The Measure of Success: Evidence for Immigrant Networks in the Southern Low Countries,Saint-Omer 1413-1455

Abstract

The importance of immigrants to the demographic and economic survival ofmedieval cities calls for an exploration of how they established themselves in their adopted homes. This study uses network analysis to investigate the social and economic relationships of immigrants who joined the citizenry of Saint-Omer between 1413/14 and 1455/56. Reconstructing the social and economic networks of these new citizens, this study demonstrates that many immigrants did not venture to their new home alone. They either brought with them, or found already established, networks of family and acquaintances that enhanced the likelihood of a successful relocation. These networks could be complex. Immigrants who succeeded in joining Saint-Omer’s bourgeoisie tended to be better supplied with resources, social and economic, than other “outsiders” joining the citizenry. Networks of women immigrants differed somewhat from those of their male counterparts, but social networks were part of women’s successful establishment in their adopted city also.