6.6: Causes of Migration in an Interconnected World

• Due to the Industrial Revolution, economies had increasingly globalized
• This was done thanks to economic imperialism and new forms of communication and transportation

• This led to new waves of migration

Migration through Labor Systems

• Desire for low wage labor spiked as demand for raw resources increased

• Slavery used to provide this labor, but slavery was abolished in lots of places

Indentured Servitude

• Form of labor where people work for a set number of years and after that they were free

• Sometimes they would stay and have long-lasting cultural impacts
• Ex: Many Indian laborers migrated to Fiji and Trinidad and you can still see Indian culture influence to this day

Asian Contract Laborers

• After slavery was abolished, British recruited Chinese and Indian workers to do the work once done by slaves

• Pretty bad conditions even though they weren’t slaves

British Penal Colonies

• Remember how in late 1700s, British established penal colony in Australia

• Convicts there were made to do labor like building railroads

• Once their sentence was complete most went back to their parent country

Migration in the Face of Challenges

• This applies to workers who migrated due to problems in their home country

• Diaspora = A scattered population whose origin lies in a different geographic location

India

• Main reason for mass migrations out of India was poverty

• British offered opportunities for indentured servitude in Mauritius and other places

China

• Poverty, famines, and hopes for a better life elsewhere drove many Chinese to move

• Huge numbers of Chinese went to America and they played a crucial role in the completion of the Trans-Continental Railroads

Ireland

• Minor reasons include
• Political (Ireland had become part of UK)
• Religious Discrimination (Irish = Catholic; British = Protestant)

• Main reason was because of the Great Potato Famine (1845)
• Famine stunted growth of potatoes, the main food crop of the Irish
• Millions left Ireland and relocated to many places, most notably the US

• Irish in US often worked in factories and in other low wage jobs

Migration to Settler Colonies

• Remember settler colonies are intended for people of the imperial country to live there

• British established settler colonies in Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and many British citizens moved here

• Large number of migrants were technical experts like engineers and geologists
• Moved to settler colonies as imperial powers wanted to industrialize and Westernize their settler colonies

Japan

• Japan decided they were going to try to colonize Mexico
• This obviously never happened but this caused huge amounts of Japanese to migrate and settle down in Mexico

• Large numbers of Japanese also moved to Hawaii