This chapter explores the relationship between the transatlantic migration movement and passenger... more This chapter explores the relationship between the transatlantic migration movement and passenger shipping conferences. By analysing records from the New York Continental Conference, which regulated prepaid and return business, it reconstructs the price brackets for major shipping firms in the final quarter of the nineteenth century. It also reveals how conferences attempted to neutralise internal and external competition. Analysis of the head agent’s correspondence offers a view of the organisation of passenger business that proves particularly insightful due to a scarcity of other contemporary sources.
This chapter offers a reassessment of the role of agents in the migration process, as it consider... more This chapter offers a reassessment of the role of agents in the migration process, as it considers them the core link between migrant and shipping company. It deconstructs the layers of the agent network with a breakdown of the terminology used between brokers, expedients, agents, and runners; compares European and American migration legislation; analyses the American network in depth - services, pressures, and advertising strategies; and highlights the significance of an agent’s ethnicity when handling migration issues. It concludes that agents played a much larger role than merely organising the trip from destination to destination, they were akin to the economic and social gatekeepers of America and all the prospects it held.
border, where the high-tech control system cost more than the total GDP of Burkina Faso in 2012. ... more border, where the high-tech control system cost more than the total GDP of Burkina Faso in 2012. This article analyzes the maritime origins of this global wall, from 1880 to 1920, through the eyes of the shipping companies that played a first-hand role in enacting, enforcing and evading these borders. The business perspective on border development gives a fresh look at the interplay of nationalism and globalization, while at the same time highlighting regional and local differences. Scholars have emphasized that laws excluding the Chinese from white-settler nations developed a legal rationale for barring the entry of certain groups, as well as the basic principles of border control and the administrative organization to execute these. For the U.S., it is claimed that that rhetoric and tools developed to exclude Asians were later copied to greatly restrict the entry of Southern and Eastern Europeans and subsequently mass migration as a whole. 6 Adam McKeown thus concluded that standardized templates of migration control had diffused globally by 1910. 7 Yet few studies have analyzed these transfers explicitly, while most research on migration to the U.S. is based on congressional sources that are restricted to a top-down perspective. Some recent studies, by using the case files of detained and deported migrants, provide a new, micro perspective, highlighting the gap between enacting and enforcing migration laws. 8 This micro-perspective polarizes the history of rising modern barriers on human mobility, turning it into a two-sided battle between the migrant and the state. This study shows that other actors-especially passenger transport companiesinterposed themselves in determining the flows of migrants. For the North Atlantic, several recent studies point to the role of steam shipping companies in establishing the U.S. maritime frontier, serving as go-betweens for migrants and the state. 9 This article extends these studies by exploring the connections, similarities, and differences between Atlantic and Pacific maritime frontiers of the U.S., along with their terrestrial ramifications. It deconstructs the notion of a U.S. border regime rooted in excluding Chinese and then expanding to obstruct the influx of other ethnic groups. Instead, this article argues that two different U.S. border regimes took shape simultaneously on the Atlantic and the Pacific: I thus question the existence of a U.S. national border-control system in the years before 1920. Enacting the 'nationalization' of U.S. migration legislation: Atlantic versus Pacific The business perspective on migration policies of the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries permits reassessment of narrow, nation-based historiographies. Migration history, initially studied in major receiving countries, focused on policies of admission, integration, and assimilation from a top-down, state-based perspective. Subsequent studies started to integrate the agency of the migrants: they showed how migrants moved across porous borders. This approach reversed the initial distortion in the paradigm: it drew attention to the countries of departure, as their policies influenced the travel and settlement of migrants, and their ties to the home country. This revised paradigm allowed for the integration of emigration and immigration into an interconnected process, enhancing our understanding of transnational spaces in which individuals move and of the international relations which shape state policies. Still, complementing immigration with an emigration perspective fails to grasp the full scope of migration polices, in that the role of transit countries remains discounted. 10 Thus,
This final chapter explores the ways in which shipping companies both attempted to prevent and su... more This final chapter explores the ways in which shipping companies both attempted to prevent and successfully blocked the implementation of numerous American laws restricting the passage of migrants. It examines immigration policies implemented at Ellis Island - including analysis of the various reasons for denial of entry and the actions of unsympathetic Ellis Island leaders; migration as an issue of race politics; the impact of the Immigration Acts of 1903, 1907, and the Dillingham-Burnett Bill; gate issues surrounding immigration; and the interference of shipping companies in racist immigrant selection processes. It concludes that shipping companies were vigorous in their efforts to guarantee their right to land their passengers, and would circulate information through agent networks detailing how migrants could pass through tightened border controls.
