The sheer number of people living outside of the Solar System shows that humanity is quite good at moving large numbers of people across interstellar distances. Over a century and a half, well over a hundred million people (if not hundreds of millions of people) have emigrated from Earth to several dozen different colony worlds, there producing by 23xx a total population in excess of 1.5 billion people.
Many of the people who went out to the colonies would have ended up returning to Earth. Many colonists wouldn't have been able to make a go of it: Of the 14 elevator car-riding NPCs in Beanstalk, one (an Australian) was a former colonist from the British Continent who was returning to Earth after he decided that his farm on Beta Canum just wouldn't work. More people who went out would have done so on contract, or perhaps as migrant labourers working on specific projects with the intent of returning home and/or sending remittances back to their dependents. The relatively open frontiers which seem to exist in 23xx, at least until the War of German Reunfication, lead me to believe that there may be a lot of people in the non-starfaring powers, even in the ranks of Tier 4 countries, with interstellar experience.
Just as interestingly, by 23xx Earth isn't the only large-scale producer of emigrants. The longest-settled worlds, like the other Core world of Tirane and the very Core-like Niebelungen, are now producing emigrants who will settle the human frontier (see Freihafen's Freisland, Wellonese interest in offworld colonization, the joint Freihafen-Niebelungen projects). Even before these three states became independent, it's likely that they and the non-independent Tiranean colonies produced a fair number of migrants to their colonizers' settlements in the French Arm and elsewhere.
These migrants from the two other developed worlds aren't only going to go to the colonies. More likely than not, most won't: Offworld colonization is expensive, difficult, and often dangerous. How many immigrants to Canada or Australia head out to Nunavut or the Northern Territory? Long before Tiraneans and Niebelungeners head off in any significant number to the Wolf Cluster or 61 Cygni or wherever, they will be going to Earth. Their colonizers are located there, after all, along with their many of their cultural referents (universities, major cities, other historic sites), and their close relatives. If there are a lot of West and North Africans and Antilleans in France now, and plenty of South Asians, southern Africans, and Australians in Britain, surely there will be a lot of Wellonese in London in 23xx, and Neo-Provencaux in Paris?
The ratios of Terrans to Tiraneans/Niebelungers can be surprisingly low. There are nine million Santa Marians versus 74 million Argentines and 70 million Tundkubwans versus a quarter-billion Terran Azanians, while the Tiranean territories of Brazil and Japan hold something like a third of the population of the Terran metropoles, and Nouveau Provence has half the population of Terran France. ratios become particularly low when you're talking about Britain, Australia and Bavaria. There are twice as many Wellonese as Britons, two and a half times as many Australians as on Earth, and between the former Garten and Nibelungen at least seven times as many people as in Terran Bavaria. (That's not quite a fair comparison, since most Freihafeners have ancestors who came from other points in central and eastern Europe. Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Croatia may ave more German-speaking citizens than at any point since before the Secnd World War.) Part of me wonders if one of the reasons for Bavaria's reluctance to join a united Germany was the presence of large-numbers of offworlders ("We'll get the Swabian vote, Herr Schumpeter, but the Tiraneans really aren't buying it.").
What does all this mean for the player? It opens up a variety of interesting possibilities for characters, NPC and otherwise. That Kazakh detective in the Central Asian Republic might have had a grandfather who worked construction on Hochbaden, or that player character from Ubangi-Shari might have belonged to a middle-class family that got ruined when the Kafer War meant that no one could go to Beta Canum to help out with the harvest, or that this mid-ranking German space navy officer's career has stagnated since 2293 because he rose through the ranks of Garten's Raumwaffe way back when. This intertwining of populations also offers up some adventuring possibilities. Did someone leave something important somewhere now inaccessible? Might someone of mixed background be involved in smuggling items from one jurisdiction to another? What nation(s) is someone loyal to?
Many of the people who went out to the colonies would have ended up returning to Earth. Many colonists wouldn't have been able to make a go of it: Of the 14 elevator car-riding NPCs in Beanstalk, one (an Australian) was a former colonist from the British Continent who was returning to Earth after he decided that his farm on Beta Canum just wouldn't work. More people who went out would have done so on contract, or perhaps as migrant labourers working on specific projects with the intent of returning home and/or sending remittances back to their dependents. The relatively open frontiers which seem to exist in 23xx, at least until the War of German Reunfication, lead me to believe that there may be a lot of people in the non-starfaring powers, even in the ranks of Tier 4 countries, with interstellar experience.
Just as interestingly, by 23xx Earth isn't the only large-scale producer of emigrants. The longest-settled worlds, like the other Core world of Tirane and the very Core-like Niebelungen, are now producing emigrants who will settle the human frontier (see Freihafen's Freisland, Wellonese interest in offworld colonization, the joint Freihafen-Niebelungen projects). Even before these three states became independent, it's likely that they and the non-independent Tiranean colonies produced a fair number of migrants to their colonizers' settlements in the French Arm and elsewhere.
These migrants from the two other developed worlds aren't only going to go to the colonies. More likely than not, most won't: Offworld colonization is expensive, difficult, and often dangerous. How many immigrants to Canada or Australia head out to Nunavut or the Northern Territory? Long before Tiraneans and Niebelungeners head off in any significant number to the Wolf Cluster or 61 Cygni or wherever, they will be going to Earth. Their colonizers are located there, after all, along with their many of their cultural referents (universities, major cities, other historic sites), and their close relatives. If there are a lot of West and North Africans and Antilleans in France now, and plenty of South Asians, southern Africans, and Australians in Britain, surely there will be a lot of Wellonese in London in 23xx, and Neo-Provencaux in Paris?
The ratios of Terrans to Tiraneans/Niebelungers can be surprisingly low. There are nine million Santa Marians versus 74 million Argentines and 70 million Tundkubwans versus a quarter-billion Terran Azanians, while the Tiranean territories of Brazil and Japan hold something like a third of the population of the Terran metropoles, and Nouveau Provence has half the population of Terran France. ratios become particularly low when you're talking about Britain, Australia and Bavaria. There are twice as many Wellonese as Britons, two and a half times as many Australians as on Earth, and between the former Garten and Nibelungen at least seven times as many people as in Terran Bavaria. (That's not quite a fair comparison, since most Freihafeners have ancestors who came from other points in central and eastern Europe. Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Croatia may ave more German-speaking citizens than at any point since before the Secnd World War.) Part of me wonders if one of the reasons for Bavaria's reluctance to join a united Germany was the presence of large-numbers of offworlders ("We'll get the Swabian vote, Herr Schumpeter, but the Tiraneans really aren't buying it.").
What does all this mean for the player? It opens up a variety of interesting possibilities for characters, NPC and otherwise. That Kazakh detective in the Central Asian Republic might have had a grandfather who worked construction on Hochbaden, or that player character from Ubangi-Shari might have belonged to a middle-class family that got ruined when the Kafer War meant that no one could go to Beta Canum to help out with the harvest, or that this mid-ranking German space navy officer's career has stagnated since 2293 because he rose through the ranks of Garten's Raumwaffe way back when. This intertwining of populations also offers up some adventuring possibilities. Did someone leave something important somewhere now inaccessible? Might someone of mixed background be involved in smuggling items from one jurisdiction to another? What nation(s) is someone loyal to?
