Although migration as such through the development of the early
territorial state became an identifiable problem, immigration
remained the only means for medieval towns to grow. This was especially
true in the Low Countries, where - first in Flanders, later in
Holland and Brabant - the development of a dense urban network
led to a high degree of urbanization. In Holland the take-off
of the towns started round 1250. A first period of rapid growth
ended around 1350. After some 60 years of almost stagnation during
the period of the echo-epidemics, a second phase of explosive
growth lasted from about 1410 until 1490, when a renewed stagnation
of a different kind started. Especially during the second half
of the fourteenth century, even huge numbers of newcomers could
hardly prevent the urban population from shrinking. This resulted
in very dynamic social mobility and a process of rapid assimilation.
The town of Leiden offers an excellent example of this development.
During the first period of growth almost everyone was welcome,
due to the active policy to establish a market oriented textile
industry. Besides a strong recruitment of immigrants from the
surrounding countryside, and from the county of Holland as a whole,
especially people from Flanders were attracted by the new opportunities.
Gradually the circle of attraction widened, especially during
the fifteenth century. In the town the development of a well-structured
system of social and charitable institutions contributed to the
assimilation of newcomers.
Both the functioning of old networks of origin, and the establishing
of new networks can be traced. Sometimes clear concentrations
of newcomers (like the 'Easterlings'), however, indicated a lack
of integration and/or a need to express the original identity.
During the fifteenth century, tolerance versus non-productive
migrants rapidly dwindled. This can be observed in the changing
attitude towards beggars and vagabonds. The best example, however,
is the attitude towards gypsies, who shortly after 1400 appeared
in Southern Germany, and no later than 1420 arrived in the Low
Countries. The 'duke of Egypt' and his followers at first were
treated mercifully in the towns of the Netherlands, with reference
to their status as religious refugees, but from the mid 1440ies
increasingly were regarded as vagabonds. The official ban on gypsies
in 1524, ordering their expulsion, was the inevitable result.
At the end of the sixteenth century, a new period of mobility started, when the effects of the Dutch Revolt forced tens of thousands of people from Brabant and Flanders to flee to the north. The combination of economic advantage and religious compassion led to a rapid primary integration. The question weather or not this was followed by real assimilation, belongs to the discourse about the real or would-be tolerance of the Low Countries, which however clearly lies outside the scope of this paper.