ABSTRACT International migration and tourism developed into cornerstones of modern societies and ... more ABSTRACT International migration and tourism developed into cornerstones of modern societies and have many common features: they generally pass through the same routes, are served and controlled by similar actors, and often depend on each other as for instance with the prevalence of migrant labour in the tourism industry. Despite these entanglements which sometimes blur the lines between tourists and migrants, there has been very little scholarly attention aimed at connecting both fields, not least from a historical perspective. Using sources generated by the Foreigners Police, a body responsible for monitoring all non-nationals in Belgium and expelling ‘undesirables’, this article analyses how mobility controls addressing tourists and migrants evolved in Ostend, one of the most prominent European tourist resorts during the nineteenth century. This article tests how mobility controls in resorts deviated from national guidelines and explores whether security concerns about controlling foreigners weighed up against economic benefits derived from international mobility. How did authorities differentiate tourists from migrants and to what extent did mobility controls of migrants overlap and differ with those addressing tourists? By exploring the entanglements between mobility and migration controls the article seeks to encourage tourism and migration scholars to engage in broader debates.
This section studies the rise of transatlantic mass migration and long-distance steamshipping bet... more This section studies the rise of transatlantic mass migration and long-distance steamshipping between 1830 to 1870, and the ways in which the two intersected. It explores the successes and failures in establishing migration networks, and contrasts activity at the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp to better understand the impact of commercial networks on the path dependency of migrants. It also considers the organisation of transport and the influence of government policies on both sail and steam shipping during the period. It examines chain migration; business networks; American migration legislation; the rise of Nativism; and migration as an international trade issue, before concluding that steamship lines targeted migrants with full knowledge of their financial value.
This chapter explores the role of the shipping lobby in shaping American laws that regulated migr... more This chapter explores the role of the shipping lobby in shaping American laws that regulated migrant transport, particularly the laws that opposed and attempted to suppress immigration. It seeks to determine the lengths shipping companies would go to in order to ensure the right of entry of as many passengers as possible. It examines the American Civil War and the labour shortage and necessary encouragement of migration that resulted from it; immigration as a federal issue; the shrink in tolerance of immigration amongst xenophobic American labour unions; the calls for immigration restrictions and the improvements to their enforcement; the system of remote border control; migration as a lobby issue; and lobby campaigns both for and against immigration. It concludes that the shipping lobby was harshly divided along the lines of nationalist interests.
Naar aanleiding van de dertigste verjaardag van de afvalstoffenmaatschappij ontstond in 2010 een ... more Naar aanleiding van de dertigste verjaardag van de afvalstoffenmaatschappij ontstond in 2010 een samenwerking tussen het Instituut voor Publieksgeschiedenis (UGent) en de OVAM, met als doel een vlot toegankelijk boek te schrijven. Om de oprichting van de OVAM te duiden, plaatst het door Torsten Feys geschreven boek de afvalproblematiek en bodemvervuiling in een langetermijnperspectief. Tegen deze achtergrond worden de realisaties, beleidslijnen, interne veranderingen en plannen van de OVAM besproken. Via de methode van de mondelinge geschiedenis kregen zowel de OVAM-personeelsleden, stakeholders en de burger een stem in het boek. De interviews werden geconfronteerd met persartikels, parlementaire documenten en verslagen en met de archieven van milieuorganisaties. Het is niet in de handel verkrijgbaar om de ecologische voetafdruk zo klein mogelijk te houden. Voor een digitale versie in pdf-formaat verwijzen we u graag door naar de OVAM-website of [email protected].
Migratie houdt de belofte in van meer toenadering, een grotere vervlechting van gemeenschappen. I... more Migratie houdt de belofte in van meer toenadering, een grotere vervlechting van gemeenschappen. In deze bijdrage vragen we ons af hoe menselijke migratie in de voorbije twee eeuwen bijgedragen heeft tot de paradox van de hedendaagse globalisering; namelijk een meer geglobaliseerde, maar ook een meer ongelijke en verkavelde wereld. We betogen dat het migratiebeleid in de laatste twee eeuwen vooral gekenmerkt werd door toenemende reguleringen en restricties, wat haaks lijkt te staan op de evolutie naar een superdiverse samenleving. Die contradictie komt voort uit het spanningsveld tussen de sterkere nationale logica waarbinnen de beleidslijnen worden uitgestippeld en het internationale karakter van migratiestromen, gestuurd door mondiale processen. Politieke besluitvorming, vaak met een kortetermijnblik, botst op migratiepatronen met een eigen langetermijn dynamiek. In deze bijdrage vragen we ons af hoe migratiepatronen binnen dit spanningsveldvvorm hebben gekregen en hoe ze zo de hedendaagse globalisering mee aansturen. We kijken als voorbeeld naar het wisselende beleid vanaf de negentiende eeuw van de Verenigde Staten ten aanzien van de internationale arbeidsmigratie.
