Migration history I think I would be happy in the place I happen - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Migration history

Markéta Novotná I think I would be happy in the place I happen not to be.

• Ch. Baudelaire

Migration history

• Originally – food, safety, shelter…

– Gatherers, hunters => movers – Agriculture – Migration connected to climate

• Nowadays – better life, safety…

– => now less space, people more flexible – Global vs local (economy, culture…)

Ancient times

• Neolithic revolution

– From hunters to farmers – *settlements and communities => migrations unusual – mostly if climate change, natural disaster or historical event

• 4th-5th century: movements of Germanic

tribes (the Huns)

Middle ages

• Power and influence from the Mediterranean

towards the north of the Alps

• 7th century – spread of Islam
• 9th-10th century – Vikings (Iceland,

Greenland, Russia, America)

• 9th century – Magyars/Hungarians
• 12th century Mongolian tribes
• Migrations mostly limited to land

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Modern times

• 15th century – better naval techniques and geography

knowledge => ´great discoveries´

– Why did people migrate?

• Population growth
• Gold and silver from colonies => prices rise => poor people migrate
• Religious struggles and wars (Huguenots, Puritans…)
• Mercantilism – people as economic and military

resource

– States recruit people actively (often forced migration)

• Transatlantic colonies

– Sugar plantations… more work force => trade in slaves, triangle system

Triangular Trade

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Industrial revolution

• Large increase in population
• People from rural to urban areas (from 1800 to 1900

increase from 30 % to 80 % in England) – less so in Eastern Europe and Russia

– Cities cannot absorb all rural migrants

• Governments support emigration – solution to

unemployment (luddites)

• Mass migration from Europe to America
• 80 % emigrants from Britain and Germany
• Steamships, railroads and cheaper tickets enhance

migration (´wild west´)

– Once Upon a Time in the West, K. Moberg…

• 19th century – 29 million Europeans overseas
• Mostly temporary migrants => permanent

USA

• 18th century Britain expells to the USA the poor,

homeless, convicts (Australia, as well)

• WASPs – founders of the US nation?

– 1790 – 2/3 US inhabitants spoke English and 99 % were protestant

• 19th century – British and Germans, Mexicans
• First East cost => to the West

– Pursuit of happiness, manifest destiny (Revenant)

• Gold in California => Chinese workers (railroads =>

demonstrations => policy restrictions)

• After Civil war new migrants from Europe => nativist

movement (x melting pot)

– Birth of a Nation

• Also: Canada, Australia, Latin America…

WWI and WWII

• From voluntary to forced migration

– Labor force to Germany and France

• Refugee crisis – 1915 ´Armenian genocide´, 1917

October revolution in Russia

• Passports
• Great depression – less migration, more xenophobia

(cheap labor)

• Restrictive policies in the USA
• WWII – mass forced migration, changed ethnic

structures, 40 million displaced persons and refugees

• 1947 International Refugee Organization => 1951

UNHCR

Cold war

• Forced emigration of Germans from Eastern

Europe (Beneš decrees…)

• Übersiedler – from East to West Germany

(> 3 million)

• De-colonization
• 1960s-1970s – Gastarbeiter in Western Europe
• 1973 – oil crisis => restrictions => migration to

Southern Europe

• Family reunifications

Post-Cold war era

• 1990s – fear of mass migration from Eastern

Europe and former Soviet Union

– Media + pessimistic predictions => stricter policies – Yugoslavia – refugees – 1 million outside and 2.5 million inside the region – Russia among top immigrant countries worldwide

• Terorrist attacks 2001, 2004, 2005, 2015

Nowadays

• 2015: over 1 000 000 refugees into the EU

– 49 % Syria, 21 % Afghanistan, 9 % Iraq – 17 % women, 25 children under 18 years – 0,02 % of European population

• Lebanon (5,8 mil. inhabitants) – 30 % of

population are refugees

– Jordan, Turkey, Pakistan…

Migrants´ share in population

Questions

• Homo sapiens as homo migrans?
• How did migration flows change during

centuries?

– Did only numbers change or also type of migration?

• What is the triangular trade?
• Why is the industrial revolution perceived as a

migration milestone?

Terms to remember

• Triangular trade
• Melting pot
• Passport
• UNHCR
• Gastarbeiter
• Family reunifications