Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T16:00:00.421Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

SKILL SELECTIVITY IN TRANSATLANTIC MIGRATION: THE CASE OF CANARY ISLANDERS IN CUBA*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2015

Dácil Juif
Dácil Juif*
Affiliation:
University of Wageningen
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The skill composition of European migrants to the New World and their contribution to the human capital and institutional formation in destination countries are popular topics in economic history. This study assesses the skill composition of 19th century transatlantic migrants to Cuba. It finds that nearly half of the European immigrants originate from the Spanish province of the Canary Islands, which displays the lowest literacy and numeracy rates of Spain. Even within this province, those who left belonged to the least skilled section of the population. By promoting the influx of a cheap and poorly educated white workforce that replaced African slaves on their sugar estates, large landowners in Cuba contributed to the perpetuation of high economic, political and social inequality.

Resumen

La selección educacional de los migrantes europeos al Nuevo Mundo y su contribución al capital humano y a la formación institucional en los países de destino son temas de gran interés en la historia económica. Este estudio contribuye a este debate mediante el análisis de las capacidades numéricas (numeracy) de los migrantes del siglo diecinueve hacia Cuba. Se prestará especial atención al grupo de migrantes canario. Casi la mitad de los inmigrantes europeos en Cuba procede de esta provincia española que exhibe las tasas de alfabetización y de «numeracy» más bajas de España. Este artículo sostiene que los terratenientes cubanos promovieron la inmigración de una mano de obra blanca de bajo coste y sin educación para reemplazar a los esclavos africanos en sus plantaciones de azúcar, lo cual contribuyó a perpetuar un sistema que promueve la desigualdad.

Keywords

human capitalnumeracymigrationinstitutionsLatin AmericaN36N33capital humanonumeracymigracióninstitucionesAmérica Latina
Type
Articles/Artículos
Information
Revista de Historia Economica - Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History , Volume 33 , Issue 2 , September 2015 , pp. 189 - 222
Check for updates
Copyright
© Instituto Figuerola, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

The author wishes to thank Joerg Baten, Ewout Frankema, Jop Woltjer, Rima Ghanem, Franziska Tollnek, Christina Mumme, Linda Twrdek and two anonymous referees for their valuable comments. Financial support of the Dutch Science Foundation is also gratefully acknowledged.

a

Department of Rural & Environmental History, Hollandseweg 1, Building 201, 6706 KN Wageningen, The Netherlands. E-mail: [email protected].

