in using their research and writings to help effect transformative social change that might lead to a better world.
This series will provide a forum and outlet for the publication of books in the broad interdisciplinary field of critical development studies—to generate new knowledge that can be used to promote transformative change and alternative development.
The editors of the series welcome the submission of original manuscripts that focus on issues of concern to the growing worldwide community of activist scholars in this field.
To submit proposals, please contact the Development Studies Editor, Helena Hurd (Helena.Hurd@tandf.co.uk).
13. From Extractivism to Sustainability
Scenarios and Lessons from Latin America
Edited by Henry Veltmeyer and Arturo Ezquerro-Cañete
14. Underdevelopment in Peru
A Profile of Peripheral Capitalism
Jan Lust
15. Neoextractivism and Territorial Disputes in Latin America
Social-ecological Conflict and Resistance on the Front Lines
Edited by Penelope Anthias and Pabel C. López Flores
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/Routledge-CriticalDevelopment-Studies/book-series/RCDS
Neoextractivism and Territorial Disputes in Latin America
Social-ecological Conflict and Resistance on the Front Lines
Edited by Penelope Anthias and Pabel C. López Flores
First published 2024 by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2024 selection and editorial matter, Penelope Anthias and Pabel C. López Flores; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Penelope Anthias and Pabel C. López Flores to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 9781032212388
ISBN: 9781032212401
ISBN: 9781003267461
DOI: 10.4324/9781003267461
Typeset in Sabon by Newgen Publishing UK
PABEL C. LÓPEZ FLORES AND PENELOPE ANTHIAS
The territorial dynamics of (neo)extractivism in Latin America: the characteristics and scope of the current phase 13
1 Extractivism: from the roots and scope of a concept to the political horizons of its struggles 15
HORACIO MACHADO ARÁOZ
2 Resistance to dispossession and environmental suffering in territories sacrificed by neoextractivism: the example of Chile 36
PAOLA BOLADOS, ALEXANDER PANEZ AND BÁRBARA JÉREZ
3 The Amazon exposed in the Venezuelan Great Crisis (2013–2021): the rise of an extractivism of hybrid governances 53
EMILIANO TERAN MANTOVANI
PART II
Territorialities in dispute and the dialectic of re-/de-colonializacion
79
4 The expansion of agribusiness and territorial conflicts in the Cerrado of Central-North Brazil: the pillaging of land, water and native vegetation 81
MARTA INEZ MEDEIROS MARQUES AND DÉBORA ASSUMPÇÃO LIMA
5 Mapuche resistance and alternatives to fracking in Vaca Muerta (Neuquén, Argentina)
JUAN WAHREN, GISELA HADAD AND TOMÁS PALMISANO
106
6 Neoextractivism, agribusiness and water scarcity in contemporary Chile 125
MAYARÍ CASTILLO, PABLO GONZÁLEZ AND MARÍA FERNANDA RAMÍREZ
7 Disputed territories, institutions and autonomies: perspectives from three decades of contemporary extractivism in Peru 147
RAPHAEL HOETMER
PART III
Societal movements, territorial re-existences, and alternative horizons
8 Politicizing prior public consultations: notes on the re-existence of the Munduruku people and riverside communities against the construction of hydroelectrical plants in the Middle Tapajós region, Amazonia
LÉA TOSOLD
9 In defense of life: the existential politics of relating body and territory
JOHANNA LEINIUS
10 Sovereignty against extractivism: re-centring decolonisation on Indigenous territorial struggles in Bolivia
DIEGO ANDREUCCI, ISABELLA M. RADHUBER, MARXA CHÁVEZ AND MARIE JASSER
169
171
192
207
3.1 Demarcation of the Venezuelan Amazon (green area) 56
3.2 Natural Areas under Special Administration Regime (NAUSAR) in the Venezuelan Amazon
3.3 Location map of mineral reserves in the Amazon and traditional Indigenous territories (blue areas)
3.4 Location of the main traditional oil basins
3.5 Location of OOB and OMA projects
3.6 Concentrations of metallic minerals in the Amazon and the polygonal of the AMO
3.7 Small- and medium-scale points of illegal mining in the Amazon (first quarter of 2020)
3.8 Georeferencing of mining conflicts in the Venezuelan Amazon 67
3.9 Las Claritas town, eastern Bolívar state, one of the areas most devastated by mining activity
3.10 Satellite image of Cerro Yapacana, affected by illegal mining
4.1 MATOPIBA: state and micro region limits and biomes 84
4.2 Predominance of areas larger than 1000 hectares 90
6.1 Irrigation Law grants differentiated by types of users in UF, for the Maule región
6.2 Regional budget intended for payment of awarded projects by the N°18.450 law
6.3 Water scarcity decrees by region
6.4 Use of agricultural land, Maule region
6.5 Scarcity decree zones. Maule region
6.6 Surfaces with technified irrigation in 2007 and irrigation grants 138
4.1 The evolution of the price of land with high grain yields in MATOPIBA municipalities from 2003 to 2019 87
4.2 Area of establishments in the municipalities of MATOPIBA per area stratum, in absolute value and percentage
4.3 Production of soybean, sugar cane, cattle, rice, beans and cassava in MATOPIBA during 1995, 2006 and 2017 93
4.4 The ten largest areas with centre-pivot irrigation (ha) per municipality in MATOPIBA
6.1 Fruit plantation surface in Maule region
7.1 Shifts in the logic of consultation
About the authors
Diego Andreucci is a postdoctoral researcher at the International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands. His recent research has examined political processes and Indigenous-campesino mobilisations around natural resource extraction in the Andes, particularly Bolivia. He holds a PhD from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (2016).
Débora Assumpção Lima is a researcher in the Department of Global Development Studies, Queen’s University, Canada. She specialises in Critical Agrarian Studies and Political Ecology, with a focus on the internationalisation and territorialisation of capital, commodities and territorial conflicts, rural social movements and rural labour. She has a postdoc in Geography from the University of São Paulo and a PhD in Geography from the State University of Campinas.
Paola Bolados García is an academic at the Faculty of Social Sciences and a Researcher at the Center of Advanced Studies at the University of Playa Ancha. Her lines of research address the subjects of Extractivism, Socioenvironmental Conflicts, Feminist Political Ecology and Ecofeminism. Her recent research and publications focus on water problems in Chile, as well as in the so-called sacrifice zones, where the dimensions of gender and feminism have acquired particular relevance. She has a PhD and a master’s degree in Anthropology from the Catholic University of the North, Chile.
Mayarí Castillo is an anthropologist from the University of Chile, Master in Social Sciences Master of the Faculty of Social Sciences, (FLACSO – Mexico) and PhD in Sociology, Latin American Studies at Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. Her research interests include social inequality and poverty; qualitative methodologies, environmental justice and socio-environmental conflicts. She was a junior researcher at the Program for the Study of CLACSO Poverty – CROP and Intercultural Program Coordinator at the University of Chile. Currently she is a researcher at the Interdisciplinary Center of Intercultural and Indigenous Studies (CIIR), the Observatory
for Socioeconomic Studies Max Planck and full professor at the Centro de Economía y Políticas Sociales (CEAS, Universidad Mayor).
María Fernanda Ramírez is a geographer from the University of Chile. Her research interests include rural geography. She works as a geographer in the planning secretariat of the rural municipality of Melipilla, Chile. mframirezh@gmail.com
Pablo González is a historian from the University of Chile. He has a master’s degree in urban development from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, and is a master’s student in public health at the University of Chile. His research interests are socio-environmental studies from health perspectives. His current thesis under development seeks to address the social and health impacts of water scarcity. pbgonzalez1@uc.cl
Gisela Hadad is Assistant Researcher of the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) in the Instituto de Investigaciones Gino Germani at Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA). She is also a Professor in Rural Sociology and Social Movement Theory at the Facultad de Ciencias Sociales in the UBA. Her research topics focus on the study of conflict and social movements, particularly Indigenous movements, but also peasants, socio-environmental assemblies and other actors in resistance to the different extractivist projects in the region (mining, fracking, agribusiness). Gisela has a PhD in Social Science from the University of Buenos Aires, a master’s degree in Latin American Studies from Complutense University of Madrid (Spain) and completed postdoc projects at the CONICET (Argentina). giselahadad@hotmail.com
Raphael Hoetmer is a historian, specialised in political ecology and the study of social movements. He has directed the program in solidarity cooperation with rural development and human rights of Broederlijk Delen in Peru for seven years and is currently regional advisor for the Americas in strategy and impact of Amnesty International. He has published widely on social movements, democracy and human rights in times of globalisation.
Marta Inez Medeiros Marques is Professor in Human Geography at University of São Paulo, Brazil. She completed her PhD in Human Geography at the same university in 2000 and acted as faculty fellow at American University, EUA, in 2006 and as visiting research scholar at City University of New York, EUA, in 2007. Her current research analyses agribusiness territorialisation in the Brazilian agrarian frontier and the related social, environmental and territorial conflicts, considering specially the new financial mechanisms, rent relations and forms of production of nature.
Bárbara Jérez Henríquez has a PhD in Latin American Studies, a master’s degree of Science in Regional Rural Development, and also a degree in Social Work. She is a Researcher at the Plurinational Observatory of
About the authors xiii
Andean Salt Flats (OPSAL), and a teacher at the School of Social Work of the University of Bío-Bío, Concepción Campus. Her lines of research include: political ecology, Latin American decoloniality, extractivism, mining, energy transitions, sacrifice zones and rural transformations.
