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ABSTRACT
This contribution analyses the discussions at the International Statistical Institute (ISI) on the development of an international framework for monitoring migration, from the first session of the ISI (1887) to the last congress before the Second World War (1938). The findings show how the international concept of migration emerged in the period under review and the authors explore how the ISI navigated the field of international statistics that was in the making. Their aim is to examine the specific position of the ISI in this space of tension between science, national administrations and international organizations. The authors focus especially on relations with the International Labour Office from 1919 onwards.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Martin Bemmann and Jan-Philipp Horstmann, as well as two anonymous reviewers for their suggestions. We thank Theresa Wobbe for precious comments on an earlier version of the article. Thank you also to Theresa Feißt for careful reading. We are grateful to Jacques Rodriguez and Remo Becci for indispensable guidance through the ILO archives. Léa Renard received financial support for research in the ILO archives and for proofreading from the German Research Foundation (Project ‘Forced Labour as a Shifting Global Category’ No. 413607635 at FU Berlin).
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. The International Labour Organization was founded in 1919 in the framework of the League of Nations. Its permanent secretariat, the International Labour Office, constitutes what Trondal calls an ‘international bureaucracy’, that is, an organization formally separate from the general assembly, the governing body and the member states. See Trondal, “International Bureaucracy.”
2. The next session was due to take place in Washington in 1940. It was postponed due to the war and eventually took place in 1947. On the Washington session, see Speich Chassé, “In Search of a Global Centre of Calculation.”
3. From a global-history perspective, the ISI qualifies as international organization following Madeleine Herren’s definition: ‘International organizations are cross-border formalized structures that are perceived as actors in the international system by civil societies and/or states. They are part of the international organization of the world and connect their members, which originate from at least three different states, by regulating cross-border access to information.’ Herren, Internationale Organisationen seit 1865, 6 (our translation).
4. Douki, “Compter les ‘retours’ d’émigrants.”
5. Stricker, “‘International Migration’ between Empire and Nation.”
6. In both the ISI and the ILO, multilingualism was the norm, although French (and later English) was used as the lingua franca. For the purposes of this article, we have translated documents from French and German into English.
7. Gieryn, “Boundary-Work and the Demarcation of Science from Non-Science”; and Bimber and Guston, “Politics by the Same Means.”
8. By contrast, the notion of epistemic community, as transposed by Sandrine Kott to international expert groups, insists on the processes by which knowledge is shared and common knowledge emerges. See Kott, “Une ‘communauté épistémique’ du social ?”
9. Steinmetz, “The Colonial State as a Social Field,” 591; see also Steinmetz, “The Imperial Entanglements of Sociology.”
10. Dzovinar Kévonian’s analysis of the issue of international economic statistics offers us a blueprint for thinking about statistical expertise as a source of legitimacy for new or contested international organizations. The exploration of the ISI–ILO nexus on the question of migration has been most useful. See Kévonian, “La légitimation par l’expertise.”
11. Herren, Internationale Organisationen seit 1865, 7.
12. Herren, “International Organizations,” 96.
13. Members of the Institute gathered every two years to pass resolutions prepared by committees after examining reports on specific issues. Art. XIV, Neumann Spallart, “La fondation de l’Institut international de statistique,” 19.
14. This principle was recalled, for instance, in London in 1905 by the President Inama-Sternegg during a discussion on a resolution to make population registers mandatory. See Bulletin XV-II, 1906, 98.
15. Bulletin XVII, 1908, 154.
16. Latour, Science in Action, 215ff; see also Speich Chassé, “In Search of a Global Centre of Calculation.”
17. For Italy, see Gabaccia, Italy’s Many Diasporas; Choate, Emigrant Nation. For Germany, see Naranch, “Inventing the Auslandsdeutsche.”
18. Conrad, “Globalization Effects.”
19. Renard, “Mit den Augen der Statistiker.”
20. These dynamics must of course also be considered in the context of colonialism and imperialism. We exclude these questions here, however, and focus on the issue of ‘internationalism in the age of nationalism’. Sluga, Internationalism. For the history of international migration statistics in the context of imperialism, see Stricker, “‘International Migration’ between Empire and Nation.”
21. The issue had not been raised in the first two sessions of the Institute.
22. Bulletin VI-1, 1891, 27 (our translation).
23. See Bulletin IX-2, 1896, 45–6.
24. Bulletin IX-2, 1896, 45: ‘Quant aux difficultés causées par la forme des matériaux transmis, la majorité de la première Section n’a pas cru devoir s’en occuper, pour ne pas importuner les divers Etats par des exigences trop difficiles ou qui entraineraient de trop grandes dépenses. Ce sera plutôt la tâche des Etats récipiendaires d’opérer le dépouillement des pièces transmises, quel qu’en soit le format, et de vaincre les difficultés résultant de la diversité des formulaires.’
25. See the debates in St Petersburg and Kristiania. In Kristiania, it was decided that the Board of the ISI should send form templates to national offices before their next census. Bulletin XII-1, 1900, 110.
