6.6

Question 1

What are three main causes of migration?

Answer 1

1) Labor systems
2) Hardship/challenges
3) Settler colonies

Question 2

Labor systems as a cause of migration

Answer 2

Increased demand for raw materials = increased demand for labor on cash crop plantations, often in the form of slavery
Slavery abolitionist movements were successful sometimes, though, meaning that new ways of obtaining low-wage labor were explored in order to supply the growing demand for raw materials.
*Indentured servitude: attractive to poor laborers, who often sent money back home. These workers sometimes remained in the foreign country when done with their allotted servitude.
This meant that external cultural influence was common. Examples of cultural influence:
- Indians migrated to Fiji, Trinidad, and Mauritius; their cultural food and language influence is seen in the modern day
*Contract labor: British abolished the slave trade in 1806, so they tried bringing in low-wage Indian and Chinese workers using contracts that were often deceptive and exploitative. By 1877, most countries benefiting from this labor had passed laws to improve their working conditions.
*Penal colonies: convicts were sent here to do harsh labor or keep government records (if they were lucky) until their sentence was completed
-Ex: France’s “Devil’s Island” in French Guinea, where the convicts were underfed and subject to harsh labor
Examples of migration bc of labor systems:

• Japanese laborers went to Peru, Hawaii, Cuba to work on sugar plantations
• Chinese laborers went to California and British Malaysia
• Indian laborers dispersed to British colonies all across the world

Question 3

Hardship and challenges as a cause of migration

Answer 3

When people moved because of hardships at home, they’d often develop diaspora in their new countries.
Ex: Chinese diaspora in Western U.S.A.

Exampled of migration due to challenges:
- poverty in India = mass migration
- poverty and famine in China = mass migration, especially to America where they ended up playing a major role in building the Trans-Continental Railroad
- IRELAND:
*political migration: Ireland became a part of the United Kingdom (1801), which led to the abolition of the Irish Parliament and religious persecution [Irish Roman Catholics vs. British Anglicans]
*famine: The Great Potato Famine of 1845 lasted 4 years, due to potato crop blight. Potatoes were the main source of food for the lower and working classes. Millions migrated, especially to the U.S.A., where they worked low-wage jobs, often in factories. In the U.S.A., they were also discriminated against for their Catholic faith, just to a lesser extent than in the U.K.
Migration was often appealing due to offers for work abroad through indentured servitude, such as the British offer for indentured labor in Mauritius

Question 4

Settler colonies as a cause of migration

Answer 4

Lots of migrators to settler colonies were technical experts like engineers and geologists, who helped to extend industrialization by planning and developing railroad systems.
Examples of settler colonies:
- British: Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand
- Japan: tried colonizing Mexico and was unsuccessful, but large populations still migrated there and created Japanese diaspora. Diaspora also present in Hawaii and Western U.S.A., which would later hold grave consequences during WWII

Question 5

Definition of diaspora

Answer 5

a scattered population whose origin lies in a different geographic location