Theorizing Cross-Cultural Migrations: The Case of Eurasia since 1500

Abstract

In this article we plead for a less state-centered definition of migration that allows us to understand better the relationship between cross-cultural migrations and social change and social development in the long run. Therefore, we developed a method that enables us to systematically compare CCMRs (cross-cultural migrations per capita) through time and space. This CCMR method puts issues of state policies and citizenship in a much broader social context. We conclude that the presentist approach to migration in the social sciences is highly myopic, as it privileges migrations crossing state borders over internal moves, and favors migrants who have the intention to settle for good. In itself this is a legitimate choice, especially if the core explanandum is the way migrants’ long-term settlement process in another (modern) state evolves. In the more empirical parts of this article however we have concentrated on the effects of Eurasian societies since 1500 that have received migrants. Sending societies and individual migrants and nonmigrants in sending and receiving societies have been largely left out. Finally, and paradoxically, integration and assimilation in the long run leads to diminishing opportunities of social development by cross-cultural experiences, because one could argue that due to globalizing migrations cultures converge further and thus cultural boundaries (as is already the case in migration to cities within culturally homogenous nation-states in the twentieth century) become less salient or disappear entirely. Logically speaking, this is also an implication of the model, presently to be developed further.

Miasta i migracje w Rzeczypospolitej przedrozbiorowej. Zarys problematyki.

“…Nawet ok. połowę ludności osiadającej w miastach stanowili przybysze z najbliższych jego okolic, w odległości do 20-30 km. Albo się w tych okolicach urodzili, albo było to ich poprzednie miejsce dłuższego pobytu i zatrudnienia 71 . Migracje te były to z reguły przemieszczenia wiejsko-miejskie, niekiedy podlegające etapowaniu ze wsi przez miasteczko do większego ośrodka, dotyczące zwłaszcza ludzi młodych o chłopskich korzeniach.…”

Beyond the Apocalypse: Reframing Migration History

“…In order to arrive at the total number of cross-cultural migrants in Europe, we finally have to add all those who entered the continent (immigrants) and those who left with the aim to stay away for good (emigrants). 13 With the CCMR approach, a rather different picture emerges of Europe's migration history since 1800 than we get from the mainstream scholarship, which limits itself largely to those who cross international borders, or to migrants from the so-called 'non-West'. Where Stephen Castles and Mark Miller in their well-known handbook on international migration write that the age of migration basically started after the Second World War, and particularly in the 1980s when international migration grew in volume and significance, they take a very contemporaneous perspective.…”

How do initial migrants choose their locations? Interregional migration in Japan from 1899 to 1938

“…First, most studies are interested in contemporary situations (e.g., Ishikawa & Liaw, 2009; Light & von Scheven, 2008), in which a network of immigrants is already established. Second, some studies investigating historical interregional migration (e.g., Durand et al, 2000; Vaughan & Penn, 2006) often target countries that are already ethnically diverse (Lucassen & Lucassen, 2009, 2017); thus, these historical data are not able to remove influences of the immigrant network.…”