Johanna Leinius is a post-doctoral researcher in the program ‘Ecologies of Social Cohesion’ at the University of Kassel. Previously, she was a research associate at the Frankfurt Research Center for Postcolonial Studies (FRCPS). She is a member of the Speaker’s Council of the Politics and Gender Section of the German Political Science Association and Speaker of the working group ‘Poststructuralist Perspectives on Social Movements’ of the Institute for Social Movement Research (IPB). Her research interests include postcolonial-feminist and decolonial theory, postextractivism, political ontology and the politics of critical knowledge production.
Horacio Machado Aráoz is an independent researcher for the National Council of Science and Technology (CONICET), Argentina and coordinator of the Southern Political Ecology Research Collective at the Regional Institute of Sociocultural Studies (IRES-CONICET-UNCA; http://www.eco logiapoliticadelsur.com.ar/). He is Professor of Sociology II (Universidad Nacional de Catamarca, Argentina), Professor of the Master’s Degree in Political Ecology and Alternatives to Development (Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar, Ecuador), member of the Academic Committee of the PhD in Human Sciences (UNCA, Argentina) and Professor and member of the Academic Committee of the PhD in Agrarian Social Studies (Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina). lachomachadoa@gmail.com
Marxa Nadia Chávez León is part of various networks and groups of women and feminists. She obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology at UMSABolivia, and a Master’s degree in Political Ecology and Alternatives to Development at UASB-Ecuador.
Tomás Palmisano is Assistant Researcher of the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) in the Instituto de Investigaciones Gino Germani at Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA). He also teaches Rural Sociology and Social Movement theory at the Facultad de Ciencias Sociales in the UBA. His research interests span both in critical agrarian studies and social movements in Argentina and Chile, focusing on agrarian change and alternative agricultures in territories under pressure of extractivisms. Tomás has a PhD in Social Science from the UBA and completed postdoc projects at the CONICET (Argentina) and the Universidad de Playa Ancha (Chile). tomas.palmisano@conicet.gov.ar
Alexander Panez Pinto is a social worker with a PhD in Geography. He works as an academic in the Department of Social Sciences of the University of Bío-Bío (Chile) with research experience in the analysis on the mechanisms of water-territory dispossession and conflicts in Latin America, with
special emphasis on the conflict in Chile, community processes of social appropriation of water, and territorial disputes related to the agribusiness extractivism in Chile. alexander.panez@gmail.com
Isabella M. Radhuber is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Political Science & Research Network Latin America, University of Vienna, Austria. Her research interests include extractivism, inequalities, public finance, state-formation and decolonisation in Latin America. She has a PhD in Political Science from the University of Vienna.
Emiliano Teran Mantovani is a sociologist from the Universidad Central de Venezuela, with a Masters in Ecological Economics from the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona. His book El fantasma de la Gran Venezuela (Fundación Celarg, 2014) received an honourable mention in the Premio Libertador al Pensamiento Crítico 2015. He participates in the Permanent Working Group on Alternatives to Development organised by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, in the CLACSO Working Group on political ecology and has collaborated with the EjAtlas – Environmental Justice project with Joan Martínez Alier.
Marie Theresa Jasser is a DOC-team Fellow of the Austrian Academy of Sciences at the Department of Development Studies at the University of Vienna, Austria, and an Associate Researcher at the Universidad Nur in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. She works on the role of social movements in land conflicts in the Plurinational State of Bolivia and coordinates the research group SolPan+ Bolivia.
Léa Tosold is a researcher and activist. She holds an MA in Literature, Philosophy and Political Science (University of Vienna, Austria), an MA in Political Philosophy (University of York, UK), and a PhD in Political Science (University of São Paulo, Brazil). Her work focuses on decolonial feminist anti-racist epistemologies, and on collective re-existence practices in (neo)colonial contexts.
Juan Wahren is Professor of rural sociology, social movements and popular education at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires. He is also a researcher in rural studies and Latin American social movement groups at the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) and Gino Germani Institute of the University of Buenos Aires. His areas of research include social movements, natural resource struggles, alternative development, territorial struggles, Latin American movements and popular education. He holds a master’s degree in social science research and a PhD in social sciences from the University of Buenos Aires.
Acknowledgements
The editors would like to acknowledge the important contribution of Anna Preiser to the conceptualisation and initial stages of this book project.
Penelope Anthias gratefully acknowledges support from the Independent Research Fund of Denmark for the project: LEAKS: Resource Enclaves and Unintended Flows in Latin America, which made possible her involvement in this project.
Pabel C. López Flores gratefully acknowledges the support of and the collective experience with the Working Group ‘Territorialities in Dispute and re-existences’ of the Latin American Council of Social Sciences – CLACSO.
Introduction
Pabel C. López Flores and Penelope Anthias
One of the questions that has generated the most analysis, criticism and theoretical reflection in Latin America and Latin Americanist scholarship is the character of extractivism as a long-established but ongoing pattern of capitalist accumulation in the Global South. Extractivism refers to the intensive exploitation and exportation of nature in primary commodity form, which remains at the core of Latin American development models (Gudynas, 2018; 2015). This is the case for both right-wing governments with a neoliberal orientation and progressive “neoextractivist” governments, which are characterised by greater state participation in extraction and in the distribution of resource rents (Ibid.). Extractivism problematises patterns of unsustainable development and the logic of accumulation by dispossession, encompassing multi-scalar dimensions of the current crisis (Svampa, 2018). Extractivism is considered by many critical scholars, activists and communities to be the most serious ecological problem of Latin America today. However, despite the politicisation of the environmental crisis, climate change and ecological destruction through extractivist activities, the valorisation of nature as primary commodities remains the core globalising dynamic of capitalist development (Brand & Dietz, 2014; Svampa & Viale, 2020). As a constitutive part of capitalist accumulation, extractivism constantly integrates new territories, diverse social relations and future markets (Composto & Navarro, 2014: 35; Svampa, 2018).
The recent phase of (neo)extractivist development has been marked by a hegemonic transition (Svampa, 2018: 20), with China emerging as a world economic power, leading to growing demand and thus high prices of various commodities on capitalist markets as well as “a wave of resource-seeking foreign direct investment” into the extractive sector (Veltmeyer, 2016). The financialisation of nature as a new field of investment and speculation –influenced by the expanding green economy as well as new technological possibilities – contributed to this trend (Composto & Navarro, 2014; Brand & Dietz, 2014; Svampa, 2018). While this dynamic initially boosted economic growth in Latin America and led in some cases to poverty reduction, the end of the primary commodities boom and the decline of a first progressive cycle
C. López Flores and Penelope Anthias
in Latin American politics has given way to a new phase of extractivism. This is characterised by the violent and intensive expansion of extractive territories dedicated to mining, fossil fuels, agro-extraction and agribusiness, to counteract the economic downturn and its implications for economic prosperity and political stability.
These processes have led to the subordination, suppression and denial of pre-existing territories, as well as proliferation of so called “sacrificed territories” (Bolados & Sanchez, 2017). This violence, a constant in almost all Latin American countries, is further expressed in a worrying record of murders of environmental leaders and social activists such as Berta Cáceres (Honduras), as well as the silencing and repression of voices and protests critical of extractivism. Across regimes of diverse ideological orientation, the territorial dynamics of extractivism – the appropriation of nature, occupation of territories and enclosure of commons – have created setbacks for participatory democracy, inaugurating a new cycle of criminalisation and violation of human rights (Teran-Mantovani & Svampa, 2019).
At the same time, social resistance to the extractivist development model has become more active and organised. Since the beginning of the millennium, a rising number of socio-ecological conflicts have been registered across the region (Martinez-Alier & Mariana, 2016), in what some critics have dubbed a new “eco-territorial turn” (Svampa, 2018). These conflicts are not merely about land and resource control, but have deeper ontological and epistemological stakes, demonstrating the existence of competing environmental rationalities (Leff, 2018) and alternative ways of life. Alongside placebased movements, Latin America has seen the emergence of social rebellions and more generalised societal movements, particularly since 2019 (e.g., in Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia).
This edited volume examines the underlying trends and emerging dynamics of these territories in dispute. Bringing together reflections from Latin American as well as European academics working in close relation with local movements, it seeks to address the complexity of hegemonic (neo)extractivist development models and their logic of territorial expansion in a context of global capitalist development, as well as analysing their articulation with and contestation by subaltern actors and territorialities. In doing so, we aim to extend and deepen current debates about the dynamics of extractivism, social movements and territorialities in dispute in Latin America, broadening understanding of the intersecting dimensions (epistemological, ecological, social, cultural, political, economic, ontological) that need to be addressed to challenge the ongoing and violent capitalist valorisation and appropriation of territories.
Critical discussions of extractivism in Latin America have received growing attention within various academic fields. This is closely related to the rising number and growing visibility of socio-ecological conflicts in the region. Many scholars writing about the conflictive character of extractivism, both within Latin America and abroad, accompany social struggles and reflect
critically on recent developments and underlying structures. Various disciplines (such as political ecology, social anthropology, critical development studies, human and critical geography, sociology, social movement studies) and perspectives (critical, de-colonial, feminist, southern epistemologies, relational ontologies) offer different angles, concepts and epistemic approaches to make sense of the structures, actors, scales, worlds, threats and opportunities involved in socio-environmental conflicts. However, the evolving dynamics of extractivism, its violent expansion and the repression and criminalisation of protests in recent years require critical reflections and theorisation to be continually updated. This edited volume contributes to this endeavour, combining theoretical reflections on the structural dynamics of extractivism with in-depth research on the experiences, practices and grounded theory of social movements on the front lines of extractive processes.
