On account of its remarkable reach as well as its variety of schemes and features, migration in the Victorian era is a paramount chapter of the history of worldwide migrations and diasporas. Indeed, Victorian Britain was both a land of emigration and immigration. International Migrations in the Victorian Era covers a wide range of case studies to unveil the complexity of transnational circulations and connections in the 19th century. Combining micro- and macro-studies, this volume looks into the history of the British Empire, 19th century international migration networks, as well as the causes and consequences of Victorian migrations and how technological, social, political, and cultural transformations, mainly initiated by the Industrial Revolution, considerably impacted on people’s movements. It presents a history of migration grounded on people, structural forces and migration processes that bound societies together. Rather than focussing on distinct territorial units, International Migrations in the Victorian Era balances different scales of analysis: individual, local, regional, national and transnational.
Contributors are: Rebecca Bates, Sally Brooke Cameron, Milosz K. Cybowski, Nicole Davis, Anne-Catherine De Bouvier, Claire Deligny, Elizabeth Dillenburg, Nicolas Garnier, Trevor Harris, Kathrin Levitan, Véronique Molinari, Ipshita Nath, Jude Piesse, Daniel Renshaw, Eric Richards, Sue Silberberg, Ben Szreter, Géraldine Vaughan, Briony Wickes, Rhiannon Heledd Williams.
Marie Ruiz, Ph.D. (2015) Université Paris Diderot, is Associate Professor in British History at Université de Picardie Jules Verne, France. She is the author of British Female Emigration Societies and the New World, 1860-1914 (Palgrave, 2017), and co-editor of The Handbook of Migration Crises (forthcoming with Oxford Univsity Press, 2018).
List of Illustrations Notes on Contributors
Introduction Marie Ruiz
Part 1: Outward Migration
1 Revisiting the Originality of Irish Migrations during the Victorian Era Géraldine Vaughan
2 Godley’s Plan for Colonization during the Famine: The Phantom Solution Anne-Catherine de Bouvier
3 The Highland Diaspora and Its Antipodean Outliers Eric Richards
4 Welsh Migration to America during the 19th Century Rhiannon Heledd Williams
5 Britain, Argentina and Welsh Migration: A Reassessment Trevor Harris
6 Transnationalism, the Urban & Migration in the Victorian Era: The Lives of Henry & Sophia Morwitch Nicole Davis
7 Migration, Empire, and the Penny Post Kathrin Levitan
8 “Sheep Stories”: Representations of Human and Animal Emigration and Settlement in the Nineteenth Century Briony Wickes
Part 2: Inward Migration
9 Global Immigration to England and Wales, 1851–1911. Evidence from the Census Ben Szreter
10 Investigating the “Other” – A Comparative Study of Migrant Settlement in the Work of Charles Booth and Jacob Riis in Victorian London and New York Daniel Renshaw
11 On the Road to the Asylum: Migration and Mental Illness in Victorian Lancashire (c.1851–1901) Claire Deligny
12 A Less Eligible Country for a Pole: Britain and the Polish Refugees in the Early Victorian Period (1837–1847) Milosz K. Cybowski
13 Jewish Immigration and the Shaping of a British Antipodean Outpost Sue Silberberg
Part 3: Migration of Women and Youth
14 Exiles and Exes: Women’s Emigration Poetry and Fiction in the Victorian Periodical Press Jude Piesse
15 Victorian Women and Evangelicalism in the Far East: An International Mission Nicolas Garnier
16 Migrant Memsahibs: Travel, and Gynaecological Complications during the Raj Ipshita Nath
17 “The Opportunity for Empire Building”: The Girls’ Friendly Society, Child Emigration, and Domestic Service in the British Empire Elizabeth Dillenburg
18 The Emigration of Irish Famine Orphan Girls to Australia: The Earl Grey Scheme Véronique Molinari
19 From Suppression to Sponsorship: Juvenile Emigration and the Preservation of Pre-industrial Labor Rebecca Bates
20 Little Wanderers: The British Home Children in Canada Sally Brooke Cameron
Conclusion Marie Ruiz
Index
All interested in migration history as well as the history of Britain in the Victorian era, whether academics, students, researchers or readers curious about this period of great migration.