a brief history of migration

A brief history of human migration

Contents

• Out of Africa

• Adaptation to environment

• Homo sapiens vs other animals

• Homo sapiens vs Neanderthals

• Homo sapiens vs Homo sapiens

• Historical and modern migration

Out of Africa

Multi-regional theory

• Not as widely accepted as the single African origin theory• Not so different – the theory

posits interbreeding

• But it doesn’t matter much either way, since humans interbred with Neanderthals and Denisovans anyway

Out of Africa

Out of Africa

• In general, intelligence increases with brain size

• Though not always – humans have smaller brains than late Neanderthals, but are more intelligent

• Within species, brain size does correlate with intelligence

Out of Africa

Bradshaw Foundation

Adaptation to environment

• Tropical people tall and lean to lose heat

• Arctic and mountain people short and wide to conserve heat

• Pale skin for vitamin D photosynthesis in dim climates

• Disease resistance: malaria, plague


• Eskimos – alleles for processing fatty acids

• Altitude adaptation• Tibetans – greater lung capacity. Only since 3000kya and ongoing!

• Andeans – more oxygen per haemoglobin

• Ethiopians – more haemoglobin. Side effect: with thin ankles and calves, make good long-distance runners [whereas sprinters tend to be Jamaican or African American – narrower hips]

• Lactase persistence in Europeans – adaptation to domesticated cattle 10kya-5kya

• Amylase for carbohydrates

• Alcohol hydrogenase in Chinese, Japanese and Koreans


• “On the origin of species”• Races are subspecies

• Adapted to different environments, but not enough time for speciation

• Races precede speciation• Speciation could not happen without races

• Races are “the origin of species”

• A race is an extremely extended family, inbred• For populations to evolve into races, there must be less than 2% gene flow between

populations per generation

• For differences to accumulate in the neutral (unselected) genome, there must have been < 1 immigrant per generation for tens of thousands of years or more• As much as 250,000 years for Bushmen/Pygmies vs other humans

Homo sapiens vs other animals

• Most predators are specialised, co-evolving with their prey• Can’t quickly evolve overwhelming superiority

• Predators rarely drive their prey to extinction. If they do, they go extinct themselves• Newly introduced predators

• Unspecialised predators don’t tend to do very well• Not many omnivores like bears

• Neanderthals didn’t wipe out any species, as far as we know


• Humans are the ultimate predator• Originally the prey!

• Intelligence allows us to wipe out species and move on

• Inventions allowed humans to reach new areas and climates• Boats, rafts, clothes


• Whenever humans turn up, species go extinct

• Dodos, mammoths (humans finished them off)

• Giant tortoises• 2.5mya in Africa

• Out of Africa: India, Indonesia, Australia, Americas, Madagascar

• Survive in Aldabra and Galapagos Islands, but only just!

• Humans had tools which other animals lacked, like wooden spears


• Where human are not, other species flourish• Rabbits by the Berlin Wall

• Musk deer and asian black bears extirpated from Europe, now found in the Korean Demilitarized Zone!

• Sleeping sickness created virtually human-free zones

Homo sapiens vs Homo neanderthalensis

• Competition for resources in a Malthusian world

• Occupying the same or similar ecological niche

• Human arrive in Europe 41-39 kya. Neanderthals extinct 45-43 kya• Shared territory for ~4000 years

• Limited interbreeding (at least once!)

• Also limited interbreeding (at least once) with the Denisovans (discovered 2010)

Homo sapiens vs Homo sapiens

• Farmers replace foragers

• Hunter-gatherers and farmers cannot use the same territory• Zero-sum game

• Farmers win

• Even though farmers have worse lifestyles – they have more children!


• Aryans conquer Northern India from 1500 BC, replacing the Indus Valley Civilisation

• Dorset people replaced by Inuit. Dorset driven extinct about 1400-1500 AD

• Aztecs conquered by Spanish in 16th Century• Smallpox and typhus

• Population declines 80% in 60 years

• Inca conquered by Spanish, despite better adapted to the altitude

• China twice conquered by people from countries to the north, but not from the south


• Bantu expansion from 1000BC/500AD up to 18th/19th centuries


• North America• Whites replace Native American tribes

• Remaining “Native Americans” have substantial admixture

• Ideology: Manifest Destiny

• “Albion’s Seed” – different parts of American settled by peoples from different parts of the British Isles, and Germans

• Texas• Whites vs Hispanics

• Mexicans replaced by Whites. Mexico became independent, then joined the US. Nowadays, the process is reversing: the Hispanic population is overwhelming low-fertility Whites

Historical migration

• No state control

• Diversity is unusual• Either population replacement in prehistoric societies

• Plus marriage between tribal bands

• Or extremely low levels and assimilation in modern societies• To Britain: measured in the 1000s per year

• e.g. Huguenots; refugees from the French revolution; German “Poor Palatine”

• From nearby countries with similar populations

Modern day migration

• Unprecedented levels• To Britain: in the 1950s, less than 50,000 per year

• Now, over 500,000-600,000 per year gross (and emigration of 300,000)

• Britain today receives more immigrants in a single year than it did in the entire period from 1066 to 1950

• Refugees do not go back afterwards

• Some state control• Some immigration is subsidised. Some is banned

• European navies collecting economic migrants from the waters of the Mediterranean and bringing them here

• Welfare state

• Legal immigration is expensive and time-consuming

Historical and modern migration

Robert Putnam on diversity

• More ethnic diversity leads to less trust both between and within ethnic groups

• Less altruism, less community cooperation

• Reduce social solidarity, “social capital”

William Easterly on fractionalization

• “Ethnic fractionalization”• “Ethno-linguistic fractionalization”

• Ethnic mix leads to “low schooling, political instability, underdeveloped financial systems, distorted foreign exchange markets, high government deficits, and insufficient infrastructure”• As long as institutions “sufficiently bad”

• Findings “broadly accepted”

• “Polarization” metric also used

• See also Paolo Mauro (1995) “Corruption and growth”

Diversity

• With some things, diversity is not good• Intelligence

• More is better!

• Institutional quality• The world does not benefit from having some countries with bad institutions

• Religion?• Christians believe Christianity is correct and everyone should be Christian

• Muslims believe Islam is correct and everyone should be Muslim

• Etc.

Conclusions

• Modern migration should be seen as part of a process which has been going on for tens of thousands of years

• Migration is invasion

• Disruptive, not simple• To food chains; to local ecology

• Replacement is not the answer to pathologically low Western fertility

• It is possible to restrict immigration• Japan, Australia, Israel, Hungarian border fence

• Temporary immigration? Is it possible to have guest workers but prevent them gaining or agitating for political power? e.g. UAE

Conclusions

• “Mass migration is like a slow and steady current of water which washes away the shore. It appears in the guise of humanitarian action, but its true nature is the occupation of territory; and their gain in territory is our loss of territory.”• Viktor Orbán

• 15 March 2016

• Orbán opposes immigration to Hungary, but supports emigration from Hungary!• Doesn’t want Hungarians called “migrants”

• Opposes restrictions on Hungarians collecting in-work benefits around the EU

a brief history of migration

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