Preliminary Programme

The mobility of engineers has an important share in the historiography of this socio-professional group. Engineers’ geographical mobility is often associated with their training and employment. In this respect, the analysis of mobility is often linked to the study of the circulation of knowledge and technology. Although it has been widely acknowledged that the identity of engineers is inseparable from their mobility practice, scholars have usually not recognized them as migrants. Hence engineers have not been portrayed as conventional migrants based on the assumptions that they move temporarily, belong to the upper class, lack the agency to choose their destination and do not really join new communities, acting like “invaders” although their representation of contributing to the prosperity of the host society.

Opting for an interpretation based on the concept of "organizational migrants" (Lucassen, 2015), I examine the circulation of engineers on the framework of migration studies, attempting to open up new research perspectives. The IMMIBEL collective project has permitted to develop this approach. The collective research effort produced a historical mapping of the migratory phenomena in nineteenth-century Belgium based on the 150,000 individual files of foreigners compiled by the Belgian Sûreté Publique between 1840-1890. Following the migration process of foreign engineers in Belgium led me to tackle some major questions, in particular those of identification and professional representation during the period under scope, the relationship between family life cycle, mobility and working activities, the relationship between migration and the economy as well as those of legal and institutional relations.

The core focus of the paper is to shed a new light on the various mechanisms of identification of foreign engineers in nineteenth-century Belgium. The first step of this identification process rest on the principle of self-recognition: the database created was fed only with those who at some point claimed being engineers to the Belgian authorities. To use the definition given by actors themselves is to try to understand the concepts and categories they used. Qualitative analysis of profiles, including the geographic origins, social capital and areas of practice enhances the understanding of some aspects of their identity not only as engineers but as migrants as well. (Show less)

Seafarers are often neglected as an occupational group in studies that deal with migration. They usually resided in port cities on a transitory basis and hence left a small footprint. However, there is a growing consensus among scholars to study the migration trajectories of transient populations in order to optimise and enlarge the scope of research. And although maritime historiography has gained some important insights, maritime historians do not tend to use migration as a concept. This explains why maritime migration is often simply reduced to analyses of nationalities. Based on the seamen’s registry, which listed every voyage of a seafarer on a Belgian-flagged merchant vessel, and foreigner’s files, which registered foreigners who decided to reside in Belgium, this paper examines the migration trajectories of local, national and international seafarers departing from the port of Antwerp in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The findings highlight how the transformation of the maritime labour market altered the origins of seafarers. In the middle of the century, the Antwerp fleet already relied heavily on foreign labourers who came from regions with a maritime character. At the end of the century, however, much more seafarers originated from places with no particular maritime background. The research demonstrates that the altering composition and quality of crews directly affected the migration trajectories of seafarers as a result of the introduction of new technologies and the related increase in the demand for unskilled labour. (Show less)

From 2015 to 2019 the Belgian State Archives were one of the main partners in the so called IMMIBEL-project, a multidisciplinary research project on 19th-century migration patterns. For the Belgian State Archives the aim of this project was to provide digital access to specific paper entries, indices and registers concerned with the foreigners' files from 1830 to 1890. The State Archives in Brussels hold more than 154,000 nominal file cards, relating to this specific collection. These nominal paper cards are arranged alphabetically, each card containing basic individual details on each foreigner (such as the name, origin, occupation and file number). This immense set of files constituted the main source in order to retrieve a person's file. By setting up a new digital database the paper files are not only being made available on every one's computers, their access and searchability has also been expanded.

Furthermore, the State Archive of Antwerp-Beveren have also engaged in the digitization of another important set of data: registers of (foreign) seamen who have worked on Belgian merchant ships between ca 1845 to 1930. Some 165,000 seamen are listed in 45 - needless to say - colossal registers. Until now there were just three indices, which made these files searchable. The database however gives rise to much more search options.

In this paper I will introduce the audience to the ins and outs of both databases, pointing out extra functionalities and highlighting the relevance of this kind of work and its value for further research. (Show less)