A Migrants tended to be male, leaving women to take on new roles in the home society that had been formerly occupied by men. This combined with "westernization" challenged the traditional role of women around the world.

The British Raj

Indian Feminists:

• Opposed arranged marriages of young girls to older men

• Educated Indian women who visited Britain were upset by the gender segregation of British society

• Insisted on breaking down caste barriers for Hindu women...argued lower-caste women should have same privileges in marriage as the upper castes.

• Sought greater power for women in areas of: divorce, property ownership, and self sufficiency (ability to work in “masculine skill” jobs such as carpentry and masonry)

Indian Nationalists (led by men)

• Viewed foreign-influenced changes in gender roles with suspicion

• Opposed the British Remarriage Law of 1853-law designed to end “sati” and widows from living in poverty by allowing them to remarry OR/AND keep property after husband's death

• Supported British laws that gave husband the right to force his wife to remain in the couple’s home (previous Hindu tradition allowed women to live in parents home when problems arose in marriage)

• Supported British beliefs that domesticity of women being achieved at any costs.

• Ideas of women’s inferiority persisted and arranged marriage was defended as part of national and religious tradition.

Sub-Saharan Africa-Change over Time

Gender roles before European colonization--African women:

• Women worked with men on agricultural production

  • • Effect: women had social and economic mobility

• If men left to work on European plantations or mines, women became owners of family property

  • • Effect: Women had economic and social freedom in villages and towns

• European missionaries will try to establish the “domesticity of women” by teaching “appropriate skills”

  • • Effect: Disruption of the economic role of women and worsened the status of women

Europeans colonial authorities passed laws that:

• that gave the children to the father in the event of divorce.

• That forced wives to return to the house if they left husbands

• European dress was imposed on African women to limit their “sexual provocation” for European male settlers.

  • • Largely rejected, with the exception of urban elite, as it was impractical in daily African life

• Promoting schooling for some African women

ethnic enclaves -- a neighborhood, district, or suburb which retains some cultural distinction from a larger, surrounding area

§ Chinese in Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, South America, and North America

• estimated twenty-five million Chinese outside China (not including Taiwan)

• mid-nineteenth century (1800s), gold rushes attracted significant numbers of Chinese to California and Australia

• 1920s saw large-scale movements, including of women, into flourishing Chinese settlements in Southeast Asia.

  • • Postcolonial nationalist or Communist regimes in Southeast Asia and Vietnam restricted, persecuted, or expelled the Chinese in their midst

    • Indonesia would come to develop some of the most severe anti-Chinese policies once it gained independence

§ Indians in East and Southern Africa, the Caribbean, and Southeast Asia

South Africa

• 1860 -- South Asian indentured laborers began to arrive in South Africa for manual laborers for sugarcane plantations, mining enterprises or large-scale construction projects

• approximately 200,000 Indians arrived as indentured labourers over the period from 1860-WWI.

  • • the majority were Hindu with Christians and a few Muslims among them

• A large percentage of indentured laborers returned to India following the expiry of their terms

  • • some of those who returned alerted authorities in India to abuses taking place

    • forced to carry passes in 1888

    • segregated into areas were set aside for coolie locations in various towns

    • Persons of colour could also not walk on sidewalks

• in some parts of the South African colony, such as the Cape Colony, Indians could own property, could vote, and could trade freely

• in some parts of the South African colony, such as the Orange Free State, Indians were prohibited by an 1891

Gandhi

• 1888 --studied law in London

• 1893-1915 -- Gandhi went to South Africa to accept a position with an Indian firm, and there he quickly became involved in organizing the local Indian community against a system of racial segregation that made Indians second-class citizens.

• Following his arrival in South Africa, Gandhi experienced racial discrimination

• organised resistance led to the unification of disparate groups of South African Indians

• Gandhi embraced a moral philosophy of ahimsa (tolerance and nonviolence) and developed the technique of passive resistance that he called satyagraha (“truth and firmness”)

  • • His belief in the virtue of simple living led him to renounce material possessions, dress in the garb of a simple Indian peasant, and become a vegetarian.

