The Economic Demography of Intercontinental Migration

This chapter focuses on economic and demographic aspects of intercontinental migration. The coverage is selective, with a particular focus on emigration from Europe to the ‘New World’ in the first globalisation era. This is where most of the rich quantitative historical literature has concentrated, often employing the methodology that has been used to analyse more modern data. The first section reviews the motivations behind, and determinants of, the major historical migration flows. This is followed by an outline of migrant selectivity or self-selection—how the composition of migrants compares with that of the source population. I then turn to aspects of migrant integration in destination countries with a focus on intermarriage between immigrants and the native-born and on migrant fertility. The final section examines if and how dramatic changes in the world economy and the rise of immigration policies changed migration between the two eras of globalisation. This is followed by a short conclusion.