New historical perspectives on migration
1 total work
The recruitment of Chinese-indentured labour to work in the Americas, South-East Asia and South Africa involved one of the largest migrations of people during the 19th and early-20th centuries. During World War One, France and Britain recruited Chinese labour primarily for factory and reconstruction work in France; eventually there were to be 35,000 Chinese workers under French control and 100,000 under British supervision. Although not regarded as combatants, Chinese labour battalions were involved in digging trenches, burying the war dead and building airstrips. This book places this episode within the larger context of Chinese labour migration in the 19th and early-20th centuries, analyzing the political background and reasons for the recruitment, as well as exploring the experiences of Chinese workers themselves. Many of them, for example, became politicized during their stay in France, participating in protests against the Chinese government and against imperial encroachment in China, and despite British assumptions that Chinese workers were "docile children", many did not hesitate in joining strikes to protest their working conditions.