History of Migration
1 - Introduction..................................................................................3
1.1 Relevance & concepts..................................................................................3
1.2 Migration history.......................................................................................... 4
2 - Centres of a globalizing economy: Late Medieval Bruges & 16 th
century Antwerp................................................................................6
2.1 Historical context of Bruges.........................................................................6
2.2 Migration Circuit of merchants.....................................................................7
2.3 Migration Circuit of craftspeople..................................................................8
2.4 Other migration circuits.............................................................................. 12
3 - Crossing the North Sea: ‘Dutch’ emigrants in the late medieval and
Tudor England..................................................................................13
3.1 Studying emigration...................................................................................13
3.2 Late medieval and Tudor England..............................................................13
3.3 Protestant reformation in Low Countries....................................................18
4 - After the hayday: migration in the southern low countries during
early modern period.........................................................................18
4.1 Low countries at the end of 16th century....................................................19
4.2 Immigrants in Antwerp in the 18th century.................................................19
4.3 Development of agrarian capitalism..........................................................22
5 - The jump-start of the golden age? Emigrants from the southern low
countries in the Dutch republic.........................................................24
5.1 Migration from south to north....................................................................24
5.2 Reformation in Low Countries....................................................................24
5.3 Religious & economic impact of migration.................................................28
5.4 Case study: The Thijs Family......................................................................30
5.5 Economic immigrants with lower status.....................................................31
5.6 Cultural Impact of Migration.......................................................................31
5.7 Immigrants from the Southern Low Countries in Germany........................31
6 - Migration and urban change: Antwerp & Brussels in the long 19 th
century............................................................................................32
6.1 The urban boom of the ‘long 19th century’.................................................32
6.2 Antwerp in long 19th century......................................................................33
6.3 Brussels in the long 19th century................................................................35
7 - Go west: Belgium and the European migration movement to America
.......................................................................................................38
7.1 Push factors: the age of crisis in EU...........................................................38
1
, 7.2 Pull factors of the United States.................................................................40
7.3 Red Star Line.............................................................................................. 41
7.4 Immigrant settlement in US.......................................................................42
8 - Alien policy in Belgium.................................................................43
8.1 Belgian revolution...................................................................................... 43
8.2 Alien policy in beginning of state...............................................................44
8.3 Migration policy in 1860............................................................................. 46
9 - Refugees and economic migrants: migration in the age of
catastrophe......................................................................................49
9.1 World War 1................................................................................................ 50
9.2 Post-war Belgium........................................................................................ 50
9.3 Migration policy in 1918-1940....................................................................53
9.4 Response to Jewish refugee question.........................................................54
10 - Guest workers and expats: migration in post-war Belgium...........55
10.1 Migration during WWII.............................................................................. 55
10.2 Economic context post-WWII....................................................................55
10.3 Colonisation & decolonisation..................................................................58
10.4 European integration................................................................................ 59
f.e. : for example
MA : middle ages
b/o : because of
EU : Europe
FR : France
BEL : Belgium
ENG : England
N-NL : Northern Low Countries/Netherlands
N: North, S: South
2
,1 - Introduction
1.1 Relevance & concepts
Course:
- Overview of migratory courses in (southern) low countries & (present day)
Belgium, Late MA – now
o Place of origin
o Place of migration
- Historiography: study & explanation of migration patterns
1.1.1 Why is it relevant?
- Sustainable development goals: challenges to reach for UN to ensure
our future (2030) -> migration is not included, because it’s more
important: migration is a cross-cutting issue, connected to all 17 goals
f.e. migration has impact on communities
- Migration is always in the media
- Migration is a subject in political debate
1.1.2 Relevance in history
F.e. In the second half of 16th century: 20% of population of Low Countries
migrated to the south -> massive impact as a historical event!
Historical perspective helps to asses what happens now, what is important and
what isn’t
f.e. ‘unprecedented’ (never seen anything like this before) often used in
media titles, history shows that it’s not
We can also learn from how they managed migration in the past
1.1.3 Definition of migration
Some concepts of migration:
Migration: people moving from one place to another with the purpose of staying
there for a substantial period of time
- Mobility
- Not necessarily permanently
- Not necessarily in a big group
Immigration: people moving into a place
Emigration: people moving out of a place
! Countries only register sources of things they can get revenue from, evidence
for immigration > emigration (f.e. citizenship, fees, …) -> looking from where
people emigrated (sources from where they arrive) by immigration sources
International migration: people crossing a ‘border’ or ‘region’ (difficult in MA -
> ‘transnational migration’)
3
, Internal migration: people moving within a region/border
Rural-urban migration: moving from countryside to cityside, which has a big
effect on life
Permanent – temporary migration: refers to the length of a person’s stay
before returning home
Seasonal migration: people moving for one season (f.e. to work) and return
home
Voluntary – forced migration: people don’t always have a choice to move
somewhere
1.2 Migration history
Migration history: the tradition of study of migration in social science &
demography
Historiography developed in a tradition of national histories: people have always
lived in nation-states -> they don’t want to see that people cross borders
constantly, that borders didn’t impact lives, because it makes national history
unnecessary
Because of nationalistic history only since 1990s attention to migration
How have historians explained why people move away and some don’t? Model:
1.2.1 Economic disparities (push/pull factors)
Opportunities of people are not the same everywhere -> relationship between
opportunities of origin/arrival determines migration patterns
Push: reasons to move away, can be a series of actions f.e. war, few jobs,
famine, …
Pull: factors that attract people in destination f.e. jobs, health care, facilities,
education, safety, …
! Balance of push/pull factors determines success: only push factors will
result in problems f.e. move away because of no jobs, but there are also no jobs
at new place (f.e. refugee crisis 2015)
Shortcomings of this model:
- Selectivity of migration, for some the factors are not as important as for
others
o why do some people not move with the same push factors?
o why do some choose other place of arrival with same pull factors?
- Not everyone can take advantage of pull factors: social customs, exclusion
of certain groups, …
1.2.2 Social network model
Chain migration is important to explain migration reasons: some families go
where they already know someone (family, friends, …)
More easy to move b/o language, communities that speak your language
4
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