Period of limited Migration

The period of large-scale European emigration faltered with the outbreak of the First World War, which brought European emigration to an abrupt halt and ushered in a four-decade period of limited migration. Although emigration revived somewhat during the early 1920s, by then several important receiving countries (most notably the USA) had passed restrictive immigration laws.

Industrial Period of Migration

Industrial period of emigration begins early in the nineteenth century and stemmed from the economic development of Europe and the spread of industrialism to former colonies in the New World. From 1800 to 1925, more than 48 million people left the industrializing countries of Europe in search of new lives in the Americas and Oceania. Of these emigrants, 85 per cent went to just five destinations: Argentina, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the USA, with the latter receiving 60 per cent all by itself. Key sending nations were Britain, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden, each of which exported a large share of its potential population in the course of industrializing

Mercantile Period of Migration

During the mercantile period, from 1500 to 1800, world immigra­tion was dominated by flows out of Europe and stemmed from processes of colonization and economic growth under mercantilist capitalism. Over the course of 300 years, Europeans inhabited large portions of the Americas,Africa, Asia, and Oceania. Although the exact number of colonizing emigrants is unknown,the outflow was sufficient to establish Europe's dominion over large parts of the world. During this period, emigrants generally fell into four classes: a relatively large number of agrarian settlers, a smaller number of administra­tors and artisans, an even smaller number of entrepreneurs who founded plantations to produce raw materials for Europe's growing mercantilist econo­mies, and in a very few cases, convict migrants sent to penal colonies overseas.