Governing Free and Unfree Labor Migration in Portuguese Africa, 19th–20th Century

Abstract

This chapter offers an overview of labor migration in former Portuguese Africa during the full century prior to independence. Apart from mapping the several migration flows and developing a typology of migrant workers, this study presents a detailed analysis of the legal and administrative frameworks regulating the process of labor recruitment and migration. Our analysis is guided by four main questions: (i) How did the Portuguese colonial state govern the supply of free and unfree labor in relation to rising demand from within and beyond its African territories? (ii) Why did the Portuguese colonial state develop rather complex systems of labor recruitment?; (iii) Why did Portuguese Africa absorb relatively few workers from abroad?; (iv) Why, given the scarcity of labor in its own territories, did the Portuguese colonial state promote labor migration flows to neighboring colonies? We address these questions by exploring historical data on legislation, correspondence, official bulletins, censuses, and statistical yearbooks.