The maritime impact on global migration is often overlooked despite the defining role of oceans o... more The maritime impact on global migration is often overlooked despite the defining role of oceans on human mobility. Water surfaces initially posed barriers to migration, directing flows overland. Yet technological innovations turned rivers, lakes, and oceans into vehicles for all kinds of human interactions, including migration. Networks connecting hinterland and foreland converged in ports and spurred the exploration of new trade and migratory routes. They increased the connectedness between maritime and terrestrial life around small seas at first, then bridged the immensity of the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean from the fifteenth century. This marks the beginning of a new global era in which oceans no longer divided the world. The transatlantic triangular slave trade established the first long-distance maritime networks to transport human cargo on a large scale. In its wake, other forms of indentured and free migration movements developed across the oceans worldwide. By the 1850s, the ...
This chapter explores the relationship between the transatlantic migration movement and passenger... more This chapter explores the relationship between the transatlantic migration movement and passenger shipping conferences. By analysing records from the New York Continental Conference, which regulated prepaid and return business, it reconstructs the price brackets for major shipping firms in the final quarter of the nineteenth century. It also reveals how conferences attempted to neutralise internal and external competition. Analysis of the head agent’s correspondence offers a view of the organisation of passenger business that proves particularly insightful due to a scarcity of other contemporary sources.
This chapter offers a reassessment of the role of agents in the migration process, as it consider... more This chapter offers a reassessment of the role of agents in the migration process, as it considers them the core link between migrant and shipping company. It deconstructs the layers of the agent network with a breakdown of the terminology used between brokers, expedients, agents, and runners; compares European and American migration legislation; analyses the American network in depth - services, pressures, and advertising strategies; and highlights the significance of an agent’s ethnicity when handling migration issues. It concludes that agents played a much larger role than merely organising the trip from destination to destination, they were akin to the economic and social gatekeepers of America and all the prospects it held.
border, where the high-tech control system cost more than the total GDP of Burkina Faso in 2012. ... more border, where the high-tech control system cost more than the total GDP of Burkina Faso in 2012. This article analyzes the maritime origins of this global wall, from 1880 to 1920, through the eyes of the shipping companies that played a first-hand role in enacting, enforcing and evading these borders. The business perspective on border development gives a fresh look at the interplay of nationalism and globalization, while at the same time highlighting regional and local differences. Scholars have emphasized that laws excluding the Chinese from white-settler nations developed a legal rationale for barring the entry of certain groups, as well as the basic principles of border control and the administrative organization to execute these. For the U.S., it is claimed that that rhetoric and tools developed to exclude Asians were later copied to greatly restrict the entry of Southern and Eastern Europeans and subsequently mass migration as a whole. 6 Adam McKeown thus concluded that standardized templates of migration control had diffused globally by 1910. 7 Yet few studies have analyzed these transfers explicitly, while most research on migration to the U.S. is based on congressional sources that are restricted to a top-down perspective. Some recent studies, by using the case files of detained and deported migrants, provide a new, micro perspective, highlighting the gap between enacting and enforcing migration laws. 8 This micro-perspective polarizes the history of rising modern barriers on human mobility, turning it into a two-sided battle between the migrant and the state. This study shows that other actors-especially passenger transport companiesinterposed themselves in determining the flows of migrants. For the North Atlantic, several recent studies point to the role of steam shipping companies in establishing the U.S. maritime frontier, serving as go-betweens for migrants and the state. 9 This article extends these studies by exploring the connections, similarities, and differences between Atlantic and Pacific maritime frontiers of the U.S., along with their terrestrial ramifications. It deconstructs the notion of a U.S. border regime rooted in excluding Chinese and then expanding to obstruct the influx of other ethnic groups. Instead, this article argues that two different U.S. border regimes took shape simultaneously on the Atlantic and the Pacific: I thus question the existence of a U.S. national border-control system in the years before 1920. Enacting the 'nationalization' of U.S. migration legislation: Atlantic versus Pacific The business perspective on migration policies of the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries permits reassessment of narrow, nation-based historiographies. Migration history, initially studied in major receiving countries, focused on policies of admission, integration, and assimilation from a top-down, state-based perspective. Subsequent studies started to integrate the agency of the migrants: they showed how migrants moved across porous borders. This approach reversed the initial distortion in the paradigm: it drew attention to the countries of departure, as their policies influenced the travel and settlement of migrants, and their ties to the home country. This revised paradigm allowed for the integration of emigration and immigration into an interconnected process, enhancing our understanding of transnational spaces in which individuals move and of the international relations which shape state policies. Still, complementing immigration with an emigration perspective fails to grasp the full scope of migration polices, in that the role of transit countries remains discounted. 10 Thus,
This final chapter explores the ways in which shipping companies both attempted to prevent and su... more This final chapter explores the ways in which shipping companies both attempted to prevent and successfully blocked the implementation of numerous American laws restricting the passage of migrants. It examines immigration policies implemented at Ellis Island - including analysis of the various reasons for denial of entry and the actions of unsympathetic Ellis Island leaders; migration as an issue of race politics; the impact of the Immigration Acts of 1903, 1907, and the Dillingham-Burnett Bill; gate issues surrounding immigration; and the interference of shipping companies in racist immigrant selection processes. It concludes that shipping companies were vigorous in their efforts to guarantee their right to land their passengers, and would circulate information through agent networks detailing how migrants could pass through tightened border controls.
