Rural Single Female Migrants in Early-Nineteenth-Century Bruges

Abstract

At the start of the nineteenth century, very few young single females migrated to the city of Bruges, and women from the surrounding countryside were particularly underrepresented among the migrant population. This is contrary to the situation in most other areas at that time, making Bruges unusual. This contribution seeks to explain why this was the case by focusing on the specific locales involved. It highlights the effects of socioeconomic differences between rural environments, which led to variations in the migration behavior of single women. In addition to that, recent research emphasizes the importance of events in the life course of an individual, rather than simple economics in explaining the decision to move. The results of this study indicate that occurrences such as the death of the father or the birth order within the family were indeed important triggers, but that they must be contextualized within the rural environment from which the women originated.