In doing so, we offer an empirically grounded and theoretically informed engagement with debates on territory and territoriality. Within Latin American critical thought, the concept of territoriality has been used to challenge Eurocentric theorisations of territory, making visible the existence of alternative ontologies and practices of territory by subaltern rural and communitarian actors (Halvorsen, 2019). From this perspective, “territory” – understood as a social construction that is the result of the exercise of hegemonic power in a social relation of domination and control (Haesbaert, 2011) – is merely one form of territoriality. Territoriality thus exposes and challenges dominant state and capitalist forms of world making at the expense of other worlds beyond the logic of capitalist development. Rather than a fixed set of practices, territoriality implies forms of resistance and transformation that are in constant metamorphosis; for example, the alteration of structures of internalised domination that produce forms of social ordering. In the context of extractivism, territoriality is associated with resistance against the expropriation of natural resources, unequal power relations and forms of territorialisation imposed by the state and multinational companies in the extractive sector; a defence against dispossession, exploitation and resource appropriation, and loss of livelihoods and habitat, cultural heritage and ancestral rights by the communities on the extractive frontier (Moreano, Molina, Bryant, 2017: 202).
Many socio-environmental conflicts centre on the preservation of subaltern territorialities that are not yet fully subsumed by the logic of capital and which challenge the consolidation of a “territoriality of domination” (Zibechi, 2008). The processes of “territorialisation” can be understood as the social production of territory, a material and symbolic appropriation of a certain space, which involves the construction of subjectivities, cultures, social imaginaries and dynamics of collective action. This understanding helps to highlight different meanings of space, how the territory is transformed and dominated, and how it moulds, controls and gives meaning to social disputes over its ecosystem elements, such as its resources, cycles and human beings (Porto-Gonçalves, 2010). These processes of socio-territorial construction
and recreation are open and non-deterministic processes that give rise to new forms of sociability; as such, they are experiences marked by uncertainty and contingency. In these “territorialities in dispute”, subaltern territorialities are crossed and influenced by hegemonic capitalism and coloniality (Zibechi, 2008), as social actors re-construct and re-signify geographical spaces, inhabiting, transforming and re-creating them according to their interests, forms of life and social reproduction.
In a context of struggle and resistance, new languages of valuation/ valorisation of the commons and societal re-existence and resistance have been brewing in a subterranean movement for transformative social change and post-development beyond capitalism (Svampa, 2016; PortoGonçalves & Leff, 2015). In this context, some social groups not only resist dispossession and de-territorialisation, but redefine their forms of existence through emancipatory movements and the reinvention of their identities, their ways of thinking, and their modes of production and livelihood (Porto & Leff, 2015). Likewise, the leadership of women and a communitarian eco-feminist perspective are key features of current resistance against extractivism and megaprojects of dispossession (Bolados & Sánchez, 2017; Leinius, this volume). In other cases, communities continue to practice alternative territorialities even amidst geographies of extraction (Anthias, 2017).
Within this framework, this book furthers debates on territory and territoriality from a critical and plural perspective that allows for the analysis of a complex regional contexts of change, reconfiguration and dispute. We highlight how conflicts involve not only diverse actors but conflicting visions, rationalities and imaginaries in relation to the current trend of expanding extractivism in Latin America. On this premise, the debates that are presented in the various texts of this volume arise from a plurality of visions and theoretical approaches, in connection with a diversity of empirical situations, which are located geographically in South America but share common elements with broader regional processes.
The current conjuncture of intersecting planetary crises makes an empirically grounded analysis of extractivism and territorial disputes of relevance beyond Latin America. The Covid-19 pandemic revealed and deepened preexisting structural inequalities and injustices in many societies, while debates around the systemic socio-ecological origins of the pandemic compounded critiques of a global capitalist development model premised on infinite growth. The risks of zoonotic disease transmission are directly linked to the expansionist territorial dynamic of extractivism, which continually integrates new territories for agribusiness, mining, energy development, land grabbing, and other activities. Meanwhile, the increasing frequency and severity of impacts from anthropogenic climate change and growing scientific evidence of their irreversibility have fuelled demands for “system change” from a diverse array of global publics. The links between social justice and environmental justice increasingly recognised within this context, although Anglophone debates
on “the Anthropocene” have tended to obscure the origins of the current crisis in centuries of European colonisation and the extraction of labour and resources from the global periphery.
In this context, Latin American critiques of extractivism, with their roots in dependency theory, are gaining increasing attention within Anglophone debates about the origins and nature of the current planetary crisis. Partly owing to the influence of Latin American thought, there is also a growing interest in Indigenous and subaltern territorialities as an alternative to Western configurations of nature-culture. This volume contributes towards this dynamic dialogue between Latin American and Anglophone scholarship around extractivism and territoriality, highlighting the importance of Latin American concepts and experiences for understanding the current conjuncture of global capitalism and the possibilities for constructing alternative post-extractivist development trajectories.
The chapters
The edited volume is organised in three parts, each of which develops a key dimension of the topic in close relationship, dialogue and articulation with the other parts.
Part I, “The territorial dynamics of (neo)extractivism in Latin America: the characteristics and scope of the current phase” engages debates on extractivism and neoextractivism, with a focus on the current phase of violent expansion.
In the first chapter, Horacio Machado proposes an analytical–conceptual problematisation and reformulation of extractivism aimed at integrating and giving greater precision and theoretical consistency to a concept so widely used and to which multiple (and not always convergent) definitions and meanings have been ascribed. Based on the developments of the political ecology of the South, Machado calls for thinking about extractivism as a geosociometabolic function of capital and extractivist regimes as the power pattern of colonial economies. This gaze opens the way to an analysis of the territorialisation of capital as a regime of power, and to a genealogy of the Capitalocene as a geography of domination that was established as a hegemonic territoriality, founded on a specific regime of Nature and Subjectivity. Extractivism is conceived as a multi-scalar pattern of territorial power, which includes not only the mining area, but the entire complex system of appropriation, extraction, production and circulation of commodities. Correlatively, the emerging anti-extractivist struggles in the new commodification frontiers reveal alternative territorialities that dispute the meaning and way of producing the inhabited Earth, from and for other imaginary and civilising horizons, with a pluriversal vocation. The intensification of these struggles emerges as a symptomatology of the crisis and a phenomenology of transitions, where the reappropriation/decolonisation of territories as sources of life appears as a key node for the liberation of bodies and the radical reconfiguration of the governance of common life.
In the second chapter, authors Paola Bolados, Bárbara Jérez and Alexander Pánez introduce “sacrifice zones” as a central concept category and a place of enunciation from which to make visible and challenge the territorial inequalities and multiple dispossessions associated with geographies of extractivism in Latin America. Drawing on their research in Chilean bay-ports – which are emblematic of the networked territoriality of extractivism – the authors argue that sacrifice zones are not simply sites of environmental suffering and dispossession, but also sites for resistance, re-existence and proposals for socioenvironmental recovery. They highlight how communities engage in collective processes of redefinition and reaffirmation of life – from pilgrimages to natural heritage projects – that challenge their positioning within an ecologically destructive model of economic development. In doing so, the chapter sheds light on how territories rendered invisible and expandable can emerge as key sites for critical theory, political struggle and the construction of alternative visions of post-extractivist futures.
Emiliano Teran’s chapter takes us to the Amazon region of Venezuela to provide a novel analysis of the complex and shifting relationship between territorialisation, state power and extractivism. Following a brief evaluation of the re-colonisation of the Amazon promoted by the government of Hugo Chávez, the chapter focuses on the “Great Crisis” period of 2013–2021, which the author identifies with the emergence of a “predatory extractivism”. In particular, he focuses on the complex articulation between the formalisation of the Orinoco Mining Arc mega-project and the explosion of the transnationalised illicit mining in the Amazon, showing how this has led to a multiplication of different forms of governance and illicit economies, in which criminal actors and illegal armed groups can also operate with state actors. From a critical and political ecology perspective, this chapter problematises normative approaches to territorial governance and extractivism, arguing that the emergence of sui generis and hybrid forms of governance does not necessarily point to the formation of a “failed State”; rather, these processes can contribute to transnationalised modes of territorialisation. This chapter highlights new forms and dimensions of extractivism in Latin America in the twenty-first century, shedding light on complex processes of deterritorialisation and reterritorialisation that both transform and exceed the role of the state.
The second part of the book, “Territorialities in dispute and the dialectic of re-/de-colonializacion”, focuses are territorialities in dispute. As discussed earlier, the reproduction of transnational capital implies uprooting and expulsion for subaltern groups in a dialectical process of colonisation/ decolonisation/recolonisation. In almost all regions of “Abya Yala” (Latin America), a multiplicity of eco-territorial movements is emerging, often led to Indigenous peoples, peasants and Afro-descendant communities and feminist organisations. Chapters in this section make visible these new socioecological conflicts and struggles for access to the commons, which involve disputed territorialities, new languages of valorisation and imaginaries of
r-existence. They highlight the complex and multiscalar dimensions of such conflicts.