ABSTRACT International migration and tourism developed into cornerstones of modern societies and ... more ABSTRACT International migration and tourism developed into cornerstones of modern societies and have many common features: they generally pass through the same routes, are served and controlled by similar actors, and often depend on each other as for instance with the prevalence of migrant labour in the tourism industry. Despite these entanglements which sometimes blur the lines between tourists and migrants, there has been very little scholarly attention aimed at connecting both fields, not least from a historical perspective. Using sources generated by the Foreigners Police, a body responsible for monitoring all non-nationals in Belgium and expelling ‘undesirables’, this article analyses how mobility controls addressing tourists and migrants evolved in Ostend, one of the most prominent European tourist resorts during the nineteenth century. This article tests how mobility controls in resorts deviated from national guidelines and explores whether security concerns about controlling foreigners weighed up against economic benefits derived from international mobility. How did authorities differentiate tourists from migrants and to what extent did mobility controls of migrants overlap and differ with those addressing tourists? By exploring the entanglements between mobility and migration controls the article seeks to encourage tourism and migration scholars to engage in broader debates.
This section studies the rise of transatlantic mass migration and long-distance steamshipping bet... more This section studies the rise of transatlantic mass migration and long-distance steamshipping between 1830 to 1870, and the ways in which the two intersected. It explores the successes and failures in establishing migration networks, and contrasts activity at the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp to better understand the impact of commercial networks on the path dependency of migrants. It also considers the organisation of transport and the influence of government policies on both sail and steam shipping during the period. It examines chain migration; business networks; American migration legislation; the rise of Nativism; and migration as an international trade issue, before concluding that steamship lines targeted migrants with full knowledge of their financial value.
This chapter explores the role of the shipping lobby in shaping American laws that regulated migr... more This chapter explores the role of the shipping lobby in shaping American laws that regulated migrant transport, particularly the laws that opposed and attempted to suppress immigration. It seeks to determine the lengths shipping companies would go to in order to ensure the right of entry of as many passengers as possible. It examines the American Civil War and the labour shortage and necessary encouragement of migration that resulted from it; immigration as a federal issue; the shrink in tolerance of immigration amongst xenophobic American labour unions; the calls for immigration restrictions and the improvements to their enforcement; the system of remote border control; migration as a lobby issue; and lobby campaigns both for and against immigration. It concludes that the shipping lobby was harshly divided along the lines of nationalist interests.
Naar aanleiding van de dertigste verjaardag van de afvalstoffenmaatschappij ontstond in 2010 een ... more Naar aanleiding van de dertigste verjaardag van de afvalstoffenmaatschappij ontstond in 2010 een samenwerking tussen het Instituut voor Publieksgeschiedenis (UGent) en de OVAM, met als doel een vlot toegankelijk boek te schrijven. Om de oprichting van de OVAM te duiden, plaatst het door Torsten Feys geschreven boek de afvalproblematiek en bodemvervuiling in een langetermijnperspectief. Tegen deze achtergrond worden de realisaties, beleidslijnen, interne veranderingen en plannen van de OVAM besproken. Via de methode van de mondelinge geschiedenis kregen zowel de OVAM-personeelsleden, stakeholders en de burger een stem in het boek. De interviews werden geconfronteerd met persartikels, parlementaire documenten en verslagen en met de archieven van milieuorganisaties. Het is niet in de handel verkrijgbaar om de ecologische voetafdruk zo klein mogelijk te houden. Voor een digitale versie in pdf-formaat verwijzen we u graag door naar de OVAM-website of [email protected].
