Marcelo Borges

Co-editor: Madeline Y. Hsu
General Editor: Donna Gabaccia.

Volume II presents an authoritative overview of the various continuities and changes in migration and globalization from the 1800s to the present day. Despite revolutionary changes in communication technologies, the growing accessibility of long-distance travel, and globalization across major economies, the rise of nation-states empowered immigration regulation and bureaucratic capacities for enforcement that curtailed migration. One major theme worldwide across the post-1800 centuries was the differentiation between 'skilled' and 'unskilled' workers, often considered through a racialized lens; it emerged as the primary divide between greater rights of immigration and citizenship for the former, and confinement to temporary or unauthorized migrant status for the latter. Through thirty-one chapters, this volume further evaluates the long global history of migration; and it shows that despite the increased disciplinary systems, the primacy of migration remains and continues to shape political, economic, and social landscapes around the world. Click here for more information in the publisher's webpage. Click here for Google Books.

Company towns first appeared in Europe and North America with the industrial revolution and followed the expansion of capital to frontier societies, colonies, and new nations. Their common feature was the degree of company control and supervision, reaching beyond the workplace into workers' private and social lives. Major sites of urban experimentation, paternalism, and welfare practices, company towns were also contested terrain of negotiations and confrontations between capital and labor. Looking at historical and contemporary examples from Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia, this book explores company towns' global reach and adaptability to diverse geographical, political, and cultural contexts.

Table of Contents

Company Towns: Concepts, Historiography, and Approaches; M.Borges & S.Torres
Form and Reform: The Garden City of Hellerau-bei-Dresden between Company Town and Model Town; M.Ryan Van Zee
From Colonial Company Town to Industrial City: The South Manchuria Railway Company in Fushun, China; L.Teh
'Little Storybook Town': Space and Labor in a Company Town in Colonial Angola, 1913–61; J.Ball
Labor Resistance and Accommodation among Immigrant Workers in the Oil Company Towns of Patagonia, Argentina; S.Torres & M.Borges
When Ghosts Hovered: Community and Crisis in the Company Town of Britannia Beach, British Columbia, Canada, 1957–65; K.Rollwagen
Company Towns in a Transnational Commodity Chain: Social and Environmental Dimensions of Aluminum Production in Porto Trombetás, Brazil, and Årdal, Norway; F.Meyer
Race and Gender in Peripheral Resource Towns: Boundaries and Boundary-crossings in Tanjung Bara Mining Camp in Kalimantan, Indonesia; K.Lahiri-Dutt
Reflections on an Appalachian Camelot: Place, Memory, and Identity in the Former Company Town of Wheelwright, Kentucky, U.S.A; L.Perry

Why did migrants from southern Portugal choose Argentina instead of following the traditional path to Brazil? Starting with this question, this book explores how, at the turn of the twentieth century, rural Europeans developed distinctive circuits of transatlantic labor migration linked to diverse immigrant communities in the Americas. It looks at transoceanic moves in the larger context of migration systems, examining their connections and the crucial role of social networks in migrants’ geographic mobility and adaptation. Combining regional and local perspectives on both sides of the Atlantic, Chains of Gold provides a vivid account of the trajectories of migrant men and women as they moved from rural Portugal to contrasting places of settlement in the Argentine pampas and Patagonia.

Company Towns: Concepts, Historiography, and Approaches M.Borges & S.Torres Form and Reform: The Garden City of Hellerau-bei-Dresden between Company Town and Model Town M.Ryan Van Zee From Colonial Company Town to Industrial City: The South Manchuria Railway Company in Fushun, China L.Teh 'Little Storybook Town': Space and Labor in a Company Town in Colonial Angola, 1913-61 J.Ball Labor Resistance and Accommodation among Immigrant Workers in the Oil Company Towns of Patagonia, Argentina S.Torres & M.Borges When Ghosts Hovered: Community and Crisis in the Company Town of Britannia Beach, British Columbia, Canada, 1957-65 K.Rollwagen Company Towns in a Transnational Commodity Chain: Social and Environmental Dimensions of Aluminum Production in Porto Trombetas, Brazil, and Ardal, Norway F.Meyer Race and Gender in Peripheral Resource Towns: Boundaries and Boundary-crossings in Tanjung Bara Mining Camp in Kalimantan, Indonesia K.Lahiri-Dutt Reflections on an Appalachian Camelot: ...

