Newcomers, migrants, surgeons

Like many modern organizations, the Amsterdam Surgeons’ Guild recruited its members during the eighteenth century from the ranks of locally born citizens as well as migrants. But how a surgeon’s migration status impacted his chances of being admitted by, and making a career within, the Surgeons’ Guild, remains a mystery. This article analyses enrolment lists of apprentices, journeymen, and master surgeons in order to find out how a surgeon’s birth-place influenced his chances of a career within the Amsterdam Surgeons’ Guild. By looking at the guild’s official stance towards newcomers, and pairing this with the actual career paths of migrants within the Amsterdam Surgeons’ Guild, this article demonstrates that migrants could be retained for the guild if they received their apprenticeship training in Amsterdam. In other words, it was not so much origin, but rather the geography of education and work that shaped careers. These results reveal mechanisms of integration that can be generalised to cases outside the Amsterdam Surgeons’ Guild.

与诸多现代社会组织相仿，阿姆斯特丹外科医师行会（Amsterdam Surgeons’ Guild）在18世纪招募成员时，既面向本地出生的市民，也吸纳外来移民。然而，外科医师的移民身份如何影响其被该行会吸纳，并在行会内推进职业发展的概率，至今仍是未解之谜。本文通过分析学徒、帮工与资深外科医师的入会登记名册，探究外科医师的出生地如何影响其在阿姆斯特丹外科医师行会内获得职业发展的机会。通过考察该行会对外来申请者的官方态度，并结合阿姆斯特丹外科医师行会内移民的实际职业轨迹，本文证实：若移民在阿姆斯特丹接受学徒培训，则可被行会留用。换言之，决定职业发展轨迹的并非出身地域，而是教育与从业的空间布局。本研究揭示的社会融入机制，可推广至阿姆斯特丹外科医师行会以外的其他研究案例。