Migratie houdt de belofte in van meer toenadering, een grotere vervlechting van gemeenschappen. I... more Migratie houdt de belofte in van meer toenadering, een grotere vervlechting van gemeenschappen. In deze bijdrage vragen we ons af hoe menselijke migratie in de voorbije twee eeuwen bijgedragen heeft tot de paradox van de hedendaagse globalisering; namelijk een meer geglobaliseerde, maar ook een meer ongelijke en verkavelde wereld. We betogen dat het migratiebeleid in de laatste twee eeuwen vooral gekenmerkt werd door toenemende reguleringen en restricties, wat haaks lijkt te staan op de evolutie naar een superdiverse samenleving. Die contradictie komt voort uit het spanningsveld tussen de sterkere nationale logica waarbinnen de beleidslijnen worden uitgestippeld en het internationale karakter van migratiestromen, gestuurd door mondiale processen. Politieke besluitvorming, vaak met een kortetermijnblik, botst op migratiepatronen met een eigen langetermijn dynamiek. In deze bijdrage vragen we ons af hoe migratiepatronen binnen dit spanningsveldvvorm hebben gekregen en hoe ze zo de hedendaagse globalisering mee aansturen. We kijken als voorbeeld naar het wisselende beleid vanaf de negentiende eeuw van de Verenigde Staten ten aanzien van de internationale arbeidsmigratie.
The maritime impact on global migration is often overlooked despite the defining role of oceans o... more The maritime impact on global migration is often overlooked despite the defining role of oceans on human mobility. Water surfaces initially posed barriers to migration, directing flows overland. Yet technological innovations turned rivers, lakes, and oceans into vehicles for all kinds of human interactions, including migration. Networks connecting hinterland and foreland converged in ports and spurred the exploration of new trade and migratory routes. They increased the connectedness between maritime and terrestrial life around small seas at first, then bridged the immensity of the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean from the fifteenth century. This marks the beginning of a new global era in which oceans no longer divided the world. The transatlantic triangular slave trade established the first long-distance maritime networks to transport human cargo on a large scale. In its wake, other forms of indentured and free migration movements developed across the oceans worldwide. By the 1850s, the ...
"Dit vlot leesbaar boek geeft heel goed aan in welke moeilijke en complexe omstandigheden de OVAM... more "Dit vlot leesbaar boek geeft heel goed aan in welke moeilijke en complexe omstandigheden de OVAM moest opereren. De impact van de milieubeweging, de media, de politiek en de diverse actoren was heel sterk, maar wijst juist op de maatschappelijke relevantie. Bij de OVAM was er een constante gedrevenheid om te velde vooruitgang te boeken en grenzen te verleggen, maar de te volgen weg was een smal pad, de gulden middenweg. De wetenschappelijk onderbouwde beleidsvoorbereiding en de planmatige aanpak samen met en gedragen door de actoren zorgden niet alleen voor continuïteit, maar ook voor dynamiek. Zo werden steeds betere resultaten geboekt. "-Luc Vanacker (Luc Vanacker is stafmedewerker bij de administratie-generaal van de OVAM en stond in 1981 mee aan de wieg van de OVAM) "De aanzet van het boek is origineel en leuk gevonden. Wat mij echter het meest aanspreekt is de duidelijke wens om een historisch document te maken dat de waarheid in al haar aspecten weergeeft. Ik vind het getuigen van moed en grootsheid dat een organisatie dit durft. Niet enkel een lofzang maar een document dat een bijdrage levert om tot inzichten te komen. Dit boek past bij de OVAM en haar aanpak en moet helpen om er ook in de toekomst succesvol te staan. "-Paul De Bruycker (Paul De Bruycker is ceo van Indaver) "Enkel als een organisatie haar verleden durft doorgronden, kan zij concreet en constructief werken aan haar toekomst. De OVAM doet dat. "-Norbert De Batselier (Norbert De Batselier was Vlaams minister van Leefmilieu van 1992 tot 1995) "Na twee jaar van dichtbij samenwerken met de OVAM heb ik kunnen vaststellen dat de OVAM een instelling met ambitie is. De OVAM wil meewerken aan een innovatief en duurzaam materialen-en bodembeleid voor Vlaanderen.Ik ben er van overtuigd dat we er zullen in slagen om in de komende dertig jaar een even grote evolutie in het beleid te realiseren als deze die we de voorbije dertig jaar inzake afval-en bodembeleid gekend hebben. "-Joke Schauvliege (Joke Schauvliege is Vlaams minister van Leefmilieu, Natuur en Cultuur)
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