Sentence:  <WSD>Settlerism</WSD> marked a significant change in the attitudes of people, especially the English, towards migration. Migration within the Anglophone world, particularly to America, was no longer perceived as a desperate act that lowered one's status, as was common in the colonial period. Rather it was a hopeful act, a more positive move than simply escaping hardship, which raised one's status. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  An ideology extolling the virtues bettering oneself by becoming a settler in an undeveloped new country.