Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English en
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS

European Migration, Social Structure and Empire Building in Portuguese Asia, 1500-1650

Objective

Migration has become a central issue in today’s public and political discourse. This discourse is often instrumentalized against migrants portrayed as “invading” Europe, forgetting that the early modern period was defined by a reverse flow: the mass emigration of mostly poor Europeans that enabled the construction of global colonial empires. Although the imperial migrations that shaped the Americas and Africa are well-studied, the equally significant movements to Asia remain largely understudied.
MIGRASIA addresses this gap by reconstructing in the scale, demographic composition, and social logic of these migrations at macro-, meso- and micro-level, using the Portuguese Empire in Asia (Estado da Índia) and the Portuguese Carreira da Índia (India Run) between 1500-1650, as a case study. A comparative approach with other European colonial polities (Spanish, Dutch (VOC), and English (EIC)) will situate the findings in a global context.
MIGRASIA hypothesizes that European empire building in Asia was shaped not only by top-down policies, but by the migration dynamics and the formation of new hybrid social structures involving subaltern populations, so far grossly overlooked by the scholarship. The project's central objective is to re-evaluate the social structure and quantitative dimensions of migration from Europe to the Estado da Índia, challenging what is known about its role in the empire-building process itself.
Methodologically, the project combines quantitative and qualitative analysis to reconstruct trans-oceanic migration flows, as well as individual trajectories. By adopting a bottom-up perspective focusing on the agency of subaltern migrants and the gender dimension of these migratory flows, this project deepens our perspective on global mobility and social change, contributing to a more inclusive history of migration and empire building.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Keywords

Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships

See all projects funded under this funding scheme

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF

See all projects funded under this call

Coordinator

KONINKLIJKE NEDERLANDSE AKADEMIE VAN WETENSCHAPPEN - KNAW
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 232 916,16
Address
KLOVENIERSBURGWAL 29 HET TRIPPENHUIS
1011 JV AMSTERDAM
Netherlands

See on map

Activity type
Research Organisations
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

No data
My booklet 0 0