Examples of mass migrations that have been predominantly middle-class

[Tooting Carmen]

Ones I can immediately think of:

- White South Africans and Zimbabweans (1990's onwards)
- Anti-Castro Cubans (1959 onwards)
- Kenyan and Ugandan Indians (1968-75)

[Tooting Carmen]

Possibly also Lebanese Maronites who fled the 1975-90 civil war.

[Incal]

The first venezuelan wave.

[Tooting Carmen]

The first venezuelan wave.

From about 1998 to 2013 you mean?

[Tooting Carmen]

I am not sure about the Chileans who fled Pinochet. My understanding is that the intellectual middle-class types came more to the West, whereas the trade unionists and peasants went more to other Latin American countries, so the overall social composition of the exiles is a bit ambiguous.

[Incal]

From about 1998 to 2013 you mean?

Around that, yeah. Before it was almost impossible to find a venezuelan in South America, it was simpler to find a brazilian or uruguayan.

[Creoda]

Most of the English who settled America in the 17th century were the middle-class of their time.

[Tooting Carmen]

Most of the English who settled America in the 17th century were the middle-class of their time.

Some of them were, but weren't there also plenty fleeing poverty?

[Creoda]

Some of them were, but weren't there also plenty fleeing poverty?

The majority were middle-class (insofar as it existed in the 17th century), who left for religious (Puritans in New England, Quakers in the Middle Colonies, Catholics in Maryland) or political reasons (Royalists in Virginia). This is what I gathered from Albion's Seed. They had higher than average literacy than the English in England. I don't think the poor generally had the wherewithal to pick up sticks independently and settle in America at that time, which was hardly wealthy either.

[axel.aleman]

Talvez los argentinos en Panama y en menor medida chilenos y dominicanos