The history that moves us: Colonial duration, era of occupation, and migration

Colonialism has important effects for former colonies, and despite the long colonial history between Europe and Africa, the nuances of the impacts of that history are relatively understudied. The current treatment of colonial ties as a binary relationship is incomplete and misleading because of this long and varied history. Using data for African migration from 1960 to 2000, we find that the longer the colonial relationship, the more likely a person will be to migrate to a European colonizer. This influence only appears once colonization length passes around 66 years. Additionally, the era of original colonization influences movement: places colonized during the ‘Scramble for Africa’ see less migration than those colonized before or after. Colonialism was much more complicated than existing work allows and warrants a more in-depth study of these relationships and their persistent impacts.