ADAM MCKEOWNGLOBAL MIGRATION, 1846-1940Anna NémethMigration StudiesCorvinus University of Budapest

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

HOW YOU THINK OF THE WORLD (THE MERCATOR MAP)

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

HOW YOU THINK ABOUT MIGRATION

MAJOR LONG-DISTANCE MIGRATION FLOWS, 1846-1940

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.

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

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

EMIGRATION RATESPEAK• 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

WORLD POPULATION GROWTH BY REGIONS

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

Portugal grows

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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