In their chapter, Marta Inez Medeiros Marques and Débora Assumpção Lima highlight the links between extractivism and land grabs as a key driver of territorial conflict in the Brazilian countryside. They argue that neoextractivist policies in Brazil have stimulated an influx of speculative financial capital, leading to the expansion of the agricultural frontier, resulting in the expropriation of Indigenous peoples, quilombolas and peasant communities, as well as the deforestation of extensive areas and profound changes in land and water use. Focusing in particular on the Cerrado of Central-North Brazil, the authors trace how these land grabs have led to growing conflicts related to land, water and native vegetation, and the emergence of new strategies of rural resistance.
The chapter by Wahren, Hadad and Palmisano analyses the advance of the non-conventional hydrocarbon frontier (fracking) at the Vaca Muerta zone in the Neuquen province of Argentina highlighting the territorial disputes that occur between different political, economic and social actors. This contribution connects two theoretical traditions, social movement theory and the critical Latin American geography, to highlight the centrality of territory as a basis for rural social movements’ collective actions – whether this be acts of protest and resistance, and the creation of new ways of organising everyday life that counter hegemonic forms of territoriality. They describe such examples as “insurgent territories”. The chapter refers particularly to the territorial and identity reconstruction process of the Mapuche communities of the area, who, in resisting the advance of the extractive territoriality that intends to “fracture” their communal bonds, have begun to consider alternative forms of production and to recreate their own ways of inhabiting and understanding the territories under dispute.
The chapter by Castillo et al. focuses on water governance in Chile to shed light on how agro-export extractivism is reconfiguring territories, with water playing a central role in this process. The authors provide a detailed analysis of public policies oriented to governing access, control and administration of water resources, drawing on concepts such as hydraulic society, hydrosocial cycle and hydropower. In doing so, they trace how the strengthening of the agro-export sector has gone hand in hand with a concentration of land and water in certain territories and in a few hands. With extensive territories dedicated to high-water consumption crops and high-investment, they show how water scarcity challenges the continuity of this extractive industry, while pushing local economies into crisis and leading to disputes and mobilisations over access to water. The chapter contributes to the discussion of neoextractivism, pointing to the role of the state and public policies in strengthening the agro-export sector, reconfiguring territories to serve external markets and pushing local ecosystems to their limits.
Raphael Hoetmer’s chapter reflects on 30 years of mining expansion in Peru to consider the transformative potentialities and limitations of different
C. López Flores and Penelope Anthias
strategies of socio-territorial resistance in the context of extractivism. Focusing on struggles over the right to prior consultation, he asks how and to what extent movements have achieved the (re-)establishment of democratic control, either through “institutional innovation towards the regulation of extractivism and deepening of democracy”, or through the strengthening of “practices of autonomy and prefigurative politics towards self-determination” outside, beyond and possibly against the state. While these can appear as opposing positions in the literature, Hoetmer demonstrates how, in practice, movements often combine autonomous spaces for self-determination with strategies for advocacy and participation in formal institutional processes. At the same time, he shows how institutionalisation can work to shift communities’ focus away from self-organised consultation processes towards statesanctioned processes with fewer possibilities for agency.
The third part of the book, “Societal movements, territorial re-existences, and alternative horizons”, focuses on the defence of local territorialities against the imposition of neoextractive projects and the multiple dispossessions they generate. In the face of an ecological collapse, authors discuss the emerging alternatives, decolonising processes, re-existence of territorialities and post-extractivist horizons, referring to experiences of social actors who are recovering community knowledge, recreating practices and developing ecologically sustainable production forms and territorial alternatives to conventional development. In some cases, these focus on community logics, the autonomous management of territory and/or production in harmony with nature, such as agro-ecology, Indigenous or community forestry, minga (community work) or simply ancestral forms of production. Finally, this part discusses the emergence of broader societal movements, expressed in nationwide protests and demands for profound changes in Latin America since 2019.
In her chapter, Léa Tosold examines the potentialities of Indigenous-led consultation for defending and strengthening Indigenous forms of territoriality amidst the adverse conditions of extractivism. Focusing on Munduruku people and riverside communities in the Middle Tapajós Region of the Brazilian Amazon, she charts how the creation of a Munduruku Consultation Protocol countered governmental attempts to depoliticise the prior consultation process in the context of a project to build two mega-hydroelectric plants in their territories, which would have paved the way for large-scale mining, timber production and agribusiness expansion in the region. Beyond its reactive function, however, Tosold argues that the protocol also formed part of a broader process of territorial re-existence. By grounding itself in communal forms of territoriality, it proposed an alternative vision of territorial self-determination and opened possibilities for the continuous flourishing of a threatened collective way of life. Complementing Hoetmer’s reflections on practices of autonomy and self-determination, Tosold’s chapter shows how encounters with the limits of formal institutional politics in contexts of extraction can provide a starting point for alternative political practices that
propose and foster not only new ways of doing politics, but alternative forms of territoriality.
Johanna Leinius’s chapter addresses a crucial dimension of emerging territorial struggles in Latin America: women’s participation in anti-extractivist movements and territorial conflicts. Engaging postcolonial feminist debates on rexistencia, a term that invokes both re-existence and resistance, she explores how women’s movements in Peru and beyond relate body, territory and the reproduction of life in ways that exceed modern understanding of socio-ecological demands. Acknowledging the gendered nature of extractivist violence, she highlights how women activists link control over their own bodies to the defence of territory. Embodied everyday practices of sustaining and defending life thus emerge as a key strategy of resistance. Another crucial insight of Leinius’s chapter relates to the potentialities of re-existence and cuerpo-territorio (body-territory) for building alliances between heterogeneous movements, including feminist and Indigenous, native and peasant activists. While acknowledging that these terms may have different, even incommensurable, meanings for different groups, she argues that they are opening up important avenues for building pluriversal solidarities and emancipatory forms of politics.
The chapter by Andreucci et al. explores the tensions and divergences between two subaltern political projects in Bolivia in recent decades, and their respective visions of territory and extractivism: on the one hand, the “state-campesino” project, put forward primarily by the main rural worker unions, out of which Evo Morales’s Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) party emerged; and, on the other hand, the “communitarian-Indigenous” project, articulated by Indigenous organisations as well as dissident campesino communities. The chapter argues that, while the MAS’s state-campesino project centres on the defence of national sovereignty, and aims to regulate while promoting extractivism, Indigenous-communitarian organisations’ struggles focus on reasserting territorial sovereignty and plurinationality. It shows that, although some Indigenous-communitarian organisations also relate pragmatically with extractive projects, their political horizon fundamentally transcends the predatory and colonial logic of extractivist development, and strives for the preservation or reconstitution of communitarian modes of life. The authors maintain that entrenched extractivism and sustained political dispossession have resulted in Indigenous-communitarian organisations being strongly opposed to the MAS. This chapter sheds light on how such opposition emerged, and reflects on the possibilities and challenges of imagining an Indigenous-popular (re-)articulation from below. In this vein, the authors trace the visions, strategies and praxes of the main Indigenous organisations in the country, aimed at defending their views of territoriality and resource sovereignty and articulating these within the decolonising horizon of “plurinationality”. They argue that a radical socioecological transformation, beyond both “authoritarian neoliberalism” and “progressive neoextractivism”, requires reconciling such Indigenous practices
Pabel C. López Flores and Penelope Anthias
of re-territorialisation with broader class and popular-democratic struggles. This empirical exploration offers an opportunity to reflect conceptually on the tensions and convergences between Latin American discussions around “post-extractivism”, and critical development and geographical thinking, present in the discussions throughout this compilation.
References
Anthias, P. 2017. “Chi’xi Landscapes: Indigeneity and Capitalism in the Bolivian Chaco”. Geoforum 82: 268–275.
Bolados García, P. and Sánchez Cuevas, A. 2017. “Una Ecología Política Feminista En Construcción: El Caso de Las ‘Mujeres de Zonas Desacrificio En Resistencia’, Región de Valparaíso, Chile”. Psicoperspectivas 16 (2): 33–42.
Brand, U. and Dietz, K. 2014. “(Neo-)Extractivism as Development Option? Towards Current Dynamics and Contradictions of Resource Based Development in Latin America (Neo-) Extraktivismus Als Entwicklungsoption? Zu Den Aktuellen Dynamiken Und Widersprüchen Rohstoffbasierter Entwic”. Politische Vierteljahresschrift 48: 88–125.
Composto, C. and Navarro, M.L. 2014. “Claves de Lectura Para Comprender El Despojo y Las Luchas Por Los Bienes Comunes Naturales En América Latina”. In Territorios En Disputa. Despojo Capitalista, Luchas En Defensa de Los Bienes Comunes Naturales y Alternativas Emancipatorias Para América Latina, edited by M. L. Navarro, C. Composto, 33–75. México: Bajo Tierra Ediciones.
Gudynas, E. 2015. Extractivismos. Ecología, economía y política de un modo de entender el desarrollo y la naturaleza. Cochabamba: CLAES/CEDIB.
Gudynas, E. 2018. “Extractivismos: Conceptos, Expresiones, Impactos y Derrames”. In ¿Fin de La Bonanza? Entradas, Salidas y Encucijadas Del Extractivismo, edited by S. Ramírez, M. Schmalz, 19–36. Buenos Aires: Biblos.
Haesbaert, R. 2011. El Mito de La Desterritorialización. Del “Fin de Los Territorios” a La Multiterritorialidad. México; Buenos Aires: Siglo XXI Editores.
