Changes in Patterns of Global Migrations

A massive group of people stand in front of a large boat in a black and white photo — Newly arrived Italian immigrants in Argentina.

In this lesson, you will learn how economic factors led to new patterns of migration across regions and within regions, and the effects of these migrations on sending and receiving societies.

The Universality of Migration

Think about migrations. If you are reading this, you and your family are the result of migrations, whether it be from state to state or from abroad. If you go back far enough, almost all our families migrated to this country for some reason. Some migrated for a better life, to find work, or to flee bad situations.

To understand these movements, historians categorize them into Push Factors (why people leave, e.g., the Irish Potato Famine or Lebanese sectarian violence) and Pull Factors (why they go to a specific place, e.g., the 1862 Homestead Act in the US or the labor needs of Argentine beef production).

In this module you are going to learn about migrations in this period when people migrated for the same reasons. Industrialization transformed the patterns of global migration and accelerated the movement of people across the globe.

Intraregional Migration

The first significant industrial migrations were intraregional. That is, they occurred within the boundaries of a region or country. This pattern was first experienced in Britain as new and efficient agricultural practices reduced the number of laborers required on farms. As opportunities for work multiplied in industrial centers, many of these workers moved to urban areas and supplied the necessary labor for factories. Hiring fairs were conducted in small towns and rural areas across England to recruit labor for textile mills and coal mines.

As industrialization spread across Western Europe, this pattern of rural to urban migration was repeated. Cities grew incredibly fast, often not able to build adequate housing, water, and sewage systems fast enough to accommodate the urban growth. You will remember from previous lessons that the harsh lives of urban workers would lead Marx to advocate communism, and governments—when workers could vote—to eventually pass reform laws to moderate the conditions of the working class.

As rough as migrant workers had it in industrial centers, they had a lot in common with their new homes. Despite some regional differences and slight variations of dialect, they basically shared the same language, culture, and religion of the places to which they migrated. Not all industrial migrations were like this.

Transregional Migration

In this section, we'll explore a few different large-scale transregional migrations. Explore the information in each tab carefully, taking notes on each instance.

Irish Migration
Italian Migration
Japanese Migration
Lebanese Migration

Irish to the United States

Many areas had no locally available labor force and had to recruit workers from abroad. These laborers moved across regions and worked in areas much different from their native cultures. When the United States industrialized in earnest after the Civil War, it had vast resources but little potential labor force. This need for labor was met with transregional migrations. The US government withdrew many restrictions on migration in order to open foreign labor to drive industrialization. This was particularly attractive to people in Ireland, as the potato blight of 1845 led to starvation and famine. By 1850, nearly 2 million immigrants arrived in the United States from Ireland, many of whom were used to build the railroad system across the continent. On the West Coast, about 85% of the workers on the Transcontinental Railroad were immigrants from China. The ethnic and religious composition of the United States was changing.

Italians to Argentina

There were other places in the world where transregional migrations supplied the need for labor. With the help of British investment, Argentina’s economy quickly expanded, drawing many Italian immigrants for work. After unifying in 1871, the new nation of Italy faced numerous challenges. They were behind other European nations in industrializing, politically unstable, and suffered widespread poverty and unemployment. Italy was crowded, and there were few prospects of owning one’s own land. Argentina held out many opportunities. There was work for agricultural workers, skilled laborers, and open land for settlement. Integration into Argentine society was less daunting for Italians, who shared their Roman Catholic culture. Between 1870 and 1914, over 2 million Italians left Italy to start a new life in Argentina.

Japanese to the Pacific

There were significant migrations from Japan to the Pacific in the 19th century. Not all Japanese benefited from the Meiji reforms, which left many peasants out of Japan’s industrial successes. To fund Japan’s new modern bureaucracy, taxes rose. Peasants now had to pay taxes on the value of their land rather than the amount of rice they harvested each year. A bad harvest could set them back into significant debt.

