The Cambridge History of Global Migrations was published by Cambridge University Press recently. Chair Professor Wu Xiao An of Huaqiao University (HQU), authored Chapter 22 of Volume 2 of this book, titled “Brokerage and Migrations during the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries”. Three Chinese scholars were invited submissions for the two-volume book. Wu is the only one from the Chinese mainland, the other two from Chinese Taiwan.

Professor Donna Gabaccia from the University of Toronto of Canada is the general editor of the volumes. The first volume is co-edited by Professor Cátia Antunes from Leiden University of the Netherlands and Professor Eric Tagliacozzo from Cornell University of the United States; The second volume is co-edited by Professor Marcelo J. Borges from Dickinson College of the United States and Professor Madeline Hsu from the University of Texas, Austin (now working at the University of Maryland of the United States). In addition to these editors, 61 leading experts from around the world contributed to the book.

Covers of The Cambridge History of Global Migrations

The book explores the lives and evaluates the significance of mobile people from to the present. The first volume, comprised of 30 chapters, documents the lives and experiences of everyday people through the lens of human movement and mobility from 1400–1800. It is an essential and detailed study of how migration shaped the nature of global human interactions before the age of modern globalization. The second volume, comprised of 31 chapters, presents an authoritative overview of the various continuities and changes in migration and globalization from the 1800s to the present day.

In his chapter, Professor Wu Xiao An analyzes the target regions, countries, brokerages and demographics of migration in different periods, providing a comprehensive summary of migration in the time span of one century. The global, comparative, and historical analysis demonstrates the intermediary functions of various structural elements including the relationship between empires and states, geography and ports, ethnic groups and culture, industrialization and modernization. Professor Wu’s comparative and transdisciplinary analysis on the core concepts including global immigration, migrants, brokerage and brokers was well recognized by the international academic community.

The Chapter by Professor Xiao An Wu

(Editor: Wei Linying)