While there is considerable interest in migration-trade relationship in policy and academic circles, we believe that this relationship has overlooked some of the fundamental dynamics at play. Specifically, we maintain that the process of independence can influence the migration-trade nexus. Independence, whether violent or peaceful, has received extensive academic and policy attention on state capacity and trade. Despite its identified effect on these outcomes, the literature has not focused on the role independence plays on the movement of people across and within borders. We maintain that independence gained violently might at first sight be thought as particularly likely to generate migration, but we argue that this is likely to change in the long-term. Our quantitative analysis of migration, covering all countries in the post-World War II era, highlights the causal processes at work explain the connections between independence, migration, and development.