Long-Run Trends in Economic Inequality and Migration
Our world is characterized by large disparities in income and wealth, both within and between countries. While some people live in unprecedented affluence, others remain stuck in poverty. Global inequality is not a recent phenomenon, but has deep origins, going back multiple centuries.
Therefore, to understand today’s disparities we must study their emergence in the long run. This not only involves the “rise of the West” in an era of industrialization, globalization and imperialism, but also divergence of more recent date, for example between Africa and Asia.
In our research, we seek to understand why some countries have joined the ranks of wealthy nations while others have not (yet). Migration is one way in which people attempt to overcome spatial disparities. Such attempts are often thwarted by restrictive policies, but migrants are also often tolerated, both as skilled ‘expats’ and in subordinated and precarious roles. Migration is often surrounded by alarmist narratives about ‘floods’ or even ‘tsunamis’, but do we really live in an era of unprecedented migration? And to what extend have societies responses to migrants changed over time?
