Why was there little nonwhite migration to Europe in the 19th century?

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Accepted answer

Because people from "third world" countries had limited access to "first world" countries until recently (about 1950).

The century from about 1850-1950 was the period of European colonialism or imperialism. Basically, the Europeans set the rules. They could go anywhere in the world where the gunboats would take them, and refuse entry to their countries to people from other parts of the world. So Europeans invaded other countries in Africa and Asia for colonization purposes. But only a few wealthy people from these countries were allowed into Europe, mainly to be trained as "subordinate" rulers at say, Oxford or the Sorbonne.

Another thing was that while there were fairly large migrations of people, including non-Europeans in the 19th century, they were made under the auspices of large organizations, not individually. So while there were procurers of e.g. Chinese laborers for the American railroads in the 1860s and 1870s, they were discouraged from continuing in the 1880s by the American authorities.

Former British colonies like America, Canada or Australia were white immigration countries. America passed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, and concluded a "Gentleman's agreement with Japan to restrict Asian immigration. Granted, these measures were "extreme" by European standards, but they illustrate how unwelcome most non-Europeans would have been in European countries.

Finally, communication and transportation was very different a century ago than today. There was no TV, radio or movies that would encourage non-Europeans to emigrate. There was no civilian air travel. The global literacy rate didn't rise above 50% until the 1950s, and was much lower than that in non-European countries. Most people lived on farms and couldn't get to the largest city in their country, let alone travel abroad. There were cruise ships, but only the wealthy enjoyed "first class" accommodations that are commonplace today. Poor people rode ships "steerage" class, next to the cargo, and were treated as such; last in line for food, accommodations, lifeboats, or other amenities.

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