Many Japanese left their country to find employment in the Hawaiian Islands. Five major US corporations invested in the islands and established massive sugar and pineapple plantations. They actively recruited labor from Japan’s rural areas to migrate and fill the need for agricultural labor. When the United States government passed laws restricting Chinese immigration, the number of Japanese immigrants increased. Migrant workers from Japan typically signed 3-year contracts and alternated back and forth between Hawaii and Japan several times. Many left Hawaii for the United States when their contract ended and settled across California and other parts of the West Coast.

A person wearing Japanese clothing stands in a cleared sugarcane field with others sitting nearby — This painting is called *Japanese Laborers on Spreckelsville Plantation* and was painted by Joseph Dwight Strong in 1885. It was commissioned by King Kalākaua
as a gift for the Japanese emperor, to show the working conditions of Japanese laborers in Hawaii.

Lebanese to the Americas

There were migrations from the Middle East to the United States during this era as well. As the Ottoman Empire weakened on the international scene, the silk industry around Mount Lebanon, the main industry in what is today Lebanon, collapsed and created widespread economic desperation. Many Christians in the area suffered persecution and sectarian violence. In 1860, 15,000 had been killed and their villages destroyed in an uprising against them. Combined with the region’s economic woes and its dense population, nearly one quarter of the Lebanese population of this area simply left for new opportunities. Many migrated to the Americas, such as Brazil and the United States.

A woman in a dark dress poses with five children wearing white — Lebanese immigrants who settled in the state of Mississippi in the 19th century.

A temple structure with two elephant statues standing outside the main door — A Hindu temple on the Island of Trinidad, off the coast of Venezuela.

Indentured Migrations

One of the largest forced migrations in history ended during this period. The Atlantic slave trade was abolished, ending the forced migration of more than 10 million enslaved West Africans to the Americas as chattel slaves.

Eager to retain profits from sugar, governments and plantation owners sought new sources of labor. The slave trade was quickly replaced by indentured servanthood. In this new system of labor, individuals agreed to contracts, or indentures, to work for a specified number of years. In return, they got passage to their place of labor, food, and shelter. While technically 'free' labor compared to slavery, indentured servitude was often exploitative. Contracts were frequently written in languages the laborers could not read, and many workers faced 'debt bondage' that made it impossible to return home.

The primary source for indentured servants was in Asia. Agents actively recruited laborers from India, China, and Japan to relocate for work. Over 1.5 million came from India alone, mainly settling in British plantation colonies in Mauritius, Guyana, Suriname, Trinidad, and Fiji, dramatically changing the demographic composition of these areas. Today, descendants of these migrants thrive in these areas. There are cultural reminders scattered around the world of this movement of people.

Comparing Maps: Slave Trade vs. Indentured Migrations

The following maps show two different migrations of labor: one forced and one indentured. Compare these maps - what stands out as being similar? How did things change when the Atlantic Slave Trade was abolished? Note the shift in the 'Direction of Labor.' While the Slave Trade was almost exclusively an African-to-American movement, the Indentured Migration map shows a Global Web, with Asia (India and China) becoming the new primary 'sending' hubs for the world's labor needs.

Map 1: The Atlantic Slave Trade

A map with red arrows indicating the movement of slaves around the world — Map Information: Arrow thickness (width of routes) indicates number of slaves transported, from one million (thinnest) to 10 million (thickest). The red arrows originate in Africa and point to North and South America (largest arrows), India, the Middle East, and even within Africa. While various locations are included in the map, the goal of this map is to take in the larger picture of slave movements out of Africa.

Map 2: Principal Overseas Indentured Migrations, 1834-1919

A map with arrows indicating the movement of indentured migrants — Map Information: The arrows on this map are in black and white so they use patterns to indicate origin. Solid grey = African migrants (pointing to the Caribbean and Mauritius). Small dots = Chinese migrants (pointing to Hawaii, Peru and Cuba). Small dashes = Indian migrants (point to Africa, Mauritius, and the Caribbean). Dashes facing right = Japanese migrants (pointing to Hawaii and South America). Dashes facing left = Pacific Islanders (pointing to Fiji and Australia).

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