Halvorsen, S. 2019. Decolonising Territory: Dialogues with Latin American Knowledges and Grassroots Strategies. Progress in Human Geography 43 (5), 790–814. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132518777623
Leff, E. 2018. El fuego de la vida. Heidegger ante la cuestión ambiental. México: Siglo XXI Editores.
Martinez-Alier, J. and Mariana, W. 2016. “Social Metabolism and Conflicts over Extractivism”. In Environmental Governance in Latin America, edited by F. de Castro, B. Hogenboom, M. Baud (Hg.), 58–85. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Moreano, M., Molina, F., and Bryant, R. 2017. “Hacia Una Ecología Política Global: Aportes Desde El Sur”. In Ecología Política Latinoamericana: Pensamiento Crítico, Diferencia Latinoamericana y Rearticulación Epistémica, edited by H. Alimonda, 197–212. Buenos Aires; Mexico: CLACSO, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, CICCUS Ediciones.
Porto-Gonçalves, C. W. 2010. Territorialidades y lucha por el territorio: Geografía de los movimientos sociales en América Latina. Caracas: IVIC.
Porto-Gonçalves, C.W. and Leff, E. . 2015. “Political Ecology in Latin America: The Social Re-appropriation of Nature, the Reinvention of Territories
and the Construction of an Environmental Rationality”. Revista Desenvolvimento e Meio Ambiente 35, 65–88.
Svampa, M. 2016. Debates Latinoamericanos. Indianismo, desarrollo, dependencia, populismo. Buenos Aires: Edhasa.
Svampa, M. 2018. Neo-extractivism in Latin America. Socio-environmental Conflicts, the Territorial Turn, and New Political Narratives Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Svampa, M. and Viale, E. 2020. El colapso ecológico ya llegó. Una brújula para salir del (mal)desarrollo. Buenos Aires: Siglo XXI Editores.
Teran-Mantovani, E. and Svampa, M. 2019. “En las fronteras del cambio de época Escenarios de una nueva fase del extractivismo en América Latina”. In ¿Cómo se sostiene la vida en América Latina?, edited by K. Gabbert, M. Lang, 169–218. Quito: Fundación Rosa Luxemburg/Ediciones Abya-Yala,. Veltmeyer, H. 2016. Investment, Governance and Resistance in the New Extractive Economies of Latin America. In Mining in Latin America: Critical Approaches to the New Extraction, edited by K. Deonandan, M. L. Dougherty, 27–44. https://doi. org/10.4324/9781315686226-2
Zibechi, R. 2008. Autonomías y emancipaciones. América Latina en movimiento México: Bajo Tierra Ediciones.
Another random document with no related content on Scribd:
employers in this country of importing European labor under contract to perform services in the United States at much less than the market rate of wages, is so great, that, as in the previous case, human nature cannot resist the temptation, provided the chances of escaping detection are sufficiently good. And this part of the law, like that relating to advertising, is of such a nature as to make it susceptible of continued and extensive evasion by unscrupulous persons, possessed of such skill and craftiness as characterize the typical contract labor agent. While there is no way of estimating the extent of this practice, there is no doubt that only a very small proportion of the present immigration, from the Mediterranean countries at least, is innocent of the letter of the law, strictly interpreted. This is not to say that they are under actual contract to labor, but that their coming has been encouraged by some sort of intimation that there would be work awaiting them.
By a recent opinion of the Attorney-General, two essential points have been laid down in the construction of the contract labor laws, as follows:
“(1) That they ‘prohibit any offer or promise of employment which is of such a definite character that an acceptance thereof would constitute a contract.’
“(2) That the prohibition to encourage the immigration of an alien by a promise of employment is ‘directed against a promise which specially designates the particular job or work or employment for which the alien’s labor is desired.’”[126]
Even under this somewhat liberal interpretation of the laws, wholesale violations undoubtedly go on. In the words of the Immigration Commission, “In this way hundreds of immigrants are annually debarred at United States ports as contract laborers, while doubtless hundreds of thousands more are admitted who have practically definite assurances as to the place and nature of their employment in this country.”
A fuller description of contract labor in general, and of that particular form of it which is known as the padrone system, will be given in another connection. The point to be emphasized here is that it operates as one of the great causes of our present immigration, and that it continues to exert a powerful, and probably increasing,
influence, in spite of all the efforts of the legislators and officials of the United States to check it.
The third source of stimulation to emigration is the earlier immigrant himself. He is probably the greatest factor of all in induced immigration, and his influence is utilized in various ways by both emigration agents and labor agents, and made to contribute to the success of their efforts.
Every stream of immigration must have its origin in some few individuals, who, the first of their region, break the ties of home and fatherland, and go to seek their fortune in a new and far-away land. Upon their success depends the question whether others from the same district shall follow in their footsteps. If they fail in their venture, it serves as a discouraging factor as respects further emigration from that region. But if they succeed, and win a position which makes them envied in the eyes of their fellow-countrymen, it furnishes a powerful stimulus to further emigration. Sooner or later, there will be some who succeed from every region, and the example of a few successful ones is likely to far outweigh numerous failures. Something like this is going on in countless remote districts of the south European countries, and has gone on for decades in every country which has sent us numbers of immigrants.
Take a typical example. Some Slav peasant, in a little village of Austria-Hungary, of a more ambitious and adventurous disposition than most of his fellows, hears of the opportunities in America, and being dissatisfied with his present lot, decides to try his fortune in the new world. His first “job” is in a mine in some small town of Pennsylvania. Accustomed as he is to a low standard of living, he is able to save a considerable part of the wages which seem munificent to him. From time to time he writes letters home, telling of his prosperity. Eventually he saves up enough to purchase a little store or saloon. Of course there will be a letter telling about that. These letters are wonderful documents in the eyes of his friends and relatives at home. Correspondence does not flourish in these regions, and the receipt of any letter is a matter of great importance. The arrival of a message from across the sea creates an impression which it is almost impossible for an American to comprehend. The precious missive is read aloud in the coffee-houses, and passed from hand to hand throughout the village. It may even travel to neighboring
hamlets, and make its impression there. The neighbor in America, and his career, become the foremost topic of conversation for miles around.
In time all this has its effect. A small group of the original emigrant’s former neighbors resolve to try their luck too. The most natural thing, of course, is for them to go to the place where their friend is. He helps them to find work, tides them over difficulties, and in various ways makes their life easier and simpler than his had been. Each of these newcomers also writes letters home, which go through the same round, and add to the growing knowledge of America, and the discontent with European life in comparison. Once started, the movement grows with great rapidity, and the letters from America increase in geometrical proportion. Other nuclei start up in other places, recruits are drawn from more distant villages, and the first little trickling stream becomes a swelling tide.
This is what has come to be known as the chain-letter system. Multiplied by hundreds of thousands, the foregoing example serves to illustrate the irresistible network of communications which is drawing the peasants of Europe to every part of the United States. This is recognized by all authorities as probably the most powerful single factor in stirring up emigration from such countries as Italy, Austria-Hungary, Greece, Bulgaria, etc. Its effect has been graphically described by a Greek writer in the following words:
“‘Such a one, from such a village, sent home so many dollars within a year, ’ is heard in some village or city, and this news, passed like lightning from village to village and from city to city, and magnified from mouth to mouth, causes the farmer to forsake his plow, the shepherd to sell his sheep, the mechanic to throw away his tools, the small-grocer to break up his store, the teacher to forsake his rostrum, and all to hasten to provide passage money, so that they may embark, if possible, on the first ship for America, and gather up the dollars in the streets before they are all gone. ”[127]
This is a perfectly natural influence, and obviously beyond the power of any legislation to check, even if that were desirable. When inspired merely by a friendly interest in the home neighbors, a desire to keep in touch with them, and a little personal vanity, it is probably the most harmless of any of the forms of stimulation. When, as all
too frequently happens, the underlying motive is sinister and selfish, it becomes a source of the greatest deceit and injustice.
When the pioneer emigrant returns to his native village, after some years of prosperous life in America, his influence and importance are unbounded. He becomes in truth the “observed of all observers.” Groups of interested listeners and questioners gather round him wherever he goes, and hang on his words in breathless awe. His fine, strange clothes, his sparkling jewelry and gold watch, his easy, worldly manners, all arouse the greatest admiration. He has to tell over and over again the story of his career, and describe the wonders of that far-away land. If such a one is returning to the United States, it takes no urging on his part to induce a number of his countrymen to accompany him; they are fairly clinging to the skirts of his garments, to be taken back. Even if he has come home to remain, his constant example is there to inspire the youth of the village to follow in his path. So the “visit home” and the “returned immigrant” add their weight to the influence of the stream of letters. How universal this condition has become is evidenced by the fact that in 1909 only 6.3 per cent of all the immigrants admitted to the United States were not going to join either relatives or friends, according to their statement; in 1910 the percentage was only 4.9. In 1912 it rose to 7.5. About six times as many go to join relatives as friends.
