Patience and perseverance. The asylum procedure of Tamils and Iranians in the Netherlands in the mid-1980s
Tycho Walaardt
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Authors frequently refer to the mid-1980s as a watershed in West European asylum policies. Suddenly, large numbers of asylum seekers appeared from unfamiliar countries of origin. In response, the Dutch government, and that of other European countries, introduced restrictive measures. The general belief is that prior to this period it was easy to obtain refugee status, but now it became virtually impossible. When we look at case files of the Ministry of Justice on Tamils from Sri Lanka and Iranians, we see that few of them were rejected, although many cases did involve endless procedures. This article seeks to explain this apparent contradiction. One thing was clear: patience and perseverance were needed from those who wanted to stay.

Intra-Asiatic trade: ships, 'the Asian sailor' and the demise of the Dutch East India Company?
Matthias van Rossum
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Active involvement in the intra-Asiatic trade was one of the main pillars of the Dutch East India Company (voc). The intra-Asiatic trade of the voc has, therefore, often been assigned a key role in historical arguments on the rise, functioning and demise of the company. This article presents a reconstruction of the size of the voc intra-Asiatic fleet in tonnage and personnel. It shows that the intra-Asiatic trade of the voc was important throughout the 17th and 18th century. Furthermore, the article argues that the availability of material (ships and freight capacity) and labour in Asia were not likely to have been causes for the demise of the voc. Through the extensive and fruitful use of the Asian maritime labour market, the voc could balance shortages on the European labour market.

The Reversal of Fortune in Argentina Exploring industrial labour productivity in comparison to Australia, 1907-1973
Ewout Frankema and Maarten Visker
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The dramatic decline of Argentina in the world income distribution during the twentieth century poses a major puzzle in the historical growth literature. This exceptional case of divergence is usually interpreted as the result of a failed transition from a successful agrarian export economy into a high-productive industrial economy, but explaining this failure is not that straightforward. We study the development of industrial labour productivity in Argentina in comparison to Australia to obtain more insight into the timing of this failed transition. We estimate that Argentina’s industrial productivity was circa 15 per cent lower than Australia’s on the eve of wwi, and that productivity levels diverged continuously thereafter up to the 1970s, with the exception of the 1940s. Our tentative explanation focuses on the role of political elites serving the oligopoly interests of a handful of well-connected entrepreneurs, in contrast to the deliberate efforts of consecutive Australian governments to promote broad-based industrialisation via targeted fiscal reforms, educational investments and social policies.