Page 28 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol III

global migration in modern times 847

populated by the Taiping rebellion, and to borderland migration,withthesignificantexceptionofthecommand
areas of the northwest and southwest, including overland economies of Japan and the Soviet Union, where coer-
migration to Burma. Each of these systems involved at cion,governmentpromotion,andrelativelystrongecono-
least 20 million journeys. mies produced rates of up to 1.8 million migrants a year
into north Asia in the late 1930s.
Historical Trends Global migrations caused a significant shift in the dis-
Prior to the nineteenth century, long-distance migration tribution of the world’s population. All three major des-
was primarily undertaken by merchants, slaves, and a tination regions experienced massive population growth,
comparatively small flow of settlers, agriculturists, and with their populations increasing by factors of 4 to 5.5
miners to frontiers throughout the world. The rise of a from 1850 to 1950. (See table 2.) These rates were over
global economy centered on European, North American, twice that for world population as a whole. Growth rates
and Japanese industrialization was the context for in- in the sending regions were lower than world population
creased long-distance migration of settlers and workers. growth, and less than half the rates in the receiving re-
Growing cities attracted migrants, foodstuffs and resources gions.Taken together, the three main destination regions
from frontiers near and far helped supply growing indus- accounted for 10 percent of the world’s population in
trial centers, and economic transformations disrupted 1850 and 24 percent in 1950.
old migration patterns. The decline of the transatlantic
slave trade after the 1820s led to the rise of indentured Migration Since
Asian migration in the 1840s. Indentured labor helped World War II
to establish new migration flows, but it accounted for no International migration remained relatively low in the
more than 4 or 5 million migrants, and reached its zenith decades immediately following World War II, with the
in the 1880s, then declining just as Asian migration be- exception of massive refugee flows in Europe and South
gan to boom. Asia that resulted from the new European political map
Migration in each major long-distance system ebbed after World War II, the creation of Israel, and the parti-
and flowed along with business cycles but followed the tion of India. Refugees have remained an important
same broad pattern of gradual increase throughout the source of migration to this day, especially in Africa, Cen-
nineteenth century followed by a major burst in the early tral America, and Southeast Asia. Rural-to-urban migra-
twentieth century. Total migration in the three major tion also grew increasingly important in Asian, African,
long-distance systems increased from about 400,000 a and Latin American countries over the second half of the
year in the 1840s and 1850s to a plateau of nearly 1.5 twentieth century. International migration to industrial-
millionayearinthe1880sand1890s.Itthenboomedto ized countries expanded steadily after the 1960s, due to
an average of 3.2 million a year from 1906 to 1914,with immigration laws that provided for guest workers, fam-
transatlantic migration reaching a spectacular peak of ily reunification, and migration from ex-colonies. Major
over 2.1 million in 1913.Transatlantic migration was hit flows have included migrants from western and southern
hardest by World War I, but recovered to 1.2 million Asia and North Africa to Europe, from Latin America
migrants in 1924,after which immigration quotas in the and East Asia to North America, and from Asia to Aus-
United States severely curtailed immigration from south- tralia. Migration to expanding economies in Japan,
ern and eastern Europe.Total world migration nonethe- Southeast Asia,Argentina, South Africa, and especially to
less reached new peaks of 3.3 million a year in the late the oil-rich areas of the Middle East has also grown since
1920s,with migration to SoutheastAsia peaking at 1.25 the 1970s.
million in 1927,and migration to NorthAsia peaking at Due to the divergence of administrative categories for
1.5 million in 1929.The Depression put a stop to much counting migrants, it is very difficult to make estimates of