Many of the letters from America contain remittances from the immigrants to their friends and relatives at home. Often these remittances take the form of prepaid tickets,[128] complete from some European center or port to the city in America, where the sender is waiting. Then their influence is absolutely irresistible. The transportation companies make every effort to make the passage as simple as possible, and railroad companies in this country make special immigrant rates, to be used in connection with such tickets. A large part of the induced immigration of the present day is also assisted immigration. It is a perfectly natural thing that an immigrant in this country should wish to be joined by certain of his relatives on the other side, and, if he is able, should send them the means to come. This has always been done. In the middle of the nineteenth century E. E. Hale wrote that a large part of the letters from Irish to their friends in this country consisted in acknowledgments of remittances, and requests for more. The
remittances in 1850 are said to have amounted to about four and one half million dollars. Prepaid tickets were also in use at that date. It is manifestly impossible to estimate correctly the extent of this business at the present time. According to the official reports, in 1910, 72.5 per cent of the immigrants had paid for their own tickets, 26.5 per cent had their tickets paid for by a relative, and 1 per cent by some one other than self or relative. But this showing rests solely upon the immigrant’s own statement, and is undoubtedly an underestimate. The suspicion of immigrants whose passage is paid for them, which characterizes our law, leads many to practice deceit in this matter. For instance, it is almost impossible to believe that all but 5.4 per cent of the Greeks had paid their own passage. An examination of the figures shows that there is a larger proportion of passages paid by some one besides the immigrant among the old immigration than among the new. This is explained by the fact that the old immigration has more of a family character, and that immigrants are sending for wives and children. This can be understood only by comparison with the sex and age tables.[129]
Even when these remittances are not in the form of prepaid tickets, nor are even intended to pay passage in any way, they exert a powerful influence in stirring up immigration, through the tangible evidence which they furnish of American possibilities. There could be no stronger proof of the success of immigrants in the United States than the constant stream of gold which is flowing from this country to Europe.
For the sake of clearness, these different forms of stimulation have been discussed separately. In practice, they overlap and combine in a variety of complicated relations. The emigration agent is often himself a returned immigrant; if not, he utilizes all the influences which arise from the letters, visits, and remittances of actual immigrants to further his ends. The letters from America are often misleading or spurious, used by labor agents in this country to entice others to come. The prepaid ticket is susceptible of a wide variety of uses. Assistance to emigrants is often furnished, not by well-disposed friends and relatives, but by loan-sharks, whose motives are wholly selfish, and whose sole aim is to secure usurious rates of interest for sums advanced, which are amply protected by mortgages.
As a result of this complex of motives and forces, America has become a household word even to the remote corners of Europe, and he who wishes, for any reason, to stir up emigration from any region finds a fertile field already prepared for him. It is amazing to find how much an ignorant Greek peasant knows about conditions in America. The economic situation is, of course, the prime interest. But there is also a good fund of information about social and political subjects. There are of course many misconceptions and errors, but it is evident that the lines of communication between the European village and the American city are very well established. Similar conditions prevail in all the immigrant-furnishing countries.
It is impossible to say to just what extent our present immigration ought to be classified as induced. It is probable that only a very small part of the total immigration is wholly free from stimulation to some degree. Certain it is that a very large proportion of it is thoroughly artificial and induced. The getting of immigrants is now a thoroughly developed system, planned to serve the needs of every form of interest which might profit thereby.[130] As to the quality of such immigration, something has already been said. There is evidently nothing about the immigrants themselves, or the way in which they are secured, that serves as a guarantee of their serviceability or value to this country; as to their own prospects, we can do no better in closing this chapter than to quote the words of the Commissioner General; these various operations “often result in placing upon our shores large numbers of aliens who, if the facts were only known at the time, are worse than destitute, are burdened with obligations to which they and all their relatives are parties, debts secured with mortgages on such small holdings as they and their relatives possess, and on which usurious interest must be paid. Pitiable indeed is their condition, and pitiable it must remain unless good fortune accompanies the alien while he is struggling to exist and is denying himself the necessaries of decent living in order to clear himself of the incubus of accumulated debt. If he secures and retains employment at fair wages, escapes the wiles of that large class of aliens living here who prey upon their ignorant compatriots, and retains his health under often adverse circumstances, all may terminate well for him and his; if he does not, disaster is the result to him and them.”[131]
CHAPTER IX
THE EFFECTS OF IMMIGRATION. CONDITIONS OF EMBARKATION AND TRANSPORTATION
It was remarked in an earlier paragraph that the effects of immigration were largely a matter of the future. This may have seemed like too sweeping a statement. Yet it will prove true upon consideration. In the case of the old immigration there are, to be sure, certain immediate and superficial effects which may be postulated with a fair degree of certainty. As an example, we may be reasonably sure that the old immigration has increased the proportion of Irish, German, and Scandinavian blood in the composite American people. But as to the ultimate effects of this movement upon the social, religious, moral, and economic aspects of our national life, we can, at best, hazard only a forecast. The reason is that the effects have not transpired as yet.
“One of the commonest errors of writers on sociological topics is to allow too little time for the action of social forces. We are inclined to think that the effects of a certain social phenomenon, which we are able to detect in our lifetime, are the permanent and final effects. We forget that these matters may require many generations to work themselves out. No better illustration of this could be asked for than that furnished by the case of the negroes in the United States. The importation of these people began many generations ago. To our ancestors it undoubtedly seemed a perfectly natural thing to do, and for centuries it did not occur to anybody to even question its rightfulness or its expediency. When objections began to be raised, they were feeble and easily put aside. But at last the presence of this peculiar class of people in the country involved the nation in a terrible and bloody conflict, which worked irreparable injury to the American stock by the annihilation of the flower of southern
manhood, and left us a problem which is probably the greatest one before the American people to-day—one which we have hardly begun to solve. There is much of similarity between the case of the negroes and that of the modern immigrants. To be sure, the newcomers of today are for the most part white-skinned, instead of colored, which gives a different aspect to the matter. Yet in the mind of the average American, the modern immigrants are generally regarded as inferior peoples—races which he looks down on, and with which he does not wish to associate on terms of social equality. Like the negroes, they are brought in for economic reasons, to do the hard and menial work to which an American does not wish to stoop.”[132]
Even in the case of the old immigration, then, the effects are largely in the future; in the case of the new immigration they are almost wholly so. We have seen that in regard to racial stock the new immigration has been predominant for scarcely half a generation. There are a number of circumstances besides this which make the immigration problem practically a new one. Certain of the most important factors which condition it, and many of the aspects which it presents to the public mind, are new to the men of this generation. The verification of this statement is to be found in the following pages; in the present connection it must suffice merely to suggest the circumstances in which these differences may be looked for. These may be grouped under six main heads, as follows: (1) the racial stock of the immigrants; (2) the volume of the immigration current; (3) the distribution of immigrants in the United States; (4) the economic conditions of this country; (5) the native birth rate; (6) the quality of the immigrants.
If the effects of immigration are mainly in the future, the discussion of them must be, for the most part, theoretical. It is a discussion of something which is going to happen, or which is likely to happen, not of something that has happened. This gives it an element of uncertainty and speculation which is not wholly desirable in a scientific study. Yet this is the phase of the subject which is by far the most interesting and important to the average American citizen who wants to know how this great sociological phenomenon is going to affect him, and his country, and his relatives and friends. His attitude toward the question will depend upon what he believes these effects will be. If it appears to him that immigration will benefit
himself, his country, the immigrants, or humanity in general, he will favor it; if his belief is to the contrary, his attitude will be one of opposition. Since there is no certainty as to what the effects will be, the arguments about immigration are largely composed of attempts to prove that certain effects have transpired, or to demonstrate that they will transpire. As a consequence, it comes about that the discussion of the effects of immigration practically resolves itself into a consideration of the arguments for and against immigration, and it will be so treated, for the most part, in the following chapters.
There are three classes of effects of immigration which may be clearly distinguished, and which will interest different persons in different degrees. These are the effects upon the United States, the effects upon the countries of source, and the effects upon the immigrants themselves. The second and third of these interest the American citizen only as he is open to broad humanitarian considerations; the first touches him directly, and may have an intimate bearing on his personal and selfish interests and pursuits. If a seemingly disproportionate space is given in this volume to effects in general, and effects upon the United States in particular, it is because this is the vital and imperative part of the whole subject to the people of this nation.
Although the effects of immigration are largely a matter of speculation and debate, one step may be taken which will help to make the deductions arrived at as reliable as is possible under the circumstances. This is a careful investigation of the actual conditions which surround immigration at the present time, and a comparison of them with those of the past. Only upon a solid basis of such facts can any trustworthy predictions be made as to what may be expected to come about in the future. Accordingly, in preparation for the discussion of effects, we will attempt to get a clear picture of the circumstances which surround the immigrant on his journey from the old world to the new; of his condition when he arrives; of the character of his life and labor in his new home. In general, the plan followed will be to take up each set of conditions in turn, and having ascertained the facts, to try to determine what bearing these seem likely to have upon the final effects of immigration. This will at times involve a departure from the strictly logical method of treatment, but this is unavoidable in such a complicated discussion.
