The demographic shockwaves of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Europe produced tremendous change in the national economies and affected the political, social, and cultural development of these societies. Within the past two decades, migration historians began to connect the various European migratory streams during this period with transcontinental migration to North America.

This volume contains empirical studies on German in-migration, internal migration, and transatlantic emigration from the 1820s to the 1930s, placed in a comparative perspective of Polish, Swedish, and Irish migration to North America. Special emphasis is placed on the role of women in the process of migration. By looking specifically at contemporary Germany, Klaus J. Bade underscores the relevance of this history in a concluding essay.