Greener on the other side: What made the foreign settlements of Shanghai attractive to Chinese residents?

Between the mid-1850s and early-1940s, two foreign "settlements" (extraterritorial jurisdictional enclaves) occupied the north of Shanghai: the Anglo-American dominated International Settlement and the French Concession. Over the period, large amounts of local Chinese chose to migrate to and reside in both settlements, withstanding institutional discrimination held against them. In turn, their choices shaped socioeconomic realities.



This study investigates what institutional and economic factors motivated the choices of these migrants. Discrimination could have been outweighed by pulling factors including protection and stability, modern legal frameworks and judicial practices, better infrastructure and living standards, and brighter economic opportunities. Specifically, migrants preferred the International Settlement, even though its institutional framework was more discriminatory de jure. This could be because the International Settlement offered better economic opportunities, or its other institutional characteristics were more attractive.



Methodologically, I document and analyse population data to show "what happened" and utilise these data and other qualitative sources to explain "why". While economic historians of the period lack regional GDP data, and urban historians often do not fully utilise the statistical potential of their sources, I use census data as "foot-voting" evidence that contains revealed preferences to assess the countervailing impacts of legal discrimination and economic opportunities in the Shanghai settlements. From 1865, both settlements regularly drew up censuses, usually in every five years, extending to early 1940s. The foreign governing bodies of the settlements published detailed results in their annual reports, which are now available at the Shanghai Municipal Archives. With a long-time horizon and detailed breakdowns by gender, age, occupation, and places of origin, this dataset enables macro-level quantitative analysis. Further, to investigate why certain institutions might be better for specific social groups, other primary sources account for population flows of local intermediaries, foreign residents, and specifically, underworld organisations and refugees that are underrepresented in censuses.



This study aims to enrich the literature on Chinese domestic migration during the "century of humiliation", add to historians' economic understanding of the Shanghai foreign settlements, and further investigate how particularised institutions influence economic growth and personal welfare. It also contributes to the broader scholarship on the influence European empires had on the development of its peripheries by looking at the active role played by local agents. Finally, as migration remain a contested issue, this project will unlock insights for policymakers on the reform of contemporary global refugee regimes.