8 - Emigration and urban growth

Summary

One of the most important controversies in the history of European emigration is the relationship between emigration and urban growth. The growth of urban areas created economic opportunities in Europe and, potentially, an alternative destination for rural emigrants. Their main choice then became a move to a city in an overseas country or to one in their own country. Some writers have argued that the growth of European cities determined the emigration rate. If the pressures to emigrate occurred in the rural areas some of the pressure could be absorbed by a rural-urban move within the country. If urban growth was insufficient to absorb the migrants the remainder emigrated (Thomas, 1954, 124–8; Jones, 1960, 45–6, 60–2). For example, high emigration rates from Italy and Ireland have been linked to their relatively small urban populations.

The German case is very interesting. There was a marked decline in emigration from Germany after the 1880s which has been linked with rapid urbanisation and, in particular, with the industrialisation of the Ruhrgebiet and Saxony. After the 1880s, emigration from western Germany virtually ceased and most migrants from east of the Oder moved internally (2,200,000 net of returns, 1871–1910 compared with 1,000,000 emigrants). By 1900, Germany had become a country of net immigration. There were 1,000,000 foreign workers in 1914 (Bade, 1985, 124–5; 1987, 141; Walker, 1964, 189–91).

The opposite occurred in Britain. Emigration increased as the country became more urban and industrialised. It is possible that the contrast between the German and British experience is related to the growth of GNP.