Jill Bender, de University of North Carolina at Greensboro, présentera sa communication “The ‘Marriage Force’: Mid-nineteenth-century Irish female migration to southern Africa” le jeudi 28 février de 17h30 à 19h30. Maison de la Recherche, 28 rue Serpente, Paris 6e , salle D421.
Abstract:
During the mid-nineteenth century, colonial officials proposed sending impoverished Irish women to the distant colonies of the British Empire, where they might marry restless settlers. On the surface, these migration schemes appeared to benefit both Ireland and the colonies of destination, including Australia, Canada, and southern Africa. According to colonial officials, Ireland would be rid of a superfluous population, the Irish women would attain social and economic advancement, and the colonies would gain much-needed female migrants. Yet, authorities quickly found their optimism tempered by realities, as they faced difficulties posed by religious and cultural differences before the migrant ships had even departed. In this paper, Jill Bender examines an 1850s migration scheme designed to send Irish women to marry members of the British German Legion in southern Africa. Her study not only addresses questions of migration and gender, but also explores the ways in which local concerns in Britain and Ireland could and did shape imperial policies.
Discutante : Marie Ruiz (Université Jules Verne, Amiens)
Archives par mot-clé : migrations
Fabrice Bensimon : “Les sentiers de l’ouvrier. Quand les artisans britanniques émigraient vers le continent européen (1815-1870)” (22/02)
Fabrice Bensimon, de Paris-Sorbonne et Research Fellow à University College London, présentera sa communication “Les sentiers de l’ouvrier. Quand les artisans britanniques émigraient vers le continent européen (1815-1870)” le jeudi 22 février 2018 de 17h30 à 19h30. Maison de la Recherche, 28 rue Serpente, 75006, salle D421.
Résumé :
“En 1817, trois artisans britanniques installent à Calais une mécanique à tulle. Ce sont les pionniers d’une filière de plusieurs milliers de migrants provenant de la région de Nottingham, vers le nord de la France où, au cours des décennies suivantes, ils construisent une industrie dentellière qui s’impose progressivement sur la dentelle manuelle. Dans l’industrie du fer, les maîtres de forge français, belges ou allemands recrutent pour leur part des ouvriers du sud du pays de Galles particulièrement qualifiés. Des mécaniciens sont appelés pour installer et faire fonctionner des machines souvent elles-mêmes importées d’outre-Manche. Dans le lin, des centaines d’ouvrières écossaises sont engagées pour travailler dans les fabriques. Quand le continent bâtit ses premiers chemins de fer, c’est encore aux Britanniques, ingénieurs, maçons, terrassiers, qu’il est fait appel. Ces milliers de migrants suscitent alors la curiosité non seulement des fabricants, mais aussi des pouvoirs publics et de la presse locale. Certains d’entre eux ont laissé des mémoires, qui aident à exhumer l’expérience de ces ouvriers itinérants, aux débuts de l’industrialisation européenne.”
Discutant : Paul-André Rosental, Professeur à Sciences-po, Chercheur associé à l’INED.
Laura Tabili: “‘To Keep My Living for Time Being’: Strategies of Makeshift in Interwar Britain”
Laura Tabili, de l’Université d’Arizona, présentera sa communication “‘To Keep My Living for Time Being’: Strategies of Makeshift in Interwar Britain” le jeudi 17 mai, de 17h à 19h. Maison de la Recherche, 28 rue Serpente, Paris 6e , salle D421.
La séance sera suivie d’un pot de fin d’année, vers 19h.
Discutant: Yann Béliard
Résumé:
The paper will reconstruct patterns of migration, work and settlement among migrants from the colonies to Britain, focusing on the 1920s and 1930s. Migration from colonies to metropoles partook of specific power relations and economic arrangements, yet also formed part of a broader and unprecedented population mobility between 1800 and 1950. Although scholars are aware that this population moved to and from, into and around Britain and the North Sea and Atlantic littoral, we still know little about where they lived, how much they mixed and married with local people, and the extent to which these patterns persisted or altered after the second world war. Analyzing records of several hundred individuals enables systematically reconstructing their places of origin, time, place and manner of arrival in Britain, patterns of dispersal and settlement within Britain, their strategies of getting a living and their travels within and beyond Britain.
Feminist historians have described how women compensated for their disadvantage in labor markets while reconciling social labor with domestic responsibilities through “economies of makeshift” involving paid and unpaid labor within and outside the household, as well as pawning, scrounging and semi-legal activities. This paper specifically describes how colonized migrants in Britain similarly compensated for their limited and constrained occupational choices by moving from job to job, town to town, and occupation to occupation.