The impact of the American foreland on the European trans-Atlantic migrant trade via the port of New York
Feys, T. (2022). The impact of the American foreland on the European trans-Atlantic migrant trade via the port of New York, in: Lee, R. et al. Port-cities and their hinterlands: migration, trade and cultural exchange from the early seventeenth century to 1939. pp. 195-229. https://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780429202254-8
In: Lee, R.; McNamara, P. (Ed.) (2022). Port-cities and their hinterlands: migration, trade and cultural exchange from the early seventeenth century to 1939. Routledge: London. xv, 336 pp. https://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780429202254, more
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| Abstract |
This chapter argues that shipping lines stimulated migration flows as a primary actor by steering chain migration patterns and policy decisions which allowed them to weather economic cycles. The control over the migrant trade spurred the general development of the port and allowed New York to keep its edge over Baltimore, Philadelphia and Boston, which only managed to convince some of the major steam shipping companies to use them as secondary ports. In the US, special railway fares, at so-called immigrant rates, were easily obtained until the foundation in 1886 of the Immigrant Clearing House which regulated the immigrant transport business between Chicago and New York. By focusing on the impact of the American foreland on trans-Atlantic passenger sales, it stresses how prepaid tickets directly financed the crossing of at least one-third of all migrants from the European hinterlands to the US. |
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