Migration Studies: Major Migration flows between 1846-1940, eurocentricism and Baudrel, WI

1. ADAM MCKEOWN
GLOBAL MIGRATION, 1846-1940
Anna Németh
Migration Studies
Corvinus University of Budapest

2. MAIN POINTS
• Euro-centrism VS histoire totale à la Braudel
• Never study migration on its own
• Family is important
• Don’t believe everything you read

4. HOW YOU THINK OF THE WORLD (THE
MERCATOR MAP)

6. WHAT THE WORLD IS ACTUALLY LIKE
(PETERS-MAP, 1974)

9. HOW YOU THINK ABOUT MIGRATION

10. MAJOR LONG-DISTANCE MIGRATION
FLOWS, 1846-1940

12. From 1870 to 1930 approximately 35 million migrants moved into
the 4.08 million square kilometers of Southeast Asia,
compared to the 39 million migrants that moved into the 9.8
million square kilometers of the United States.

13. WHY SHOULD WE CARE?
• More grist for comprative micro/macro studies
• Causes of migration
• Migration networks
• How migration relates to economic change
• Migration around the world follows the same broad cycles

14. WHY DON’T SCHOLARS CARE?
• For most transoceanic = long-distance migration
• Thinking primarily in terms of European intervention
• They regard Asian migration as wholly different from European
• Peter Frankopan: The World We Have Lost
• Bethany Brookeshire: Psychology is WEIRD

15. EMIGRATION RATES
PEAK
• 22/1000 – Ireland (1845-55)
• 18/1000 – Iceland (1880s)
• ~South Pacific/Caribbean islands
TYPICAL (OVERSEAS)
• 10,8/1000 – Italy
• 8.3/1000 – Norway
• 9.6/1000 - Guangdon (S-China)
(1920s)
• 10/1000 – Hebei

16. WORLD POPULATION GROWTH BY
REGIONS

17. THE YEAR 1914
• From then on, migration ↓ - ?
• 2 M people to France, emigration from Eastern-Europe and
Portugal grows

19. MAIN POINTS
• Euro-centrism VS histoire totale à la Braudel
• Never study migration on its own
• Family is important
• Don’t believe everything you read

20. CAUSES FOR MIGRATION
• 1860s, North Asia: emancipation of serfs in Russia, 1860
• Railroad constructions
• Suez Canal construction
• Infrastructure for cotton cultivation

21. THE CONSEQUENCES ARE ABOUT SO
MUCH MORE THAN WORK
• Economic transformation disrupted old migration patterns
• Decline of transatlantic slave trade in 1820s -> rise of indentured migrant
workers in 1840s -> that declines when Asian migration starts to boom
• Exiles and prisoners to Siberia decline as migration grows

22. THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT
REGULATION
• „free” migration: product of government regulation
• Abolishment of slave trade („coolie” trade in 1870s ->
expansion of Indian migration)
• Chinese migration to colonial Southeast Asia

23. HOW DOES THE GOVERNMENT FEEL
• Nationalism/policing territorial boundaries
• BUT
• Fortifying borders
• Expanding national interests
• Eigrant communities

24. MAIN POINTS
• Euro-centrism VS histoire totale à la Braudel
• Never study migration on its own
• Family is important
• Don’t believe everything you read

25. GLOBAL PATTERNS
• Family = fundamental decision-making unit
• Investment-portfolio
• Context of information and assistance
• Also restricts
• Family vs. Migration models
• Family structure explaining the different migration
demographics

26. NETWORKS
• Traditional merchant diasporas (Jews, Armenians)
• Chettiars
• Farsis
• Sindworkies

27. MAIN POINTS
• Euro-centrism VS histoire totale à la Braudel
• Never study migration on its own
• Family is important
• Don’t believe everything you read

28. „MIGRANT STOCK”
• IOM/UN -> foreign-born
• Has the rates change since the 1920s? Eh