1  BIS Review 100/2000  How the world differs But we should remember that the world of the 19th century differed in important respects from our own. For one, our great grandparents were more likely to relocate.
Given the great waves of immigration in the mid and late 19th century, it was not unprecedented in some countries that migration would change the population by one-tenth in a decade. The erection of hurdles to the free flow of workers since then implies that our national relationship with foreign countries is more likely to reflect commercial interests than lingering ties of earlier origin.