With the sources of our present immigration we are already familiar. We have seen how they have shifted from the north and west of Europe to the south and east. It has been stated that the movement is essentially a European one. This is still emphatically true. In 1912, 85.8 per cent of all our immigrants came from Europe, and if we exclude Turkey in Asia (which really is a part of Europe in the ethnical sense), British North America, Mexico, and the West Indies, there is very little left of the non-European portion. So it is still correct, for all important purposes, to regard immigration to the United States as having its origin in Europe. How long this will continue, it is of course impossible to say. There are vast reservoirs of population in Asia, to say nothing of the other continents, which we have scarcely as yet tapped, and which may reach the point of emigration with advancing civilization. Whether or not we are to receive large contingents from these countries in the future will depend largely upon the attitude of our government. So far, we have put up the bars before the Chinese, and unless they are lowered, which hardly seems likely, we need not anticipate any considerable number of arrivals of this race. Up to 1900 there were only a comparatively few Japanese in this country. Since then, the rising tide of immigration from Japan, which threatened to reach large proportions, has been checked, partly by “ a series of measures which permits the greater part of the administrative problem to rest with the Japanese government,”[133] which is avowedly opposed to the emigration of its laboring population, and partly by a presidential order from the White House on March 14, 1907,[134] denying admission to Japanese and Korean laborers, who had received passports to go to Canada, Mexico, or Hawaii, and were using them to secure admittance to continental United States. While the new treaty between this country and Japan contains no specific prohibition of immigration, it is understood that the Japanese government agrees to prevent the emigration of laborers from that country to this. A new problem has recently appeared in the Pacific coast states in the form of an East Indian immigration. The manifestly undesirable character of this immigration, however, has led the immigration officials in the Pacific seaports to apply the law to members of this race with the greatest strictness, so that most, if not all, of the Hindu laborers applying for admission have been debarred on the grounds of belief in polygamy, liability to become a
g p yg y y public charge, or some other provision of the statutes. A similar attitude on the part of the Canadian immigration officials has been of assistance in stopping at the outset what might have grown into a very important current of immigration.[135]
Whatever the future may bring forth, then, our immigration at present springs from European sources.[136] Every country on the continent furnishes its contingent, large or small. From the cities, towns, and villages, most of all from the rural sections, even to the most remote corners of the back districts, they come, inspired with great hopes by the emigration agents and the labor contractors, aided by friends or relatives or future employers on the other side. Homes and property are mortgaged, the labor of their bodies even their very souls are pledged, to pay their passage. Wives, children, and sweethearts are left behind. On foot, on donkey back, in rude carriages and wagons, they travel till the nearest railroad station is reached. The way is made as easy as possible for them, through the agency of interested parties, who profit by their coming. The prepaid ticket avoids much confusion and perplexity. Friends are awaiting them on the other side. In every large group there are almost certain to be some who have been over the road before. All the emigrant needs to do is to allow himself to be passed along submissively from one stage to another provided he has the money to pay. For those who make the way easy must have an ample recompense.
As the seacoast and the port of embarkation draw near, the groups of emigrants increase in size by constant additions. In the important emigration ports they arrive by thousands during the busy season. The provisions for their entertainment, while awaiting the sailing of the vessel upon which they are to embark, differ in different ports. In many ports they are required to put up in the cheap hotels and lodging houses, which, in such cases, abound in the neighborhood of the harbor. In other ports, the steamship companies maintain extensive emigrant stations, where emigrants are lodged and cared for while awaiting transportation. Probably the most elaborate of these is the emigrant village of the Hamburg-American Line, at Hamburg. This is located on the left bank of the Elbe, completely segregated from the city, and is designed to receive only immigrants from countries where the standard of health is low. It consists of about twenty-five buildings, and accommodates 5000 persons.
Among the buildings are a large inspection building, a simple hotel, and a number of living pavilions, each consisting of a dormitory, living room, baths, etc. There is one large dining hall, with a special section for Jews, for whom also a separate kitchen is provided. The religious needs of the emigrants are provided for by a synagogue, a Catholic church, and a Protestant church.[137]
The provision of the United States law, which requires an examination and medical inspection at the port of embarkation, is observed with different degrees of care in different countries and by different lines. It is to the advantage of the steamship company to refuse transportation to any individuals who are manifestly inadmissible to the United States, as their refusal involves their return at the expense of the company, and in many instances an additional fine of $100. On the other hand, if there is a fair chance that the immigrant may succeed in passing the examination, there is a strong temptation for the steamship company to take him, for the sake of his passage money. There is a practice, believed to be quite extensive, among the transportation companies, of compelling an alien who seems in danger of being debarred, to deposit with the foreign agent from whom he purchases his ticket a sum sufficient to cover the cost of his return in case he is refused admission. This is in direct violation of the United States law, but the difficulty of securing evidence has prevented the authorities from putting an effective stop to the practice.[138] Large numbers of would-be emigrants are nevertheless turned back before embarkation, as a result of the examination by the steamship company. The proportion of those detained in this manner to those debarred at the ports of arrival in the United States is at least four to one.[139] Some companies have had such a bitter experience in the matter of having their passengers refused as to lead them to exercise great caution. The AustroAmerican Company, which carries a large share of the Greek traffic, had over 300 emigrants refused at the United States port on one of their early voyages, and returned to Europe. Since then, they have adopted the system of having physicians provided for their forty subagencies in various parts of Greece, who inspect applicants for tickets, and pass upon them before any document is issued to them by the agent. If this physician accepts an emigrant, he is given a medical certificate, makes a deposit toward his ticket, and has space
reserved for him on the steamer. He is then sent on to the port of embarkation, where the final examination takes place.[140] In this way large numbers of inadmissible immigrants are kept from leaving their native village, and are spared the expense and disappointment of the trip to the port of embarkation.
The examination at the port of embarkation is differently conducted at different seaports. As a rule the medical examination is made by a physician employed by the steamship company, either the ship’s doctor, or a specially engaged physician. But at some ports the American consul chooses the physician, though the steamship company pays him. At Naples, Palermo, and Messina, by a special arrangement between the two governments, the examination is made by officers of the United States Public Health and Marine Hospital Service, who examine steerage passengers and recommend the rejection of those who are likely to be refused admission to the United States. Their action is unofficial, but their suggestions are always complied with. Under the quarantine law of the United States the American consular officers are also required to satisfy themselves of the sanitary condition of passengers and ships sailing for United States ports. In addition to the medical examination, a long list of questions is put to the immigrant, in accordance with the requirements of the United States law. His answers are recorded on the manifest, which is later put into the hands of the inspecting officer at the port of arrival, who repeats the same questions and notes whether the answers tally. Vaccination and the disinfection of the passenger ’ s baggage are important parts of the preparation of emigrants for the journey to America. The differing degree of care exercised in this examination at the different ports is indicated by the fact that the proportion of immigrants refused at the port of arrival for medical causes, to the total number embarked from the different ports, varies from 1 to 163 at the Piræus and 1 to 165 at Bremen, to 1 to 565 at Antwerp and 1 to 597 at Fiume.
A large amount of transatlantic traffic passes through Germany from neighboring states, and to protect herself against having large numbers of foreign emigrants refused at her ports, and left in a destitute and helpless condition in her territory, Germany has compelled the steamship companies to establish control-stations on the German-Russian and German-Austrian borders. There are
fourteen of these stations, thirteen on the frontier, and one near Berlin. All emigrants from eastern Europe who are intending to pass through German territory to ports of embarkation are examined at these stations, and those who do not comply with the German law, or who are evidently inadmissible to the United States, are turned back. This is a wise and humane provision, for the condition of the emigrant, who, having spent his all to pay his passage to America, and traveled a long distance to the seaboard, finds himself refused at the port of embarkation, is often pitiable in the extreme.[141]
The governments of most European countries do not regard a large emigration with favor, partly because of the withdrawal of men from military service, partly because of the economic loss resulting from the departure of so large a part of the laboring class. Most of them exercise some control over emigration, and, in particular, endeavor to combat the activities of the emigration agents, which, however, they are as powerless to check as is the United States. Nevertheless, there is practically no effort to prohibit emigration altogether, as it is recognized as a natural and irresistible movement. Italy exercises the greatest care for the welfare of her immigrants of any European nation.
Practically all of the immigrants who are crossing for the first time, and probably a majority of those who have made the trip before, travel in the steerage. The second cabin is patronized by the more prosperous of the immigrants who have been in the United States previously, and by others who know themselves to be inadmissible, and hope in this way to avoid a searching inspection. The great bulk of the emigrants, however, having passed their preliminary examination, flock up the steerage gangway into the ship which is to convey them to America. At the top of the ladder stands a ship’s officer who examines their tickets and their certificates of vaccination (sometimes a little purple mark stamped on the wrist), and in certain cases searches them for concealed weapons. They are then allowed to proceed to the interior of the ship, and find their way to such berths as suit their fancy, and are not already occupied, within the limits of the section of the ship assigned to them. Steerages are usually divided into three compartments, more or less completely separated from each other; one is for men without wives, another for women traveling alone, and the third for families.
Steerages on the transatlantic vessels are divided into two main classes, designated by the Immigration Commission as the old-type or old steerage, and the new-type or new steerage. The former class predominates on the Mediterranean lines; the latter is found on some of the better ships of the north Atlantic service. Some ships are equipped with both kinds. The old-type steerage is still the typical one, and is found on the majority of vessels bringing immigrants to the United States. It is in such a steerage that the average immigrant gets his first introduction to America—for everything after he leaves the port of embarkation is closely identified with America in his mind. It is in this type of steerage that the student of immigration is primarily interested.
