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Hunger
Picture: Central Library Zurich
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Most 19th century emigration from Switzerland was the result of economic factors. There were two serious famines during the century (the worst in 1816/17 and another in the decade 1845-55). There was continuing poverty as many people could not find enough work to feed themselves and their families.
In the late 1870s the very success of American agriculture plunged Swiss and other European farmers into crisis. They were unable to compete with the cheap farm produce grown on the prairies with modern machinery. This pushed many of them off the land; some went to work in factories, some sought better luck by emigrating.
The 19th century was a period of rapid economic change; industrial-scale manufacturing took over from agriculture and homeworking - that’s to say, the production of goods such as textiles in the home rather than in a factory, which had formerly been an important supplement to the income of many Swiss peasant families.
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The fire at the new textile factory in Uster (1832). Homeworkers burnt it down, because they were afraid of losing their jobs.
Picture: Central Library Zurich
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A large number of those who emigrated continued farming in their new homes. The US was particularly attractive because its laws made land acquisition easy. However, other immigrants worked in a wide range of crafts – as carpenters, smiths, harness makers etc.
A small proportion of Swiss immigrants were professional people. Businessmen and bankers – many of them from Geneva - settled mainly in New York City in the early years of the century.
It was only at the very end of the century that industrial workers started arriving from Switzerland in large numbers, mainly from the silk, embroidery and watch industries. They settled largely in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts.
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Loom for homeworkers, Amriswil, Thurgau
Picture: swissworld
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The numbers could fluctuate wildly from one year to another. In 1849, the year after Switzerland adopted its federal constitution, only 13 Swiss immigrants were reported. Five years later, the figure was nearly 8,000.
Agricultural crises and industrialization affected different cantons at different times. As a result, the numbers emigrating at any one time also varied considerably from one canton to another.
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Schwarzenbach Huber factory in West Hoboken
Picture: Hudson Dispatch
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Overall, the cantons providing the bulk of immigrants were Aargau, Basel-City, Bern, Glarus, St Gallen, Schaffhausen, Ticino and Zurich. Only a relatively small number came from the French speaking area.
Swiss immigrants tended to be concentrated in just a few professions. In 1900 only 0.25 per cent of male breadwinners in the US were Swiss, but they represented 9.6 per cent of all dairymen, and 5.9 per cent of butter and cheese makers. In the silk industry 3.25 per cent of the total labor force were Swiss, while the figure was 2.5 per cent in the watch industry.
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