Transience, Overseas Migration and the Modern European City: Introduction to the Special Issue ‘Cities and Overseas Migration in the Long Nineteenth Century’

Migration is one of key factors to the existence of which we owe the emergence of the modern urban condition that continues to shape the life of large populations today. Precisely the same reasons that generated great urban growth of European cities in the late nineteenth century were responsible for concurrent mass migration overseas – to North America and elsewhere – for a number of reasons. Given the everyday experience of the mass of transient migrants passing through these cities that lasted for decades, the lack of interest on behalf of urban historians to this large and heterogeneous group is surprising. Analysing such transient migrant spaces and routes, and their diverse actors at the city level for some of the most important transit points within the European continent (Berlin, Leipzig, Vienna, Budapest) as well as for select ports of departure (Bremen, Hamburg, Liverpool, Marseille and Rotterdam), this special issue aims to link the recent attention to transmigration within migration history to urban history thereby highlighting the relevance of transit cities to the study of overseas migration.