Disruptions as a Cause and Consequence of Migration in Human History

Description:
Since the emergence of Homo sapiens in Africa circa 250,000 years ago, human beings have migrated vast distances to populate all corners of the globe. Migration has been an integral part of the development of societies from nomadism to modern nation-states. In today’s increasingly globalized world, the total volume of international migration continues to increase exponentially, fundamentally reshaping the economic, ethnic and political dynamics of various countries. Despite the importance of migration throughout human history, however, the field of migration studies is characterized by an unfortunate temporal divide so that there is little or no collaboration between researchers examining contemporary and prehistoric migrations. 

This project brings scholars of the past and the present into direct dialogue by comparing and contrasting modern and ancient migrations through the unifying concept of disruptions. We will examine how disruptions have been both a cause and a consequence of migration throughout human history by focusing on the following two questions:

1) To what extent have natural and social disruptions been a cause of human migration over time? 

Although disruptions have forced peoples of some societies to out-migrate, others have been able to absorb their negative effects without having to abandon their homes. Whether disruptions actually result in out-migration may depend on both their severity and the resilience of societies to withstand them. We will examine the relative importance of disruptions as a cause of migration compared to other causal factors and in particular whether disruptions played a greater role in instigating population movement in the distant past than in the present.

2) To what extent have migrants themselves had disruptive consequences on the societies that receive them?

Migrants are often disruptive to receiving societies since they compete for limited resources with the native population and can create sociopolitical and ethnic instability. Whether in-migration has disruptive consequences may depend on its size and duration; the amount of social and ethnic difference between the local populace and immigrants; and the resilience of receiving societies to absorb them. We will also examine whether migrations in the distant past were more disruptive than they are today.

By integrating theory with various case studies of migration, this project will develop a comprehensive and multidimensional framework to understand how human societies have adapted to disruptions and population displacements over time.