Gender, migration and distance. Maidservants as agents of change in the democratization of long-distance migration: a comparative case study of international migration by men and women to Brussels and Antwerp, 1850-1900.

This project aims to investigate the role of female domestic servants in the democratisation of long distance migration by means of a comparative study of the trajectories and networks of male and female foreign newcomers to Antwerp and Brussels in 1850-1900. In this period, the image of long distance urban migrants as predominantly skilled and resourceful men engaged in patterns of career migration, became substituted for a bleaker picture of low-skilled men and women driven from their home country by impoverishment and persecution. This shift in the profile of long-distance migrants is often connected to the large-scale incorporation of agricultural workers into industrial and urban economies, and an overall growing international mobility thanks to expanding transportation and communication facilities, but the actual dynamics and agents of change at the meso (interpersonal connections) and micro level (individual characteristics) remain obscure. This project aims to shed light on these issues by combining a unique dataset on the individual characteristics and social networks of foreign newcomers in two distinct urban settings, with a novel hypothesis that focuses on the role of female domestic servants as mediators of migratory change. Its results will not only enhance our understanding of the epochal process of democratisation of long-distance migration at the turn of the nineteenth century, but also challenge dominant gender stereotypes in migration history.

Keywords:MIGRATION, NEWCOMERS, 19TH CENTURY

Disciplines:Economic history, History

Project type:Collaboration project