In this article we will begin a three-part series, aimed at unveiling the dynamics of migrations in the history of humanity. From this series, we will analyze information that will help us understand the reason for the migration crisis and why it has put pressure on the receiving countries and caused xenophobia and frustration.

"Homo sapiens have been on the move practically since their inception. Water shortages, droughts and climate-driven floods will add to the list of reasons to migrate" (Erin Blakemore NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC.ES)

Migrants, whom today we have reduced to pariahs and who, like the cursed poets, are "too touched by misfortune", have had faces and voices in all times of the history of "homo sapiens". The first migrations of humans, according to evidence of migrations from Africa to Eurasia, occurred 120,000 years ago and according to the theory of African emigration, they occurred about 60,000 years ago, when Homo sapiens originating in Africa dispersed throughout Eurasia, where they met and eventually replaced other ancestors of humans such as Neanderthals.

Despite differences in the genesis times of migrations, there is "consensus" on the fact that the first humans migrated from Africa to Asia, and two possible routes are proposed: either through the strait between the Horn of Africa and present-day Yemen, or through the Sinai Peninsula. After spreading throughout Southeast Asia, it is believed that the first humans would have migrated to Australia, which then shared a landmass with New Guinea, then to Europe and finally to America (Erin Blakemore NATIONALGEOGRAPHIC).

^{MIGRATION IS THE RESULT OF MULTIPLE FACTORS BUT WITH A SUPREME PURPOSE: TO PROTECT LIFE}

Migrations have been generated by multiple causes, such as climatic conditions that put life at risk, low availability or scarcity of food, intrinsic cultural conditions, for example the abandonment of nomadism, as well as war, colonialism, and the expansion of empires. The ancient Greeks expanded their culture with a long list of colonies. The Roman Empire sent its citizens north, reaching as far as Britain. Imperial China also employed its military to expand its borders and sheltered refugees in even more remote border areas.

European countries invaded the African continent and South America in recent centuries, while generating migrations of women and men who were violated and reduced to slaves and migrants.

At least 12 million Africans were enslaved and moved to the Americas and Europe during the transatlantic slave trade, between the 16th century and the end of the 19th century. The epidemics and violent actions unleashed after the arrival of the Europeans caused the death, in just 100 years, of approximately 90% of the native population, that is, about 55.8 million people in South America and Mexico.

At the end of World War II, in 1945, hundreds of thousands of survivors became displaced people and emigrated to Western Europe, the United States and South America.

THE UNITED STATES, THE AMERICAN DREAM BECOMES A PRO-RITERIEO DESTINATION FOR EUROPEAN MIGRANTS.

^{Image 2. European Migrants to the USA Nineteenth Century. Source} 

During the nineteenth century and until the first half of the twentieth century, Europe was the scene of mass emigration. Due to lack of work and the misery in which they lived, 42 million inhabitants of the countries that today make up the European Union (EU) left for other continents, especially America, with the United States being the majority destination of European immigrants. The profile of the emigrant during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was that of the peasant or worker.

Based on information, it is inferred that between 1815 and 1860 five million people from Europe arrived in the United States and between 1860 and 1920 another 27 million entered. Between 1840 and 1920 six million Germans, 4.75 million Irish, 4.5 million Italians, 4.2 million English, Welsh, and Scots, 4.2 million from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, 2.3 million from Scandinavia, and 2.3 million from the Russian Empire (particularly Lithuanian Catholics, Poles, and Jews) immigrated. 

Between 1855 and 1890 8 million Europeans arrived, between 1905 and 1914 about nine million. In 1907, one million two hundred thousand immigrants entered, the highest annual income. Between 1874 and 1888 5,881,000 immigrants arrived and between 1904 and 1935 16,878,000. About 370,000 Swedes, Danes, and Norwegians emigrated to the United States between 1850 and 1875. These migrants became the parents and/or grandparents of a large majority of the current population of the United States.

In addition to the great European migration to the USA, there was the arrival of Vietnamese migrants in the twentieth century, but in insignificant numbers compared to that of European migrants. After the Vietnam War, more than 125,000 people from Vietnam immigrated to the United States, motivated by the humanitarian crisis resulting from the war. Source

"The Europeans also generated a significant number of emigrants to Latin America who are home to a considerable number of children and grandchildren of these Europeans. Iberian forms and customs are still shared today in those countries." (https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emigraci%C3%B3n_europea)