Migration and Discrimination

One of the more significant effects of modern imperialism was the migration from dependent or less industrial areas of the world to the dominant industrial economies. People emigrated from rural areas to urban areas within countries and from less developed areas of Europe to more developed areas of Europe.

Immigrants looking for economic opportunity left many European countries and settled in the United States and Canada, often making up a large proportion of the industrial workforce. Some immigrants signed contracts to travel to areas to work for a prescribed period of time, pay back the cost of their transport, and then either settle in these areas or return to their homelands. These indentured laborers, as they were called, came from China, Japan, South Asia, and Europe and found themselves working and living in the Americas, Southeast Asia, Africa, or Australia. If they chose to settle in their host country, they often formed enclaves, or communities, with others from their home country. Often, these immigrants were faced with discrimination based on race, religion, or other factors. The spread of global capitalism resulted in the accumulation of wealth by the middle and upper classes, while the working classes in the industrial economies, already exploited by the profit motive, found themselves in direct competition for jobs with immigrants from nonindustrial countries.