Emigration agents and the agency of the urban press : approaches to Transatlantic migration in Hungary, 1880s–1914

Abstract

This article argues the importance of the urban press in shaping public opinion about transatlantic migration using the representation of emigration agents and agencies in the Hungarian press in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. This also draws light to the importance of Budapest not only as a critical hub of emigration movements in terms of administration, transportation and information network that directed and controlled overseas emigration, but also as an agent of communication: the urban press, inseparable from the constantly transforming urban space, was a key agent in the transmission of knowledge and forming public opinion about the emigration question that was in the centre of political, social and cultural discourse during this period.