Introduction

In her study, Moving Europeans: Migration in Western Europe since 1650, Moch (1992) analyses three centuries of migration and distinguishes four crucial periods. The periods comprise pre-industrial Europe c. 1650-1750, the early industrial age c. 1750-1815, urbanisation and industrialisation c. 1815-1914 and the twentieth century c. 1914-1990. In order to analyse the central characteristics of these specific periods, Moch categorises migration systems into four groups according to the distance and the definiteness of the break with home (see Tilly 1978). The first is local migration. Crucial for this system is that people move within their local markets of labour, land and marriage. The second is circular migration. This system is based on the premise that people return home after a specific interval, especially after harvest work. The third system is chain migration. Established migrants bring their family to the new destination or support newcomers to settle by finding jobs and housing for them. The final system is career migration. The needs and geography of ‘hiring institutions’, for example, the church or the state, prevail over the needs of families or the local communities in this system. The hiring institutions, for example, church personnel or schoolteachers, determine the timing and destination of migration.

Moch argues that in each period all four migration systems were present, but that the balance among the various kinds of migration was different. In the pre-industrial world people moved in systems of local, circular, chain and career migration, but local migration was the most dominant migrant system. In the age of early industry, the dominant patterns of local and circular migration were complemented by new forms of chain migration that led to permanent settlement in new destinations, especially to the growing cities. The nineteenth century was an age of urbanisation and industrialisation, a very mobile age in which a shift away from rural migration to circular migration systems, chain migration to urban areas and career migration took place. Migrants travelled over longer distances and even crossed the Atlantic Ocean. Moch (1992: 160) writes: