The Economic Reasons for the Great Migrations

¶ … Immigration

Human migration has over the course of history shaped the demographics of continents in a manner that no other single phenomenon has ever done. The industrial revolution in Europe saw the advent of a mass displacement of populations from Africa into the Americas with the aim of using the slaves for the extraction and development of raw material that was needed in the industries in Europe. The slaves in the Americas helped fuel the industrial revolution in Europe and the more the industrial revolution caught momentum, the more the demand for raw material that in turn fueled the demand for slaves. With the change in human rights agitation and politics of the time, slave trade came to an end and slavery later on came to a stop and the millions of freed slaves had to settle down and begin their lives as free men with individual purposes. This is when some slaves opted to settle in the Southern part of the U.S. and another estimated 6 million more opted to migrate Northwards, hence the great migration (A&E Television Networks, 2015).

The South North migration was instigated by several factors and not just the mere fact that the slavery was abolished and emancipation declared. The slavery in the South led to production of raw material like cotton and sugarcane which were shipped to the North America in the numerous industries that existed there. The people who worked in the industries in the North were paid their due wages for the labor they provided and with the increased number of industries in the North, more labor was needed, which prompted the migration of millions of African-Americans, who pursued better working conditions and the better life free of discrimination that was perceived to exists in the North and Canada as opposed to the south that viewed the African-Americans more as they did when they were still their slaves.

The great migration to the North America and Canada was not only confined to the African-Americans from the South, but the mid 19th Century and early 20th Century saw profound changes in politics, democracy and economic freedoms in this region that attracted migrants from as far as Europe. The slave trade was replaced by various immigration patterns with the European and the Asian immigrants coming to the U.S.A. and Canada and Argentina regions in large numbers. A good number were attracted by the prospects of silver and gold in Canada and western North America, which was extracted and traded as far as Asia and Europe. More of the European and Asian immigrants settled in the factories as workers, got engaged in the construction of the railroads and yet some settled to get employment in plantations. This increased the trade between the Asian/European region and the U.S.A. The increasing demand for the American products in the European markets, informed the immigration of the European workers to the U.S.A. (Lewis F, 2015).

The pathetic economic standards of nations and regions such as Ireland, Germany, Scotland and Scandinavia prompted their citizens to move to North America, settling down in Mississippi River valleys and Ohio in search of cheaper land as compared to the exorbitant rents and land rates in their home countries. The migration from Southern and Eastern Europe in specific was so massive that by the early 20th Century, particularly between 1910 and 1970s, most migrants to North America were from these two regions, with most fleeing poverty, discrimination and famine in their mother countries (Richard W., 2015).