Surplus populations, migration, and collective action

Abstract The first massive growth of surplus populations took place in Europe between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, while a second, much more extensive wave developed in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, starting approximately in the 1930s and 1940s. The two waves had very different consequences for cross- border migration and social struggles and help explain why labor movements in the North Atlantic region have developed very differently from labor movements in the Global South. This is illustrated by looking at the British development in its European context compared to the Chinese and Indian developments.