Alone and Far from Home

Abstract

On the basis of nominal data from local foreigners’ files, this article examines gender differences in the trajectories of more than 3,000 single foreign newcomers to Antwerp between 1850 and 1880. The data demonstrate an overall expansion, ruralization, and feminization of the migration field over time, attuned to the evolution of the port town’s dual labor market. Foreign single women were less specialized than their skilled male counterparts and immigrated in large numbers only toward the end of the period under study, supported by the facilitation of travel via rail. Engaged in a catch-up process as well as in the founding of new patterns of migration, single female migrants emerge from this study as both followers and pioneers. By highlighting the latter’s dual role, the results shed new light on gender stereotypes in migration research and on the oft-assumed connection between migration distance and occupational specialization.

Salmon Bias or Red Herring?

“…It suggests that women who stayed in Rotterdam were a less favorable selection of the population of origin in terms of health and human capital, and/or that they paid a higher health price for their migration. The former is underlined by a recent study by Hilde Greefs and Anne Winter, in which they showed that women who moved over a longer distance to Antwerp in the latter half of the nineteenth century were—contrary to men—more often from a more modest background (Greefs and Winter 2016). At the same time it is not unthinkable that women—because of their limited human capital—became marginalized upon arrival in Rotterdam.…”

“…This seems to suggest that for migrant women the selection effect was not as strong as it was for men; the difference between migrant women and those who stayed in their region of origin was not as great (cf. Greefs and Winter 2016). Perhaps because of their limited human capital or the lack of a social network, they might have ended up in trouble in the city, which could have prevented them from returning home or moving to another destination.…”

“…Greefs and Winter 2016; Greenwood 2008; Mourits 2017). These models were also designed as nested, but for simplification we present only the full models (the nested models are shown in Tables ESM-2 and 3).…”

“…Given that women at the time had different migration patterns than men—they moved more often, but over shorter distances (Greefs and Winter 2016)—and faced diverging mortality risks in later life (Mourits 2017), we look at mortality risks not only for the entire study group, but also separately for women and for men.…”

The Arrival of Foreign Female Domestic Servants in Antwerp and the Role of Compatriots and Relatives as Intermediaries, 1860–1880

“…According to Greefs and Winter, this registration 'appears to have been considered, both by the local authorities and by migrants themselves, a purely administrative procedure inherent to migrants registration in the local population books, which could have been prompted by employers, landlords, neighbours, or simply on initiative of migrants themselves'. 43 However, the local police were unable to consistently detect unregistered foreigners due to a lack of personnel. 44 An unknown number of foreigners was therefore either not registered at all or only months or even years after their arrival.…”