European emigration
European emigration can be defined as subsequent emigration waves from the European continent to other continents. The origins of the various European diasporas can be traced to the people who left the European nation states or stateless ethnic communities on the European continent.
From 1815 to 1932, 60 million people left Europe, primarily to "areas of European settlement" in the Americas, Australia, New Zealand and Siberia.
These populations also multiplied rapidly in their new habitat; much more so than the populations of Africa and Asia. As a result, on the eve of World War I, 38% of the world's total population was of European ancestry.
More contemporary, European emigration can also refer to emigration from one European country to another, especially in the context of the internal mobility in the European Union or mobility within the Eurasian Union.
From 1500 to the mid-20th century, 60-65 million people left Europe, of which less than 5% went to tropical areas.
History
8th - early 5th century BC: Greeks
In Archaic Greece, trading and colonizing activities of the Greek tribes from the Balkans and Asia Minor propagated Greek culture, religion and language around the Mediterranean and Black Sea basins. Greek city-states were established in Southern Europe, northern Libya and the Black Sea coast, and the Greeks founded over 400 colonies in these areas.Alexander the Great's conquest of the Achaemenid Empire marked the beginning of the Hellenistic period, which was characterized by a new wave of Greek colonization in Asia and Africa; the Greek ruling classes established their presence in Egypt, southwest Asia, and Northwest India.
Many Greeks migrated to the new Hellenistic cities founded in Alexander's wake, as geographically-dispersed as Uzbekistan and Kuwait.
1450-1800
Colonial settlers
The European continent has been a central part of a complex migration system, which included swaths of North Africa, the Middle East and Asia Minor well before the Modern Era. Yet, only the population growth of the late Middle Ages allowed for larger population movements, inside and outside of the continent. The discovery of the Americas in 1492 stimulated a steady stream of voluntary migration from Europe. About 200,000 Spaniards settled in their American colonies prior to 1600, a small settlement compared to the 3 to 4 million Amerindians who lived in Spanish territory in the Americas.Roughly one and a half million Europeans settled in the New World between 1500 and 1800. The Table excludes European immigrants to the Spanish Empire from 1650-1800 and to Brazil from 1700 to 1800. While the absolute number of European emigrants during the early modern period was very small compared to later waves of migration in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the relative size of these early modern migrations was nevertheless substantial.
During the 1500s, Spain and Portugal sent a steady flow of government and church officials, members of the lesser nobility, people from the working classes and their families averaging roughly three-thousand people per year from a population of around eight million. A total of around 437,000 left Spain in the 150-year period from 1500 to 1650 to Central, South America and the Caribbean Islands. It has been estimated that over 1.86 million Spaniards emigrated to Latin America in the period between 1492 and 1824, one million in the 18th century, with millions more continuing to immigrate following independence.
Between 1500 and 1700 only 100,000 Portuguese crossed the Atlantic to settle in Brazil. However, with the discovery of numerous highly productive gold mines in the Minas Gerais region, the Portuguese emigration to Brazil increased by fivefold. From 1500, when the Portuguese reached Brazil, until its independence in 1822, from 500,000 to 700,000 Portuguese settled in Brazil, 600,000 of whom arrived in the 18th century alone. From 1700 til 1760 over half a million Portuguese immigrants entered Brazil. In the 18th century, thanks to the gold rush, the capital of the province of Minas Gerais, the town of Villa Rica became for a time one of the most populous cities in the New World. This massive influx of Portuguese immigration and influence created a city which remains to this day, one of the best examples of 18th century European architecture in the Americas.
However, the development of the mining economy in the 18th century raised wages and employment opportunities in the Portuguese colony and emigration increased: in the 18th century alone, about 600,000 Portuguese settled in Brazil, a mass emigration given that Portugal had a population of only 2 million people.
