West Virginia

Significance: This small, mountainous state has attracted little foreign immigration; however, modest numbers ofnorthern Europeans came during the nineteenth century and larger numbers of southern and eastern Europeans came to work in its coalfields during the early twentieth century. By the early twenty-first century, West Virginia had one of the nation’s smallest foreign-born populations.

Western Europeans entered the area during the mid-nineteenth century. By 1863, the year in which West Virginia separated from Virginia to become a Union state, 4 percent of its residents were from Germany, Switzerland, Great Britain, Belgium, and Scandinavia.

West Virginia’s small population at statehood worried many of its political and business leaders, as more people were needed to develop the state’s natural resources and farmlands. In 1864, the state legislature created the office of immigration commissioner and made the energetic Swiss immigrant Joseph H. Diss Debar the first commissioner. His main interest—and that of his backers—was to attract farmers of northern European extraction. However, although Debar began his work with energy, he faced many problems, including a confusing tangle ofland titles that disillusioned new, land-hungry immigrants and prevented others from coming. His successors as immigration commissioner proved to be both inactive and underfunded. West Virginia’s office of immigration was also plagued by both disorganization and the presence of unscrupulous employees who sought to profit from credulous immigrants. Nevertheless, the office was a modest success. By the turn of the twentieth century, the foreign-born population of the state had risen to 22,451, of whom 6,537 Germans constituted the largest portion.

Meanwhile, the opening of new railroads and the development of coalfields in the southern part

Profile of West Virginia

Source: U. S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract for 2006.

Notes: The U. S. population in 2006 was 299,399,000, of whom 37,548,000 (12.5%) were foreign born. Rankings in last column reflect total numbers, not percentages.

The region that has become West Virginia was settled by Pennsylvania Germans, who established their first settlement at Shep-herdstown on the Potomac River in 1731. Later influxes of Germans settled in more scattered patterns, but German-speaking peoples were sufficiently numerous into the early nineteenth century for public documents occasionally to be printed in both German and English. Most of the state’s other early settlers were of English and Scotch-Irish extraction. A number of northern and

Of the state after 1880 brought new immigrants, The mines needed more workers than the state’s native white black communities could provided, so they sought workers from Europe—especially southern and eastern Europe. In 1900, the U. S. Census counted 2,921 Italians and 810 Hungarians in West Virginia. By 1920, Italians, Hungarians, and Poles were among the largest groups of foreign laborers in West Virginia’s mines. A number of Syrian and Lebanese suppliers and shopkeepers were also attracted to the region by the coal boom. During the Great Depression of the 1930’s, the coalfields went into a slump, and many foreign workers left the state. However, several thousand immigrants remained to raise families in West Virginia.

West Virginia has not shared the economic and demographic growth that many southern states have had since the early 1990’s. It has also seen little growth in its immigrant population. In 2000, only 1.1 percent of state residents were foreign born—a figure far below the national average. Indeed, the total number of foreign-born residents in West Virginia has increased little since the late nineteenth century.

In 2006, the largest number of immigrants in the state were of Mexican origin. They were followed by Canadians and Germans. West Virginia also has smaller communities of Asians and Europeans of various nationalities. Another aspect of West Virginia’s small immigrant community has been a small rate of illegal immigration. In 2006, fewer than 10,000 undocumented immigrants— mostly Latinos—were estimated to be in the state.

Jeremiah Taylor

Further Reading

Fones-Wolf, Ken, and Ronald L. Lewis. Transnational West Virginia: Ethnic Communities and Economic Change, 1840-1940. Morgantown: West Virginia University Press, 2002.

Hennen, John C. The Americanization of West Virginia: Creating a Modern Industrial State, 19161925. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1996.

Sullivan, Ken, ed. The West Virginia Encyclopedia. Charleston: West Virginia Humanities Council, 2006.

Williams, John Alexander. West Virginia: A History. Rev. ed. Morgantown: West Virginia University Press, 2001.

See also: British immigrants; Economic opportunities; European immigrants; German immigrants; Hungarian immigrants; Italian immigrants; Mexican immigrants; Polish immigrants; Swiss immigrants; Virginia.