From the 1880s through the early part of the 20th century, massive pogroms and the May Laws in Russia caused many Jews to flee the Pale of Settlement. Of the East European Jewish emigrants, 1.9 million (80 percent) headed to the United States, and 140,000 (7 percent) to Britain. The chief mechanism was chain migration in which the first successful member(s) of the chain send information, local currency (and sometimes tickets or money for tickets) to later arrivals. These Ashkenazi Jews were funnelled by the railways of Europe to its North Sea and Baltic ports, and entered England via London, Hull, Grimsby and Newcastle. The Jewish communities of the Northern ports were swelled both by transient and temporary migrants, bound for New York, Buenos Aires, the Cape, as well as London and other British cities.