International migration has been a constant in Portuguese history during the last six hundred years. From the early 15th century to the early 19th century, migration occurred mostly within the space of the global Portuguese empire. Beginning in the mid-19th century, labor migrants from Portugal joined other Europeans in mass transatlantic moves to the Americas and other overseas destinations. The second half of the 20th century marked a shift in direction, from the Americas to northern Europe. At the turn of the 21st century, Portugal became for the first time a country of immigration, but emigration continued, especially within the space of the European Union. Keywords: immigration; labor; labor supply

International migration has been a constant in Portuguese history during the last six hundred years. From the early 15th century to the early 19th century, migration occurred mostly within the space of the global Portuguese empire. Beginning in the mid-19th century, labor migrants from Portugal joined other Europeans in mass transatlantic moves to the Americas and other overseas destinations. The second half of the 20th century marked a shift in direction, from the Americas to northern Europe. At the turn of the 21st century, Portugal became for the first time a country of immigration, but emigration continued, especially within the space of the European Union.

Since 1907, when petroleum was discovered near the small port of Comodoro Rivadavia, on the sparsely populated coast of central Patagonia, company towns were developed by the Argentine state and foreign companies to attract a steady supply of workers. The oil fields and the economic activities that emerged around them (services, commerce, agriculture) drew a diverse labor force from southern and Eastern Europe, mostly from Spain, Portugal, Bulgaria, Poland, Russia, Germany and the former Yugoslavia. These migrants joined a small population of earlier European merchants and South African ranchers already settled in the area. These developments and the growth of the Comodoro region were linked to larger processes of labor mobility, urbanization, economic growth, and community formation that took place in the larger transatlantic space during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and contributed greatly to shaping modern Argentina. Because of its unprecedented scale, transatlantic migrations have figured prominently in the narrative of national formation in Argentina and the regional settlement of Patagonia and Comodoro Rivadavia. A parallel movement, however, of workers from neighboring countries and internal migrants from the northwest of Argentina contributed significantly to the development of the region.
The multiethnic community of Comodoro Rivadavia offers a unique opportunity to analyze the ways in which groups of diverse origins relate to the traditional historical memory of Argentina as a country of immigrants. Given the diversity of migration flows, the identity of the Patagonian-Comodorense is multifaceted. Various groups developed different and unique versions of their individual and collective histories in relation to their participation in the symbolic and material construction of their community. The people of Comodoro Rivadavia have created collective histories that emphasize their role as pioneers, their difficulties in facing severe climatic conditions, and their isolation. This work seeks, inside this general narrative, to reveal the existence of multiple versions of this historic experience which is representative of the immigrant experience of Argentina as a whole. In analyzing the existence of parallel and intersecting histories, and comparing and contrasting the visions of migrants from different origins and time periods, this work goes beyond the limits and approaches of the traditional historiography of Argentina. Utilizing oral history interviews and archival materials, it explores the construction of multiple identities as one of the multiple versions of this complex historic process.

These two oral history narratives are part of the Patagonia Migration Project at the Community Studies Center at Dickinson College. One involves a young stow-away to Patagonia from Spain after the end of the Spanish Civil War, inspired by a speech given by Evita Perón, in Galicia. The other is of a Patagonian who returns to Spain with his family and later joins the Republican forces to fight against Franco.

These clips are from an oral history and fieldwork-based project conducted in Patagonia in 2001, 2003, and 2005, based on faculty-student research.

These two oral history narratives are part of the Patagonia Migration Project at the Community Studies Center at Dickinson College. One involves a young stow-away to Patagonia from Spain after the end of the Spanish Civil War, inspired by a speech given by Evita Perón, in Galicia. The other is of a Patagonian who returns to Spain with his family and later joins the Republican forces to fight against Franco.

These clips are from an oral history and fieldwork-based project conducted in Patagonia in 2001, 2003, and 2005, based on faculty-student research.