    • He renounced sex—testing his willpower by chastely sleeping with various comely young women

    • extolled the virtues of a daily saltwater enema

    • spent an hour each morning in careful study of the Bhagavad Gita (Sanskrit for “The Lord’s Song”), one of the most sacred writings of Hinduism, which he regarded as a spiritual dictionary

§ Irish in North America

• Know Nothing Movement

  • • Prejudice against Irish Catholics in the U.S. reached a peak in the mid-1850s

    • tried to oust Catholics from public office

• Irish work gangs were hired by contractors to build canals, railroads, city streets and sewers across the country

  • • small cities that served as railroad centers came to have large Irish populations

• In the South, they underbid slave labor

Stereotypes

• the media often stereotyped the Irish in America as being

  • • boss-controlled

    • violent

    • voting illegally

    • prone to alcoholism

    • dependent on street gangs that were often violent or criminal

• Social Darwinism inspired discrimination

  • • racially inferior and deserved second-hand citizenship.

    • inferior intelligence was a belief held by many Americans

§ Italians in North and South America

• Between 1900 and 1915, 3 million Italians immigrated to America, which was the largest nationality of “new immigrants.

  • • Between 1876 and 1930, 5 million Italian immigrants came to the United States

    • Poverty was a main reason for immigrating, but political hardship and the dream to return to Italy with enough money to buy land were motivators as well.

• laborers worked in agricultural, mining, textiles, and clothing manufacturing

• About 50% of Italians repatriated, which meant that often times the immigrants did not care about learning English or assimilating into American society because they new that they would not remain in America permanently

  • • Many Italians wanted to acquire land in Italy. Therefore, they moved to America to work and earn money, then repatriated.

Facing Prejudice

• economic-caused hostility derived from Italian immigrants’ roles as “strikebreakers” and “wage cutters” from 1870 onward

• Prejudices were especially aimed at Southern Italians who became scabs during strikes in construction, railroad, mining, long shoring, and industry

  • • Often times these southern Italian workers were called derogatory names such as “guineas” or “dagoes” and were the only workers to work along side black people.

• railroad superintendents “ranked Southern Italians last because of their small stature and lack of strength”

• not until the 1920s that Italians became more integrated into the American working class.

§ Chinese Exclusion Act

• 1870s and 1880s anti-Chinese riots erupted in many western cities in the United States.

• Congress responded to this wave of racism by passing the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882

  • • eliminated most Chinese immigration.

    • 1882 Chinese migrants to the United States = approximately 40,000

    • 1883 Chinese migrants to the United States = 23

    • anti-Chinese racially based barriers to entry were lifted in the United States in 1865

• In 1886 fears that Canada was being threatened by “inferior races” led to the imposition of a head tax that made immigration to Canada more difficult for Chinese families.

• strong anti-Chinese prejudice surfaced in Peru, Mexico, and Cuba

• Japanese immigrants in Brazil and East Indians in the English-speaking Caribbean faced similar prejudice

§ White Australia policy

• The Immigration Restriction Act 1901 was one of the first Acts passed by the Australian Parliament after Federation in 1901.

  • • One of the reasons the six colonies had agreed to federate was concern that 'cheap' non-white laborers would compete unfairly with colonists for jobs.

• The Immigration Restriction Act of 1901 led to the restriction of non-European migration, which became known as the White Australia Policy.

• The new law provided strict control over who could migrate to Australia.

• It required any person identified as a 'prohibited immigrant' to complete a dictation test in any European language.

  • • The dictation test was administered by customs officers at ports around Australia. Most people coming to Australia were not required to take the test, but those who were identified as 'undesirable immigrants' were required to write out a passage of 50 words.

    • Where a person spoke English well, the test could be given in another language. Those who failed the test were refused entry or deported

    • In the early years of its operation nearly everyone who took the dictation test failed; after 1909 no person passed the test.

    • The test kept most non-Europeans from settling in Australia until 1958.

    • non-Europeans descent Australians travelling overseas needed to obtain a Certificate of Exemption from the Dictation Test (CEDT) to ensure that they would be allowed to return without taking a dictation test.

• More than 38,000 Chinese-born people lived in Australia during Australia's gold rush period

  • • The CEDTs recognised that many people who would otherwise be excluded from entry to Australia under the White Australia policy were either born here or were long-term residents of Australia and had contributed to its development.

• the dictation test was not used after 1958

• White Australia policy was terminated in 1973

• 1975 the Australian Parliament had passed the Racial Discrimination Act and decisions about who could migrate to Australia were no longer made on the grounds of race or ethnicity.