Review of periodical literature for 2021

Abstract

Occasionally, several articles published in the same year converge upon a quite specific theme. Sometimes, the convergence may be attributed to newly available data, for example, from population censuses, or to a significant anniversary, for example, the centenary of the First World War. Other times, it may arise from an ambitious programme of research having come to fruition. Yet, especially for the heavily studied period from 1850 to 1945, there are occasions when the clustering of articles around a closely circumscribed theme happens, seemingly, by chance. These serendipitous convergences afford readers of economic and social history a more comprehensive treatment of topics than would have been expected. One of the purposes of this review (and one of the joys of the reviewer) is to bring these convergences to the attention of economic and social historians.In 2021, no less than five articles converged, serendipitously, on the topic of British emigration to Australasia. These articles spanned six authors and three journals, viz. Australian Economic History Review, Historical Research, and Social History of Medicine. Relying on shipping records, Ward estimates that, during the period from 1852 to 1915, approximately 20 per cent of British emigrants to the colony of Victoria eventually returned to Britain. The returning migrants, who were mostly women, were strongly influenced by social networks. Ward's article includes both quantitative analysis and biographical vignettes of returning migrants. One of these migrants was Annie Martlew, who emigrated from Liverpool to Melbourne in 1884, only to return two decades later as a widow with five young children, motivated by the existence of a stronger support network in Britain. Social networks are a potential explanation for a paradox identified by Hatton in his study of emigration from the United Kingdom to the Anglosphere during the late nineteenth century. Surprisingly, he finds that emigrants to Australia and New Zealand were, on average, more skilled than emigrants to Canada and the United States, despite wages exhibiting a higher skill premium in North America. Hatton speculates that the lower skill content of emigrants from the United Kingdom-importantly, including Ireland-to the United States (vis-à-vis migrants to Australasia) might be due to the presence of greater networks of previous migrants there. Leaving aside the skill content of migrants, the sheer number of migrants to Australasia was positively influenced byThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.