Panel 22: Mobilities, Migrations and Transnational Networks (EN & PT)

Chair: Paulo Sousa Pinto (CHAM, FCSH, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa)

17 April, 3:45 pm | Room C008

Changing Social Hierarchies and Mobility Patterns in Eastern Mediterranean Island Societies, 1830–1911

Kalliopi Vasilaki (University of Genoa)

Eastern Mediterranean islands underwent profound social and economic transformations during the nineteenth century, as political change, shifting trade networks, and technological innovations reshaped their role within the wider Mediterranean. As interconnected archipelago economies, they formed distinctive socio-economic spaces, functioning as a “dispersed city” built upon waterways. The decline of the Ottoman Empire, the incorporation of the Cyclades islands into the Greek state, and the passage of the Ionian Islands from Venetian rule to the British Protectorate (1815–1864) and later to union with Greece created new institutional frameworks. At the same time, the expansion of maritime trade, the transition from sail to steam, and the reorientation of agricultural production transformed local economies, social hierarchies, and practices of human mobility. Focusing on three small islands with distinct political and economic trajectories—Thera (Santorini) and Tinos in the Aegean Sea and Ithaca in the Ionian Sea—between 1830 and 1911, the analysis explores how island societies adapted to the opportunities and challenges of the nineteenth-century eastern Mediterranean. More specifically, the paper examines the transformation of social hierarchies over the course of the nineteenth century and identifies patterns of social mobility through an analysis of demographic and occupational structures, drawing on demographic sources such as nominative census lists, municipal rolls, electoral registers, and passport registers. The findings highlight both continuities and changes in hierarchies and human mobility, showing how insular life functioned as both constraint and opportunity, and positioning islands as crucial nodes of circulation and socioeconomic development in the nineteenth-century Mediterranean. This research is part of the MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship TransISLES: Transformations of Island Societies in the Eastern Mediterranean (1830–1911).

Keywords: Eastern Mediterranean; island societies; social mobility; social hierarchies; nineteenth century

Imperial Burdens, Local Flight: Plague-Driven Migration in the Southeastern Balkans under Ottoman Rule (16th-18th c.)

Yana Georgakieva (Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski)

This paper examines migration triggered by epidemic outbreaks in the southeastern parts of the Balkan Peninsula, with a particular focus on Ottoman Bulgaria between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. A number of petitions from different settlements in Ottoman Bulgaria requested reductions in taxation, arguing that many inhabitants had either fled during plague outbreaks or died, leaving the remaining population unable to sustain the fiscal burden. In some cases, petitioners explicitly threatened the Sublime Porte that they too would abandon their towns unless their taxes were adjusted accordingly. Epidemic-induced migration also affected imperial logistics, as the flight of specialized workers from their settlements caused shortages in key imperial industries. This paper argues that the Ottoman state primarily recorded epidemics when they had economic consequences, meaning that fiscal and administrative sources shed light on the years when infections struck the southeastern Balkans most severely. When compared with narrative accounts, these records suggest that flight was a common - though not always immediate - response to plague outbreaks.

Keywords: Ottoman Balkans; plague; migration; taxation; epidemics

Os Regadas de Vila Nova de Gaia: ascensão e declínio de uma família em Angola e no Brasil (c.1785-c.1887)

Francisco Queiroz (CHAM – Açores)

Nesta comunicação, examina-se o percurso de três gerações de uma família originária de Vila Nova de Gaia que maioritariamente usou o apelido de origem toponímica Regadas. Será demonstrado como, através de sucessivos casamentos consanguíneos e de intrincadas ligações comerciais transatlânticas, reveladoras de grande mobilidade, esta família alargada logrou obter poder económico e influência, tanto em Angola como no Brasil, com reflexos também na hierarquia maçónica brasileira. Não será negligenciado o papel da família na história do tráfico negreiro, sobretudo na terceira e na quarta década de Oitocentos. Alguns casos concretos permitirão documentar o modo como a última das três gerações abordadas começa a abandonar a navegação, e até os negócios em geral, beneficiando dos cabedais familiares para se dedicar também ao estudo e para se sedentarizar, protagonizando a última fase de uma diáspora que se estende inclusivamente a Cuba e aos Estados Unidos da América. No seguimento, será demonstrado como os membros mais ilustrados desta família fixados fora de Portugal colocaram em questão, não só o conceito de identidade nacional entre portugueses residentes nas colónias, mas também a própria legitimidade do esclavagismo no Brasil – quer através de textos literários, quer graças à actividade jornalística, quer mesmo através do canto. De facto, é dentro do ramo "africano" dos Regadas que surgem alguns dos primeiros questionamentos formais conhecidos sobre o que era sentir-se angolano. No caso do ramo "brasileiro", é também dentro desta família que se encontram alguns dos mais firmes e acirrados abolicionistas. Será ainda discutida a aparente correlação entre este questionamento identitário e social e um certo declínio da terceira geração dos Regadas em estudo, quer em termos de visibilidade social, quer no tocante ao próprio uso do apelido agregador deste quase "clã".

Palavras-chave: século XIX; comércio transatlântico; tráfico negreiro; identidade transnacional; história da família

Post-War (1945) Polish Immigration to Canada

Kinga Glasek (University of Leeds; University of Ottawa; UCL)

The post-war Polish immigration started in 1945 and lasted until 1980. This was a result of World War II because, initially, former soldiers and prisoners of war came to Canada as the Canadian government implemented a program to accept them, but it was done to benefit Canada rather than to honour the men who fought. These immigrants came due to the rise of communism in Poland, as they disagreed with the ideology or feared getting arrested. For the same reason, Canada began accepting political refugees who also opposed the communist ideology starting in 1947, which saw the easing of immigration restrictions. Even though the rate of immigration slowed down after 1956, chain migration began as those in Canada began sponsoring their families to come. Moreover, economic reasons also caused Poles to come to Canada, particularly those who initially settled in other European countries. It is also important to note that who was coming to Canada changed after the war, as it was no longer uneducated peasants, which was the case during the first two waves, but instead the educated middle-class started to arrive. Their initial life did not differ from that of the pre-war Polish peasants, as they also worked on farms, but as time went on, they became more mobile because they looked for better working opportunities in the cities. This urbanization has also been observed in the immigrants who initially lived in other countries. Furthermore, these educated immigrants had a need to develop culture, which the pre-war immigrants did not invest in. This implies that they not only had different jobs than the previous immigrants that enabled them to sponsor the arts, but they also had different needs. Also, the initial post-war migration was male-dominated because mostly former soldiers came. This changed with chain migration, which saw the rise in female immigration. The arrival of soldiers who opposed communism led to a decrease of Leftist influence on Canadian Poles, and the immigrants have mostly agreed on their political ideals. Consequently, Polish immigration to Canada post-1945 was a result of World War II, which changed Poland’s political landscape.

Keywords: Polonia; Polish immigration; Canada; post-war