Migration & Memory

Map of various countries, nations and islands that show the movements and displacement of indentured labour out of south Asia. The map is also color coded to describe which places were colonised by the British, French and Dutch.

This map is a good starting point to imagine how widespread this particular diaspora is, but countries are missing like Sri Lanka and New Caledonia (and I'm sure others as well). And many labourers moved around to different colonies once they left the subcontinent. Adding on, European colonisers included the Portuguese as well, which is missing from this map, and also many places were colonised by multiple European nations (so the reality isn't so simple as this map presents).

Image is from The Economist, "The legacy of Indian migration to European colonies"

Sources used to create this map: "Indentured Labour in the Age of Imperialism" and "Indentured Indians in the French Antilles" by D. Northrup; "Les travailleurs indiens sous contrat a La Reunion" by J.R. Ramsamy-Nadarassin; "Frontier Society: A Social Analysis of the History of Surinam" by R.A.J. van Lier