Steerages of this type all bear a general resemblance to each other, and once seen can never be forgotten. Imagine a large room, perhaps seven feet in height, extending the entire breadth of the ship, and about one third of its length. The floor and ceiling are sometimes of iron, but more often of wood. Through the center of the room, very probably, descends the shaft to the hold. This room is filled with a framework of iron pipes, with only sufficient space left to serve as aisles or passageways. This framework is so constructed as to form a series of berths or bunks, adjoining each other laterally, and in two tiers vertically. The dimensions of these berths are usually about six feet by two, with approximately two and one half feet between berths, and about the same space between the lower berth and the deck below, and the upper berth and the deck above. In each berth a network of strap iron serves for the support of a coarse mattress, upon which a pillow and a cheap blanket are the only bedding. Often a life-preserver takes the place of the pillow. Thus the room is filled with a double layer of beds, with only space enough between for the passengers to reach them. On some of the older ships wooden bunks may still be found. Such a room will sometimes accommodate as many as three hundred passengers, and is duplicated in other parts of the ship, and on the successive decks upon which immigrants are carried.
In their provisions for steerage passengers most transportation lines aim to trim as close to the minimum requirements of the law as possible. The immigrant-carrying business is a purely money-making enterprise, and humanitarian considerations have no place in it. The
good effects which might result from free competition are practically eliminated by the recent agreement dividing territory, which has been mentioned above.[142] There is no other force to compel transportation companies to go one whit beyond the legal requirements in an effort to make their steerage passengers comfortable.
The open deck space reserved for steerage passengers is usually very limited, and situated in the worst part of the ship, subject to the most violent motion, to the dirt from the stacks and the odors from the hold and galleys. The only provisions for eating are frequently shelves or benches along the sides or in the passageways of sleeping compartments. Some ships have separate rooms, used for dining and recreation purposes, but these are usually wholly inadequate to accommodate all the steerage passengers. Frequently, too, they are planned without the least regard to cleanliness, as when the dining table, upon which the dishes remain set, is placed directly below an open grating, through which the filth and dirt may fall from the shoes of passers-by. Toilet rooms are wholly inadequate in number, are poorly designed, and often wholly uncared for during most of the voyage. The resulting conditions are almost unbelievable. Toilets are sometimes placed directly alongside the only passages leading to the steerage quarters, so that one must pass them, and breathe their horrible stench, every time he passes in or out. The law requires separate wash rooms for men and women, but this is a distinction which is frequently ignored, men and women using the same rooms promiscuously. The provisions for washing are wholly inadequate. There are only a few taps, and usually the only water provided is cold salt water, which must be used for all purposes, including the washing of dishes. The law requires that hospitals for steerage passengers be provided, but as they are not open to seasick passengers, they fail of their greatest usefulness.
The arrangements for feeding steerage passengers differ on different vessels, but there are two main systems. In the first, each passenger is furnished a cheap set of eating utensils at the beginning of the voyage, which remain in his possession till the close, and sometimes permanently. At meal time the passengers form in line, and pass before stewards who have large kettles of food, and serve out the rations to each. Passengers may eat at tables if there are any
and they can find places; otherwise, wherever they can. After the meal, they must wash their own dishes, and stow them away for future use. Under the second system, the women and children receive slightly better attention, being given first place at such tables as there are. The most essential utensils are placed by stewards, and washed by them afterwards. The food is served in large pans, one for each table, which are passed along a line of stewards from the galley, in the manner of a bucket brigade. This is all the table service there is. The men receive even less attention. They are divided into groups of six, and each group is given two large tin pans, and tin plates, tin cups, and cutlery enough for all. Each man takes his turn at going after the food, and in caring for the dishes. The men eat wherever they can find a place.
Life under such circumstances must of necessity be disgusting and degrading, whatever the character or desires of the individual. The only part of the whole ship which the steerage passenger has a right to call in any sense his own is the few square feet contained in his berth. Here he must keep all of his personal belongings. His hand baggage must be stored in it, or hung from the pipes above his head. If there are eating utensils committed to his keeping, they must be concealed in some corner of the bunk when not in use. This is the only place to which he may retire in the search of even the semblance of privacy. It is the only place where he can recline during the daytime, except upon the open deck. The berths receive absolutely no attention from the stewards from the beginning of the voyage to the end. Is it any wonder that they become untidy, mussed, and ill smelling? The blankets provided are usually wholly inadequate for cold weather, so that passengers are absolutely compelled to sleep in their day clothing for warmth.
The ventilation of the steerage is almost always inadequate, growing worse the farther down one goes. The congestion is intense, and even if every provision were made for cleanliness, the air would inevitably become foul. Unfortunately such provision is not made. There are no sick-cans provided for the use of steerage passengers, and the vomitings of the seasick are allowed to lie unattended to for hours. Sometimes a steward comes around with a can of sawdust or sand, but that is of little avail. Add to this the odors of bodies not too clean, the reek of food, and the awful stench of the toilet rooms, and
the atmosphere of the steerage becomes such that it is a marvel that human flesh can endure it. It is a fact that many of the passengers lie in their berths for the greater part of the voyage, in a stupor caused by breathing the vitiated air, indifferent to everything around them, unless it be to their meals. If one attempts to better things by going on deck, and remains above for any length of time, he finds it almost impossible to go below again. There are practically only two alternatives; either to go below for only a few hours of sleep, and spend practically all the time on deck, or to spend all the time below.
Even if the immigrants desired to keep personally clean, there is practically no opportunity, owing to the inadequacy of the wash rooms, the absence of towels, soap, etc., and the absolute lack of privacy. Only one who was trained to make the very most of such facilities could maintain his decency under such conditions; the bulk of the immigrants lack even the elements of such training.
The food served to steerage passengers is, according to almost all investigators, usually sufficient in quantity, and originally of good quality. But in the majority of cases it is so poorly cooked and served in such an unappetizing way as to render it most unsatisfactory. An average menu reads very well; it is only when one actually undertakes to eat the food, as served to the immigrants, that the real quality appears. There is usually a canteen, or bar, where drinks, candy, fruit, etc., may be secured by those who can pay for them, and stewards sometimes turn an extra penny by securing food from the second cabin for steerage passengers who make the arrangement with them.
One of the worst conditions prevailing in the steerage, upon which the investigators of the Immigration Commission lay great stress, is the indecent and immoral attitude and conduct of the men, including the crew as well as the passengers, toward the women. The stories which are told of the constant persecution of immigrant women, unprovided as they are with any means of privacy,—even by those whose duty it is to protect them, are almost unbelievable, but are well substantiated. As one investigator wrote, only a set of instantaneous photographs could give an adequate idea of the demoralizing attentions to which women and girls are subjected, until even the most self-respecting of them sometimes weaken under the strain. The United States law, of course, aims to prevent these abuses, but it
is powerless, without better machinery for enforcement than is provided.
All of these conditions are naturally aggravated by crowding, and are usually more pronounced on the westward than on the eastward trip, since the steerage is ordinarily more congested coming to the United States. It is a marvel that even the ignorant, uncultured, stolid peasants of Europe can find life tolerable under such conditions. Yet they do, and manage to get some enjoyment out of it besides. There are songs and games and dances to while away the time. Especially when the ship stops at any intermediate port the deck throngs with immigrants, men, women, and children, seeking recreation in their own way.
On the whole, the old-type steerage is the poorest possible introduction to, and preparation for, American life. It inevitably lowers the standards of decency, even of the immigrants, and often breaks down their moral and physical stamina. It shatters their bright visions of American life, and lands them cynical and embittered. One of the first steps in the improvement of the immigration situation should be the abolition of the old-type steerage.
The new-type steerage, which is found on some lines carrying immigrants from north Europe, was the result of competition for the traffic, which led certain companies to improve their facilities. The traffic agreement above referred to, by eliminating this competition, has prevented the extension of this type of steerage to other lines, and other ships. In general, the new-type steerage is a modified second cabin, with simpler and plainer accommodations, and less attendance. Separate staterooms are provided, having from two to eight berths in each; in some cases the berths are of the old steerage type. The blankets are adequate, and towels, mirrors, etc., are provided. On some lines the stewards are responsible for the care of the berths and staterooms. There are regular dining rooms, properly cared for; the food is abundant, and when carefully prepared, of good quality. Facilities for washing and toilet are superior to the old steerage, and greater segregation of the sexes is secured. The air is still bad, but not so absolutely intolerable, and most of the flagrant abuses of the old-type steerage are avoided. Old and new steerages are sometimes found on the same vessel, in which case the latter is
known as third class. The difference in price between the two does not at all correspond to the wide difference in accommodations; in general, the price of steerage passage is much nearer to that of second cabin than the relative service would seem to warrant. This tends to disprove the claim sometimes made that the steamship companies cannot afford to furnish better accommodations to steerage passengers without materially raising the price, as does the fact that passengers are actually being carried in the new-type steerage, with a profit, at a moderate charge.
Throughout their long journey from their native villages to the portals of America, the immigrants are very much at the mercy of those into whose hands they have committed themselves for transportation. Their treatment differs with different companies, but all too often they are handled like so many cattle, or even worse, like so many articles of inanimate freight.[143]
The Immigration Commission recommends that a law be passed requiring United States government officials, both men and women, to be placed on all ships carrying third class or steerage passengers, at the expense of the companies, and that inspectors in the guise of immigrants should occasionally be sent across in the steerage. This ought certainly to bring about a decided improvement in conditions, for at present there is no provision, on the part of this government, for enforcing the steerage laws, or looking after the welfare of passengers on the voyage. Ships are subject to inspection after they arrive in port, but conditions are very different then from what they are in mid-ocean. As the ship approaches shore, toilet rooms and wash rooms are cleaned up, disinfectants are used, and everything is made to appear more proper and orderly. That such supervision and inspection is capable of producing beneficial results is proved by the fact that on ships carrying an Italian royal commissioner, conditions are very much superior to those on others.