26. Raphael, “Verwissenschaftlichung des Sozialen.”
27. Sluga, Internationalism.
28. Bulletin IX-2, 1896, 222–4 and 224–41.
29. Luigi Bodio (1840–1920) directed the Italian statistical office between 1878 and 1898, and was appointed an Italian senator in 1901. See Gilman, “Luigi Bodio.”
30. Bulletin IX-2, 1896, 223.
31. Bulletin XIII-1, 1903, 88ff.
32. The original resolutions by Gustav Thirring and von Mayr went much further but were judged unrealizable by the demographic section, which decided on a more general phrasing without definite demands, suggesting instead mere recommendations as regards methods. See Bulletin XIII-1, 1903, 119–26 (minutes of the demographic section), 457–76 (Thirring’s report) and 410–18 (von Mayr’s report).
33. Bulletin XIII-1, 1903, 87, 122ff (our translation).
34. Bulletin XIV-1, 1905, 106 (our translation).
35. See Bemmann, “Sidelined but Essential.”
36. Bulletin XX-1, 1915, 141ff. See also Nixon, A History of the International Statistical Institute, 22ff.
37. Bulletin XXI-1, 1924, 99ff.
38. Among several other activities in his long career, Willcox participated in the 12th US census as chief statistician (1899–1901). On Willcox, see Leonard, “Walter F. Willcox: Statist.”
39. For the following, see Bulletin XXII-2, 1926, 67–73.
40. Cf. Stricker, “Migration zwischen Imperium und Nation.”
41. Bulletin XXII-2, 1926, 73.
42. Ibid.
43. Bunle, Bulletin XXII-1, 1926, 86 (our translation).
44. Stricker, “‘International Migration’ between Empire and Nation.”
45. Willcox, International Migrations. II. Interpretations.
46. Bulletin, XXIV-1, 1930, 56–8.
47. Bulletin, XXVI-1, 1936, 68.
48. For more detailed information on the Conference, its context and consequences, see Stricker, “Migration zwischen Imperium und Nation.”
49. “An International Conference on Migration Statistics,” 3.
50. Ibid., 22.
51. The participants at the ISI session in Athens (1936) reaffirmed the need for a distinction between migration and tourism. According to French statistician Henri Bunle, the observation of tourist traffic should be part of economic statistics, whereas migration was a demographic issue and part of population statistics. Bulletin, XXIX-1, 1938, 86–7.
52. “An International Conference on Migration Statistics,” 14, 21.
53. Bulletin XXVII-1, 1938, 55–7.
54. In Prague (1938), the meetings were interrupted because of the escalation of the crisis between Czechoslovakia and Nazi Germany, before Molinari’s follow-up report on tourism could be discussed. Huber, “La XXIVe session de l’Institut International de Statistique.”
55. Stricker, “‘International Migration’ between Empire and Nation.”
56. This is in line with Alison Bashford’s findings that ‘the question of migration was not eclipsed, as historians have suggested, but on the contrary it sat at the center of population thinking’ during the interwar period. Albert Thomas (ILO), Methorst, Gini from Italy and Bohác from Czechoslovakia participated in the World Population Conference in 1927. Bashford, “Nation, Empire, Globe,” 183.
57. Pedersen, “A Passport to Peace?”
58. The meetings were organized in sections (demographic, economic, social and mathematic) that reported to the General Assembly. The sections created committees to investigate specific topics. The results of the committees’ work were published in reports. During the discussions, speaking time was limited.
59. Methorst to Varlez, July 27, 1920, ILO Archives D 93/3: ‘Très peu de temps avant le commencement de la guerre mondiale, l’Office permanent entreprit les travaux préparatoires, et depuis, il a joui du privilège de pouvoir pendant toute la durée de la guerre entretenir les relations internationales entre les Membres de l’Institut International de Statistique et entre les Bureaux statistiques des divers Etats.’
60. Although Germany left the League of Nations in October 1933 and German experts resigned from international committees the same year, German statisticians continued to attend the meetings and retained high positions on the ISI board. German delegates boycotted the last session before the war, which took place in Prague in September 1938 against the backdrop of the crisis between Nazi Germany and Czechoslovakia (see Huber, “La XXIVe session de l’Institut International de Statistique,” 410). See also Herren, “Fascist Internationalism.”
61. The German statistician Friedrich Burgdörfer, one of the leaders of the eugenicist, racist and antisemitic demographic discourse since the beginning of the twentieth century, was nominated to a Permanent committee on demographic statistics in 1938. Methorst to Nixon, October 19, 1938, ILO Archives T 300/1/3. On Burgdörfer, see Bryant, Friedrich Burgdörfer (1890–1967).
62. Maurette to Thomas, June 18, 1925, ILO Archives T 300/1/2 (our translation).
63. The ISI can be seen as part of what Daniel Speich Chassé calls ‘scholarly internationalism’. Speich Chassé, “In Search of a Global Centre of Calculation,” 270.