Between one-half and two-thirds of European immigrants to the Thirteen Colonies between the 1630s and the American Revolution came under indentures. The practice was sufficiently common that the Habeas Corpus Act 1679, in part, prevented imprisonments overseas; it also made provisions for those with existing transportation contracts and those "praying to be transported" in lieu of remaining in prison upon conviction. In any case, while half the European immigrants to the Thirteen Colonies had been indentured servants, at any one time they were outnumbered by workers who had never been indentured, or whose indenture had expired. Free wage labour was more common for Europeans in the colonies. Indentured persons were numerically important mostly in the region from Virginia north to New Jersey. Other colonies saw far fewer of them. The total number of European immigrants to all 13 colonies before 1775 was about 500,000-550,000; of these 55,000 were involuntary prisoners. Of the 450,000 or so European arrivals who came voluntarily, Tomlins estimates that 48% were indentured. About 75% were under the age of 25. The age of legal adulthood for men was 24 years; those over 24 generally came on contracts lasting about 3 years. Regarding the children who came, Gary Nash reports that, "many of the servants were actually nephews, nieces, cousins and children of friends of emigrating Englishmen, who paid their passage in return for their labour once in America." Figures for immigration the Spanish Empire 1650-1800 and Brazil 1700-1800 are not given in the Table.
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In North America, immigration was dominated by British, Irish, French and other Northern Europeans. From 1650 to 1800, almost 800,000 Spaniards emigrated to the New World, especially under the Bourbon Dynasty in the 18th century. Emigration to New France laid the origins of modern Canada, with important early immigration of colonists from Northern France.
Post-independence emigration
Mass European emigration to the Americas, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand took place in the 19th and 20th centuries. This was the effect of a dramatic demographic transition in 19th-century-Europe, subsequent wars and political changes on the continent. From the end of the Napoleonic Wars until 1920, some 60 million Europeans emigrated. Of these, 71% went to North America, 21% to Latin America and 7% to Australia. About 11 million of these people went to Latin America, of whom 38% were Italians, 28% were Spaniards and 11% were Portuguese., nicknamed "the Brazilian bombshell", was born in Portugal and emigrated to Brazil in 1910, when she was ten months old.
Between 1821 and 1890, 9.55 million Europeans settled in the United States, mainly Germans, Irish, English, Scandinavians, Italians, Scots, and Poles. 18 million more arrived from 1890 to 1914, including 2.5 million from Canada. Despite the large number of immigrants arriving, people born outside of the United States formed a relatively small number of the U.S. population: in 1910, foreigners accounted for 14.7 percent of the country's population or 13.5 million people. The huge number of immigrants to Argentina, which had a much smaller population, had a much greater impact on the country's ethnic composition. By 1914, 30% of Argentina's population was foreign-born, with 12% of its population born in Italy, the largest immigrant group. Next was Canada: by 1881, 14% of Canada's population was foreign-born, and the proportion increased to 22% in 1921.
In Brazil, the proportion of immigrants in the national population was much smaller, and immigrants tended to be concentrated in the central and Southern parts of the country. The proportion of foreigners in Brazil peaked in 1920, at just 7 percent or 2 million people, mostly Italians, Portuguese, Germans and Spaniards; however, the influx of 4 million European immigrants between 1880 and 1920 significantly altered the racial composition of the country. From 1901 to 1920, immigration was responsible for only 7 percent of Brazilian population growth, but in the years of high immigration, from 1891 to 1900, the share was as high as 30 percent.
The countries in the Americas that received a major wave of European immigrants from 1820s to the early 1930s were: the United States, Argentina, Canada, Brazil, Cuba, Uruguay. Other countries that received a more modest immigration flow were: Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Puerto Rico, Peru, and Paraguay.
Arrivals in the 19th and the 20th centuries
| Destination | Years | Arrivals | |
| United States | 1821–1932 | 32,244,000 | |
| Argentina | 1856–1932 | 6,405,000 | |
| Canada | 1831–1932 | 5,206,000 | |
| Brazil | 1821–1932 | 4,431,000 | |
| Australia | 1821–1932 | 2,913,000 | |
| Cuba | 1901–1931 | 857,000 | |
| South Africa | 1881–1932 | 852,000 | |
| Chile | 1882–1932 | 726,000 | |
| Uruguay | 1836–1932 | 713,000 | |
| New Zealand | 1821–1932 | 594,000 | |
| Mexico | 1911–1931 | 226,000 |
Legacy
Distribution
After the Age of Discovery, different ethnic European communities began to emigrate out of Europe with particular concentrations in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, Argentina, Uruguay, Cuba and Brazil where they came to constitute a European-descended majority population.It is important to note, however, that these statistics rely on identification with a European ethnic group in censuses, and as such are subjective.
