New York is Big – America is Bigger : The Resettlement of Refugees from Nazism ] * 163 [ especially since it was not easy to persuade community leaders to employ immigrants . Owing to the high unemployment rates during the 1 30 s and because of the fifth column scare during the war years, immigrants faced xenophobia and antisemitism . In addition, agency officials had to strive to overcome the reluctance of refugees to leave the metropolis, with its cultural, academic, and other urban advantages . Newcomers preferred New York, with its cosmopolitan atmosphere and with its thousands of refugees . Their refusal to leave New York was so strong that even threats of economic consequences on the part of the agencies usually failed . How did refugee agencies meet with these problems ? How successful were the resettlement projects ? These questions deserve close examination . I Private initiative of refugees to settle in local communities in western and southern cities was rare, because of the...
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