64. Rice, “The Second Crisis of the International Statistical Institute,” 302.
65. Varlez (?) to Willcox, April 20, 1926, ILO Archives E 123: ‘Généralement l’Institut ne réunit pas ses commissions avant le dernier moment, à défaut des fonds nécessaires pour assurer les frais de déplacement des membres. Cette procédure est assez défectueuse quand on veut arriver à des résultats pratiques […]’.
66. March 2, 1920, ILO Archives D 93/3. See also Nixon, A History of the International Statistical Institute, 28.
67. See ILO Archives D 93/3. Varlez had been a member of the ISI since 1906.
68. The ILO sent two official representatives (Fontaine and Pribram) and three additional staff members (Varlez, Nixon and Richardson) to the session in Cairo (1927–8). In Warsaw, only one representative was present, which was judged insufficient given the fact that sections meet simultaneously.
69. Maurette to Thomas, June 18, 1925, ILO Archives T 300/1/2 (our translation).
70. See Willcox’s provisional report to the Cairo session, which was not eventually incorporated in the Bulletin as he was unable to attend the session (ILO Archives E 123). To prepare his report and draft resolutions, he asked the Migration Section of the ILO to write a memorandum on its actions: ‘I have conferred and corresponded with the Migration Section of the International Labour Office and in the light of these exchanges have drafted the enclosed set of resolutions’ (Willcox to Varlez, May 27, 1927, ILO Archives E 123).
71. Methorst to Varlez, October 26, 1920, ILO Archives D 93/3. In an earlier letter, Methorst admitted that the Permanent Office had not utilized the material yet and that answers were still missing. Methorst to Varlez, July 27, 1920, ILO Archives D 93/3.
72. Varlez to Methorst, November 10, 1920, ILO Archives D 93/3.
73. Already in October 1920, during the meeting of the International Statistical Commission set up by the League of Nations, the ILO representative attempted to undermine the ISI’s influence, claiming that ‘no private organization however free from political motives can ever be effective in bringing about a standardisation and unification in gathering and compiling statistics’ (Nixon, A History of the International Statistical Institute, 30). Whether the ISI disputed the authority of the ILO over migration statistics or not is unclear. In Warsaw, Zahn reserved a central place for the ILO in the system for recording migration that he had designed.
74. Bulletin, XXII-1, 1926, 83 (our translation).
75. ‘Je voudrais qu’il soit ajouté qu’il serait souhaitable que les statistiques soient communiquées promptement et que tous les mois les Gouvernements fassent connaitre au Bureau international du Travail le nombre de leurs émigrants et de leurs immigrants’ (n.d., ILO Archives E 123).
76. Report by Nixon, September 11, 1929, ILO Archives T 300/1/2.
77. This is also true of the other ILO delegates, Pribram and Fontaine, on issues relating to social statistics. Kévonian, “La légitimation par l’expertise,” 95.
78. We found the following handwritten comment completing Nixon’s remark on mixed committees: ‘under which the ILO does the work but ISI gets the credit’. Report by Nixon on the Madrid session, October 5, 1931, ILO Archives T 300/1/2. See also Nixon’s official record of this experience: Nixon, A History of the International Statistical Institute, 33–4.
79. Report by Nixon on the Madrid session, October 5, 1931, ILO Archives T 300/1/2.
80. See Bemmann, “Sidelined but Essential.”
81. Thomas to Maurette, October 29, 1931, ILO Archives T 300/1/2. The complaints by ILO officials about the ISI seem to be related to the person of the former president Albert Delatour who, according to Thomas, had not fulfilled their non-written ‘contract’. In his report on the Tokyo session, Asari Junshirō (director of the Tokyo branch of the ILO) wrote that ‘Mr. Delatour, the chairman and president of the Institute, was anxious to preserve the independence and autonomy of the Institute in the face of the International Labour Office’ (n.d. ILO Archives T 300/1/2).
82. Kévonian, “La légitimation par l’expertise,” 96 (our translation).
83. Speich Chassé, “In Search of a Global Centre of Calculation,” 277.
84. Horstmann, Halbamtliche Wissenschaft, 157–8 (our translation).
85. Rice, “The Second Crisis of the International Statistical Institute,” 302. A fourth section entitled ‘mathematical statistics’ had already been created in Athens (1936). See also Stigler, “Mathematical Statistics and the ISI (1885–1939).”
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Léa Renard
Léa Renard is a postdoctoral researcher in sociology at Heidelberg University (Max Weber Institute of Sociology) and an associated researcher at the Centre Marc Bloch in Berlin. Her field of expertise is the historical sociology of statistics, especially colonial statistics of the French and German empires.
Yann Stricker
Yann Stricker studied political science, history and ethnology at the University of Zurich from 2003 to 2010. He wrote his doctoral dissertation at the University of Lucerne on the knowledge history of international migration statistics. Currently, Yann Stricker works as coordinator of the Centre for Digital Editions at the University Library of Zurich.