Topic 6.7 Effects of Migration
Learning Objective
Explain how and why new patterns of migration affected society from 1750 to 1900.
Historical Developments
Migrants tended to be male, leaving women to take on new roles in the home society that had been formerly occupied by men.
Migrants often created ethnic enclaves in different parts of the world that helped transplant their culture into new environments
Migrant ethnic enclaves:
- Chinese in Southeast Asia
- the Caribbean, South America, and North America
- Indians in East and Southern Africa
- the Caribbean, and Southeast Asia
- Irish in North America
- Italians in North and South America
Receiving societies did not always embrace immigrants, as seen in the various degrees of ethnic and racial prejudice and the ways states attempted to regulate the increased flow of people across their borders.
Regulation of immigrants:
- Chinese Exclusion Act
- White Australia policy
Reading Questions
Why did women's role change as a result of Imperialism?
What are ethnic enclaves? What are the effects of ethnic enclaves?
What was the economic consequences of migrant workers due to imperialism?
Identify and explain two (2) examples of anti immigrant legislation.
Identify and explain two (2) examples of anti immigrant violence.
Effects of Migration
New Roles of Women at home
Migrants tended to be male, leaving women to take on new roles in the home society that had been formerly occupied by men. In some places, males didn’t leave until a male relative could take over their family. That meant that women’s role remained unchanged. In may places however, women gained roles outside of the home taking over the responsibilities men left behind. This gave them more power. After a period of time, some women followed their husbands to the countries they had ventured to. Many continued to play a role in the decision making at home even once they arrived.
Men often sent Remittances - Money sent home from migrant to family. If remittance was large enough, women could work less and spend more time with family. Woman had considerable power in determining how remittance was spent. Remittance often led to young children staying in school longer.
Men often sent Remittances - Money sent home from migrant to family. If remittance was large enough, women could work less and spend more time with family. Woman had considerable power in determining how remittance was spent. Remittance often led to young children staying in school longer.
Ethnic Enclaves
Migrants often created ethnic enclaves in different parts of the world. Immigrants wanted a new economic start, but wanted to continue practicing their culture. Many formed ethnic enclaves - clusters or neighborhoods of people from the same foreign country. They retained the language, food, and customs from home while absorbing some new parts of culture.
Cultural Diffusion and syncretism
Immigrant groups transplanted their culture into new environments and helped create syncretism. For example, Indians in the Caribbean became the largest ethnic group in Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago. Many worked on plantations. Many blended with home culture creating a unique culture affecting the food, music and dress. The Arrival of Indians celebrated to this day! Italian, German, Irish, Chinese culture and food have now become large parts of American cuisine and culture creating a "Melting Pot" of different cultures.
Exploitation of Labor
Europeans were drawn to Africa and Asia for its abundance of natural resources. After being conquered, the West transformed the colonies’ economy to focus primarily on the production and extraction of raw materials as well as the continuing cultivation of cash crops like tea, sugar, cotton, and rubber. In some colonies, the Europeans brutally forced the locals to work through coerced labor. But most colonies had the colonized work for low wages that profited European capitalists and the imperial governments. For example skilled and highly paid jobs were reserved for white miners while Africans worked for a fraction of the wages in unskilled jobs. In German East Africa Germans levied heavy taxes and relied heavily on coerced labor to build roads and accomplish various other tasks. In 1902, Germans ordered African villages to grow cotton as a cash crop for export. Each village was charged with producing a quota of cotton.
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Racism and Violence
Receiving societies did not always embrace immigrants, as seen in the various degrees of ethnic and racial prejudice and the ways states attempted to regulate the increased flow of people across their borders. Societies sometimes resorted to vigilante violence against immigrants.
Chinese Exclusion Acts Because Chinese workers were hired for so many jobs in California, the California constitution of 1879 included several provisions that discriminated against the Chinese: • It prohibited the state, counties, municipalities, and public works from hiring Chinese workers. • It prevented them, and others who were not considered white, from becoming citizens on the grounds that they were "dangerous to the well-being of the State." • It encouraged cities and towns either to remove Chinese residents from within their limits or to segregate them in certain areas. |
With many thousands of Chinese living in the United States by 1882, Congress banned further Chinese immigration by passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act. Initially limited to a ten year period, the policy was extended periodically and made permanent in 1902. This act, which was finally repealed in 1943, showed the discrimination in the United States.
After the U.S. Congress excluded Chinese immigrants, some of them began to move to Mexico. Mexican President Porfirio Diaz promoted immigration as well as development, especially in the northern area bordering the United States. Rather than working as laborers in the mines or railroads, most worked as truck farmers, shopkeepers, or manufacturers.
Violence was another factor that immigrants had to endure. The Chinese massacre of 1871 was a racial massacre that occurred on October 24, 1871, in Los Angeles, California, when a mob of around 500 White and Hispanic persons entered Old Chinatown and attacked, bullied, robbed, and murdered Chinese residents in cold blood.
On Sept. 2, 1885, 150 white coal miners in Rock Springs, Wyoming, looking to steal gold, brutally attacked the Chinese workers, killing 28, wounding 15 others, and driving several hundred more out of town. That was called the Rock Springs Massacre.
After the U.S. Congress excluded Chinese immigrants, some of them began to move to Mexico. Mexican President Porfirio Diaz promoted immigration as well as development, especially in the northern area bordering the United States. Rather than working as laborers in the mines or railroads, most worked as truck farmers, shopkeepers, or manufacturers.
Violence was another factor that immigrants had to endure. The Chinese massacre of 1871 was a racial massacre that occurred on October 24, 1871, in Los Angeles, California, when a mob of around 500 White and Hispanic persons entered Old Chinatown and attacked, bullied, robbed, and murdered Chinese residents in cold blood.
On Sept. 2, 1885, 150 white coal miners in Rock Springs, Wyoming, looking to steal gold, brutally attacked the Chinese workers, killing 28, wounding 15 others, and driving several hundred more out of town. That was called the Rock Springs Massacre.
White Australia Before the Australian gold rushes of the 1850s and 1860s, most of the Chinese in Australia were indentured laborers, convicts, or traders. During the gold rushes, the Chinese population grew to around 50,000. In response to the influx of Chinese miners, the parliament of the Providence of Victoria passed the Chinese Immigration Act in 1855 that limited the amount of Chinese Immigrants that could come ashore from each ship. In December 1860, white miners in the goldfields of New South Wales attacked the area where Chinese miners were quartered, killing several and wounding many others. Several other attacks followed. One of the worst occurred on June 30, 1861, when several thousand white miners attacked the Chinese and plundered their dwellings. By the end of the gold rushes in 1881, New South Wales passed the Influx of Chinese Restriction Act, which attempted to restrict Chinese immigration by means of an entrance tax. |
After the gold rushes, the Chinese in Australia turned to other sources of income, such as gardening, trade, furniture making, fishing, and pearl diving. While Chinatowns (Chinese enclaves) developed in cities across Australia, the Chinese made their biggest economic contributions in the Northern Territory and north Queensland regions. Eventually, however, anti-Chinese sentiment grew. Because the Chinese artisans and laborers would work for less than white Australians, resentment increased. Anti-Chinese leagues also began to develop. Although the number of Chinese in Australia was declining, they were becoming more concentrated in Melbourne and Sydney and thus more visible. After six separate British self-governing colonies in Australia united under a single centralized government in 1901, the new parliament took action to limit non-British immigration. The new attorney general stated that the government's policy was to preserve a "white Australia." The White Australia Policy, as it was known, remained in effect until the mid-1970s.