Nations and regions outside of Europe with significant populations:
North America
Total European population—approximately 300,000,000Canada
In the first Canadian census in 1871, 98.5% chose a European origin with it slightly decreasing to 96.3% declared in 1971. In the 2016 census, 19,683,320 or 53.0% self-identified with a European ethnic origin, the largest being of British Isles origins. Individually, they are English, French, Scottish, Irish, German, Italian. However, there is an undercount with 11,135,965 choosing "Canadian".United States
At the time of the first U.S. census in 1790, 80.7% of the American people self-identified as white, where it remained above that level before declining at the 1990 census. However, numerically it increased from 3.17 million to 199.6 million exactly two hundred years later. Today, European Americans are the largest panethnic group in the United States. The 2010 census data revealed that 72.4% of the population, or 223,800,000 people self-identified as white.Mexico
- estimated by the government in 2010 as 47% of the population using phenotypical traits as the criteria. If the criteria used is the presence of blond hair, it is 18% - 23%.Caribbean and South America
In Argentina 79% of the population or 38,900,000 are estimated to be of European descent and may include an unknown percentage of mestizos and mulattos. Other sources put 86.4% of the population.Falkland Islanders are mainly of European, especially British descent with a total population of 3,140.
Cubans of European origin reached a peak of 74.3% or 3,553,312 of the total population in 1943. Most recently, those self-identified as white made up 64.1% of the total population, according to the 2012 census. They are predominately the descendants of early Spanish settlers, along with other Europeans including the Germans, English, French and Italians arriving later but in smaller numbers. However, after the mass exodus resulting from the Cuban Revolution in 1959, the number of white Cubans actually residing in Cuba diminished.
In Peru the official 2017 census, 5.9% or 1,336,931 people 12 years of age and above self-identified their ancestors as white or European descent. This was the first time a question on race or ancestors had been asked since the 1940 census. There were 619,402 males and 747,528 females. The region with the highest proportion of Peruvians with self-identified European or white origins was in the La Libertad Region and Tumbes Region. Most are descendants of early Spanish settlers with substantial numbers of Italians and Germans.
Australia and New Zealand
Total population of Europeans in Oceania is approximately 23,185,000 or approximately 22,818,000 excluding Hawaii.By 1947, Australia was overwhelmingly of British origin were 7,524,129 or 99.3% of the population declared their race as European. As of 2016, the majority of Australians of European descent are of English 36.1%, Irish 11.0%, Scottish 9.3%, Italian 4.6%, German 4.5%, Greek 1.8% and Dutch 1.6%. A large proportion —33.5%— chose to identify as ‘Australian’, however the census Bureau has stated that most of these are of old Anglo-Celtic colonial stock. As at the 2016 census, it was estimated that around 58% of the Australian population were Anglo-Celtic Australians with 18% being of other European origins, a total of 76% for European ancestries as a whole.
Europeans historically and presently are still the largest ethnic group in New Zealand. Their proportion of the total New Zealand population has been decreasing gradually since the 1916 census where they formed 95.1 percent. The 2018 official census had over 3 million people or 71.76% of the population were ethnic Europeans, with 64.1% choosing the New Zealand European option alone.
Africa
were 4,586,838 or 8.9% of South Africa's population in the 2011 census.They are predominantly descendants of Dutch, German, French Huguenots, English and other European settlers. Culturally and linguistically, they are divided into the Afrikaans-speaking descendants of South Africa's original Dutch colonial population, known as Afrikaners, and members of a larger British diaspora in Africa.
The first national census in South Africa was held in 1911 and showed a percentage peak of 21.4% or 1,276,242. The population increased to its peak at 5,044,000 in 1990.
However, the number of white South African residents in their home country began gradually declining between 1990 and the mid-2000s as a result of increased emigration.
White Ghanaians are descendants of mostly British settlers and Irish people who were forced to immigrate to Ghana. Some of these people are descendants of Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, German, Italian, and Polish settlers.
Canary Islanders are the descendants of Spaniards who settled the Canary Islands. The Canarian people include long-tenured and new waves of Spanish immigrants, including Andalucians, Galicians, Castilians, Catalans, Basques and Asturians of Spain; and Portuguese, Italians, Dutch or Flemings, and French people. As of 2019, 72.1% or 1,553,078 were native Canary islanders with a further 8.2% born in mainland Spain. Many of European origins including those of Isleño lineage have also moved to the islands, such as those from Venezuela and Cuba. Presently there are 49,170 from Italy, 25,619 from Germany, United Kingdom and others from Romania, France and Portugal.