'There are many spare places at the table of life' : a global history of the child emigration schemes of the British Child Emigration Society and the New York Children’s Aid Society in the early twentieth century (1890-1939)

Abstract

Urbanization, immigration, and industrialization transformed the British and American economies between 1890 and 1939, making poverty more prevalent among the working class. In America, the depressions of 1893 and in the 1930s further aggravated the situation. People lived in great destitution in tenement houses: a 1908 census of 250 East Side families found that about 50% slept three or four to a room and 25% slept five or more to a room. Children often had to work to supplement the family income. In Britain, the impact of the First World War and of the depression of the 1930s, which was leading to an unemployment crisis, affected many families. In consequence, child and family poverty remained endemic in many working class families.