Chapter 501 Immigration Issues

The immigration policy jointly developed by Franz and the church was indeed very attractive, and it also intercepted most of the Germans who were going to the other side of the ocean - the United States, but it also added a lot of problems.

Unlike later generations, there was no so-called legal and illegal distinction at that time, and the state's control over citizens was very poor, which created uneven quality of immigrants.

Originally, Austria's literacy rate won the "honor" of being the last in the German region, and it should not be worse. But in fact, most of the immigrants who came to Austria to survive came from the bottom of the country, and their quality was really not very high.

What's more terrible is that these groups like to form gangs, unite to fight against dissidents, and even bully locals.

In addition, the spread of Greater Germanism has intensified social unrest, soaring crime rates, and large-scale vicious cases.

In addition, there is the issue of religion. The immigrants in South Germany are not much different from the Germans in Austria in terms of language and customs, and can almost seamlessly integrate into the local society.

But the North Germans are completely different. A considerable number of them have received primary education, and their language habits and pronunciation are very different from those of Austrians, and most of them believe in Protestantism.

This made the North Germans form a special group, but they were not well received.

As the saying goes, birds of a feather flock together, and these North German immigrants established countless small groups.

What's more terrible is that as Germans, they are naturally superior in the competition model of the Austrian Empire, and their higher quality compared to other ethnic groups makes their development speed far beyond imagination.

At this time, the slums in Vienna were almost occupied by North German immigrants, but they were not poor, but emerging in the empire, and even many high-quality talents that Franz came from North Germany liked to live with these people.

But traditional Austrians look down on these outsiders, so there are often some frictions between the two.

But this is not worth mentioning compared to the situation in Bohemia, where there were originally many German populations.

Franz hoped to change the population structure with North German immigrants, and it would be best to eliminate the civil war. However, the reality is that millions of North Germans have poured into this place, directly becoming the third largest group in the area.

Now the main contradiction in the area has become the contradiction between the North and South Germans. As for the Czechs, they just want to farm and make money honestly, while the Jews are jumping back and forth in the middle.

Moravia is also facing a similar situation, and even the entire Nerethania region has more or less similar experiences.

As for the church, the role played by these servants of God is intriguing. Although they have made great contributions in saving people and bringing immigrants to the empire, they have played a negative role in dealing with immigrant conflicts.

For example, the religious issue, the church thinks that as long as the North Germans give up their Protestant beliefs, won’t it be solved? So a large number of pastors were sent to "convert religions", which greatly angered the Protestant League in North Germany.

Because Austria now has very wide restrictions on religion, the Protestant League can build churches in the country, but now the competition between the two sides for faith has almost triggered a religious war again.

So Franz proposed the principle of giving priority to Catholics when accepting Dutch refugees, because in the chaotic situation that has become a mess within the empire, it is unimaginable to bring in some Calvinists.

(In fact, the Protestant religions of the North Germans and the Dutch are different. It is well known that heresy is more terrible than paganism.)

As for the Germans in the Crown of St. Stephen, they also had many problems. After the initial difficult times, they began to demand the establishment of schools, hospitals, post offices and water plants.

This was nothing. Franz's original purpose was to add sand to Outer Leithania, and there was nothing wrong with improving living conditions.

But soon this group was no longer satisfied with this. They demanded equal rights and even demanded to enter the Parliament of the Kingdom of Hungary. In addition, factories and railways were to be built.

This made Franz very angry. He thought to himself, "Don't they have any idea at all?"

Enter other people's parliaments and share their rights? They also want to build factories and build railways. Do they really think of themselves as citizens of the Special Zone?

So hundreds of people were slaughtered by horse bandits on the way to protest in Pretzburg (the nominal location of the Hungarian Parliament), and he just pretended that it didn't happen.

The Great Magyarists were also confused. Their extreme behavior made it difficult for them to get along with other ethnic groups.

Moreover, through this incident, most of the ethnic groups in the territory of the Crown of St. Stephen chose to stand firmly on the side of Austria. After all, following the Great Magyars is a dead end.

In fact, from the perspective of future generations, the Great Magyars should absorb the minority immigrants from North Germany to strengthen their own power.

But doing so would not be a true Great Magyar. This madness would only bring pain and destruction.

At this time, Metternich had figured out Franz's plan, and he was preparing to unilaterally negotiate tariffs with the Illyrian Province.

In fact, Hungary had previously agreed to the proposal to jointly negotiate tariffs. After all, Austria gave them a veto, and in theory the Hungarians would be invincible.

As for the immigration problem in Italy, it was completely unintentional. During this period in history, the northern Italian region was in a period of decline.

(After independence, it became a period of regression.)

However, after a series of operations by Franz and Friedrich, northern Italy has regained its vitality, and the Port of Venice has become the most prosperous port in the entire Mediterranean.

As a result, a large number of Italians have poured into the empire. Now they have surpassed Hungarians to become the second largest ethnic group in Austria, and if they continue to develop at this trend, they will soon exceed the population of Germany.

Franz II's wish seems to be realized. According to the analysis of the Imperial Statistics Bureau, Italians will surpass the German population in 1847 and become the largest ethnic group in the empire.

Generally speaking, population growth is good for a country, but Italians are a very special group. They are very home-loving and have a strong sense of family.

This can be seen from Franz II, who is very attentive to his family. However, these people often lack ambition, and almost every official sent to northern Italy complains about the inefficiency of local officials.

Immigrants who come to northern Italy usually come as families and like to live in cities because they can easily find jobs there.

But the local land carrying capacity is limited. There are more porters than cargo at the docks, and the government can't drive people away.

And these guys don't want to immigrate or work outside of Italy.

At the same time, they are proud of their own culture and history, have little interest in German, and even more disdain Austrian culture.

Then the Italian countries, especially the branches of the Habsburg family, complained that Austria was stealing people, so they could only give up and demand compensation from the Vienna court.