Trade in Strangers: Curiosity, Travel and the Recruitment of Migrants

William O’Reilly

FULL TEXT

ABSTRACT (en)

This article considers the actions of migrant recruiters who organised the movement of people in Europe in the early modern period and thereafter. Recruiters were responsible for the systemisation of migration and their actions resulted in a competition in the European labour market which prompted state-level responses to emigration and immigration, and to people on the move. Europeans encountered opportunities to emigrate through their interactions with recruiters and by reading about life abroad; travel and travel writing brought people face to face with curiosity and wonder. Stories of life abroad were collected, categorised, and brought home and migrant recruiters exploited the growing curiosity about the wider world. Recruiters aided migrants in reaching a decision to leave and an examination of their actions and motivations aids in understanding the origins of large-scale migration in the nineteenth century and after.

KEYWORDS (en)

Migrant recruiters; early modern period; European emigration; travel writing

DOI

https://doi.org/10.14712/2571452X.2021.61.2

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