Economy and the Shaping of the Immigration Policy of the British American Colonies (1624-1775)

Abstract

Peopling the English colonies in North America was of great importance. The English adopted many strategies to attract immigrants because they needed big numbers of workers to maintain their plantations and their presence in the new continent. This paper deals with the influence of the economic conditions of the British North American colonies in the shaping of their immigration policy. Usually, the focus is on the impact of immigration on the economy of a given society; however, the present work tries to investigate the role that the economy of the colonies played in molding the colonists’ policies towards the attraction of immigrants. The major issue of the paper is centered on the factors that influenced the colonial strategy towards immigration. The work suggests that the colonists’ economics played a key role in drawing the basis of the colonies’ immigration policy).