References

References

Abramitzky, R.; Boustan, L. P., and Eriksson, K. (2012): «Europe’s Tired, Poor, Huddled Masses: Self-Selection and Economic Outcomes in the Age of Mass Migration». American Economic Review 102 (5), pp. 1832-1856.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Abramitzky, R., and Braggion, F. (2006): «Migration and Human Capital: Self-Selection of Indentured Servants to the Americas». Journal of Economic History 66 (4), pp. 882-905.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Acemoglu, D.; Johnson, S., and Robinson, J. A. (2001): «The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation». The American Economic Review 91 (5), pp. 1369-1401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Acemoglu, D.; Johnson, S., and Robinson, J. A. (2002): «Reversal of Fortune: Geography and Institutions in the Making of the Modern World Income Distribution». Quarterly Journal of Economics. pp. 1231-1294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
A’hearn, B.; Baten, J., and Crayen, D. (2010): «Quantifying Quantitative Literacy: Age Heaping and the History of Human Capital». Journal of Economic History 47 (1), pp. 82-99.Google Scholar
Baten, J., and Juif, D. (2014): «A Story of Large Landowners and Math Skills: Inequality and Human Capital Formation in Long-Run Development, 1820–2000». Journal of Comparative Economics 42 (2), pp. 375-401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beine, M.; Docquier, F., and Rapoport, H. (2008): «Brain Drain and Human Capital Formation in Developing Countries: Winners and Losers». The Economic Journal 118 (528), pp. 631-652.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bosa, M.; Sánchez, C. A., Déniz, P. O., and Prats, P. D. (2006): «Empresarios Canarios en Latinoamérica. El caso de Cuba». Coloquios de Historia Canario Americana 17 (17), pp. 906-929.Google Scholar
Cameron, A. C., and Trivedi, P. K. (2010): Microeconometrics Using Stata. Texas: Stata Press.Google Scholar
Carreras, A., and Tafunell, X. (eds.) (2005): Estadísticas históricas de Espana: siglos XIX-XX, 2nd edition. Madrid: Fundación BBVA.Google Scholar
Chiswick, B. R. (1999): «Are Immigrants Favorably Self-selected?». American Economic Review 89 (2), pp. 181-185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crayen, D., and Baten, J. (2010): «Global Trends in Numeracy 1820–1949 and its Implications for Long-term Growth». Explorations in Economic History 47 (1), pp. 82-99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Docquier, F. (2006): «Brain Drain and Inequality Across Nations». IZA Discussion Paper Series No. 2440.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Droller, F. (2014): «Migration, Population Composition and Long-run Economic Development: Evidence from Settlements in the Pampas». Conference paper presented at the workshop «The Deep Causes of Economic Development», Utrecht, December 17.Google Scholar
Easterly, W. (2007): «Inequality Does Cause Underdevelopment: Insights from a New Instrument». Journal of Development Economics 84 (2), pp. 755-776.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Engerman, S. L., and Sokoloff, K. L. (1997): «Factor Endowments, Institutions, and Differential Paths of Growth among New World Economies», in S. H. Haber (ed.), How Latin America Fell Behind. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, pp. 41-109.Google Scholar
Engerman, S. L., and Sokoloff, K. L. (2002): «Factor Endowments, Inequality, and Paths of Development among New World Economies». Economia 3 (1), pp. 41-109.Google Scholar
Fariña González, M. A. (1998): «Las contratas isleñas del ferrocarril La Habana-Güines (Cuba)». Coloquios de Historia Canario Americana 13 (13), pp. 2085-2120.Google Scholar
Frankema, E. (2009): «The Expansion of Mass Education in Twentieth Century Latin America: A Global Comparative Perspective». Revista de Historia Económica/Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History (Second Series) 27 (3), pp. 359-396.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glaeser, E. L.; Porta, L. A., Lopez-De-Silanes, R., and Shleifer, A. (2004): «Do Institutions Cause Growth?». Journal of Economic Growth 9 (3), pp. 271-303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gould, J. D. (1979): «European Inter-Continental Emigration, 1815-1914: Patterns and Causes». Journal of European Economic History 8 (3), pp. 593-679.Google Scholar
Harrel, F. E. (2001): Regression Modeling Strategies: With Applications to Linear Models, Logistic Regression, and Survival Analysis. New York: Springer Series in Statistics.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hatton, T. J., and Williamson, J. G. (2002): «What Fundamentals Drive World Migration?». CEPR Discussion Papers No. 458, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Australian National University.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hatton, T. J., and Williamson, J. G. (2008): Global Migration and the World Economy: Two Centuries of Policy and Performance. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press Books.Google Scholar
Hernández García, J. (1977): La Emigración de las Islas Canarias en el siglo XIX. Las Palmas: Cabildo Insular de Gran Canaria.Google Scholar
Juif, D., and Baten, J. (2013): «On the Human Capital of ‘Inca’ Indios before and after the Spanish Conquest: Was there a ‘Pre-Colonial Legacy’?». Explorations in Economic History 50 (1), pp. 227-241.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindert, P. H. (2004): Growing Public. Social Spending and Economic Growth since the Eighteenth Century, 1 Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Macías Hernández, A. M. (1992): La migración Canaria 1500-1980. Gijón: Ediciones Júcar.Google Scholar
Manzel, K., Baten, J., and Stolz, Y. (2012): «Convergence and Divergence of Numeracy: The Development of Age Heaping in Latin America from the Seventeenth to the Twentieth Century». The Economic History Review 65 (3), pp. 932-960.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mokyr, J. (1983): Why Ireland Starved: A Quantitative and Analytical History of the Irish Economy, 1800-1850. London and Boston: Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
O’gráda, C. Ó., and O’rourke, K. H. (1997): «Migration as Disaster Relief: Lessons from the Great Irish Famine». European Review of Economic History 1 (1), pp. 3-25.Google Scholar
Paz, M. D., and Hernández, M. (1992): La esclavitud blanca: contribución a la historia del inmigrante canario en América, siglo XIX. Santa Cruz de Tenerife: Centro de la cultura popular canaria.Google Scholar
Sánchez Alonso, B. (1995): Las causas de la emigración espanola 1880-1930. Madrid: Alianza Editorial.Google Scholar
Sánchez Alonso, B. (2000): «Those Who Left and Those Who Stayed Behind: Explaining Emigration from the Regions of Spain, 1880–1914». The Journal of Economic History 60 (3), pp. 730-755.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sánchez Alonso, B. (2007): «The other Europeans: Immigration into Latin America and the International Labour Market (1870-1930)». Revista de Historia Económica/Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History 12 (3), pp. 395-426.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scott, R. J. (2000): Slave Emancipation in Cuba: The Transition to Free Labor, 1860-1899. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stolz, Y., and Baten, J. (2012): «Brain Drain in the Age of Mass Migration: Does Relative Inequality Explain Migrant Selectivity?». Explorations in Economic History 49 (2), pp. 205-220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stolz, Y., Baten, J., and Botelho, T. (2013): «Growth Effects of Nineteenth-Century Mass Migrations: «Fome Zero» for Brazil?». European Review of Economic History 17 (1), pp. 95-121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Twrdek, L. (2011): Essays on the Biological Standard of Living in Latin America and the Caribbean. Tübingen: University of Tübingen Dissertations.Google Scholar
Wegenast, T. (2009): «The Legacy of Landlords: Educational Distribution and Development in a Comparative Perspective». Comparative Governance and Politics 3 (1), pp. 81-107.Google Scholar
Wegenast, T. (2010): «Cana, Café, Cacau: Agrarian Structure and Educational Inequalities in Brazil». Revista de Historia Económica/Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History 28 (1), pp. 103-137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wegge, S. A. (1999): «To Part or Not to Part: Emigration and Inheritance Institutions in Nineteenth-Century Hesse-Cassel». Explorations in Economic History 36 (1), pp. 30-55.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wegge, S. A. (2002): «Occupational Self-selection of Nineteenth-Century German Emigrants: Evidence from the Principality of Hesse-Cassel». European Review of Economic History 6 (3), pp. 365-394.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yáñez Gallardo, C. (1994): La Emigración Espanola a América (Siglos XIX y XX). Dimensión y Características Cuantitativas. Sevilla, Archivo de Indianos: Colección «Cruzar el Charco».Google Scholar
Zeuske, M. (2002): Kleine Geschichte Kubas. München: Verlag C.H. Beck.Google Scholar

Historical Sources

Archivo Histórico Provincial de Las Palmas “Joaquín Blanco”, Plaza de Santa Ana, 35001 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.Google Scholar
Archivo Nacional de la Isla de Cuba (ANC), calle Compostela 906, esquina San Isidro, La Habana Vieja.Google Scholar
Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE) [http://www.ine.es/inebaseweb].Google Scholar
Report on the Census of Cuba. (1899): University Libraries, University of South Carolina [http://digital.tcl.sc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/CCC/id/1683/rec/1].Google Scholar