Topic 9.11 Notes – Migration and Immigration

How Postwar Migration Reshaped Europe

Europe right after 1945 was full of movement, but not all of it was the same. There were refugees, displaced persons, expelled ethnic Germans, and people fleeing communist rule. For this topic, though, the defining pattern starts in the 1950s, when migration became tied to jobs and long-term settlement.

• Emigration means leaving a country.
• Immigration means entering a country.
• The same person can be both. A Turkish worker was an emigrant from Turkey and an immigrant in West Germany.

The main chain to remember goes like this:

1. Postwar economic boom
2. Labor shortages
3. Recruitment of foreign workers
4. Family reunification and permanent communities
5. Backlash during downturns

Cold War migration still matters because politics also pushed movement. The Berlin Wall is a clear example of a government trying to stop migration at its source.

• Hungarian Revolt, 1956 → refugees fled Soviet repression.
• Prague Spring, 1968 → more refugees moved west.
• Berlin Wall, 1961 → East Germany built it to stop people from leaving for the West.

Berlin Wall under construction, 1961

Why Migrants Came and Where They Went

Western and central Europe had a postwar economic miracle. Factories, mines, construction sites, transport systems, and services all needed workers.

• Pull factors included higher wages, labor shortages, reconstruction, and industrial growth.
• Push factors included rural poverty, unemployment, political instability, decolonization, war, and persecution.

Migration within Europe

A huge share of migrants moved from poorer parts of Europe to richer ones.

• From Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Yugoslavia, and Turkey
• To France, West Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, and the Netherlands

West Germany and Gastarbeiter

Gastarbeiter means “guest workers.” West Germany signed labor agreements with Italy in 1955 and Turkey in 1961, among others. These workers were supposed to stay temporarily, but many ended up building lives there.

Immigration from former colonies and beyond

Imperial ties shaped migration routes just as much as economics did.

• France received migrants from Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia.
• Britain received migrants from the Caribbean and South Asia.
  • Empire Windrush, 1948 became the symbol of Caribbean migration.
  • British Nationality Act, 1948 kept movement within the Commonwealth relatively open.
  • Commonwealth Immigrants Act, 1962 tightened controls.
• Netherlands received migrants from Indonesia, Suriname, and the Dutch Caribbean.
• Belgium and Portugal also received postcolonial migrants.

From Temporary Workers to Permanent Communities

Governments wanted workers, not new citizens. That was the contradiction.

• Family reunification brought spouses and children, turning male labor migration into settled communities.
• Migration networks kept movement going because earlier migrants helped relatives and friends find housing and jobs.
• Remittances sent money back home, linking European economies to migrants’ countries of origin.

This changed everyday politics:

• citizenship laws
• housing and schools
• language policy
• voting and political participation

The first generation often arrived as workers. The second generation grew up in Europe and pushed harder for full belonging. A classic AP point is this: ending labor recruitment did not end immigration.

Why Migration Became More Controversial After the 1970s

The oil crisis of 1973 ended the long boom and brought inflation, unemployment, and slower growth. West Germany stopped large-scale labor recruitment that same year.

Migrants then became easy scapegoats. People blamed them for:

• job competition
• welfare costs
• housing shortages
• crime
• cultural change

Anti-immigrant politics grew from both economics and nationalism.

Later migration kept the issue alive:

• Yugoslav Wars refugees in the 1990s
• East-to-west migration after 1989 and EU enlargement, especially from Poland
• migration fears feeding Euroskepticism and Brexit
• Syrian refugee crisis, 2015
• Ukrainian refugees after 2022

Keep these categories straight:

• labor migrants move for work
• refugees flee danger and receive protection
• asylum seekers are applying for that protection
• family migrants join relatives already settled

How Immigration Changed Religion, Identity, and Politics

Immigration changed Europe’s religious makeup, especially through the growth of Muslim communities from North Africa, Turkey, South Asia, the Balkans, and the Middle East. This happened at the same time western Europe was becoming more secular.

Big arguments centered on:

• mosques and minarets
• headscarves and religious symbols
• religious education
• secularism versus religious freedom
• what national identity meant

France and laïcité

In France, laïcité means a strongly secular public sphere. Headscarf controversies showed the tension between republican secularism and religious liberty.

Different national approaches

• France leaned toward assimilation into a secular public culture.
• Britain became more associated with multiculturalism.
• West Germany long treated migrants as temporary guests, even when they clearly were not.

Migration forced Europeans to rethink older ethnic ideas of the nation. The debate became bigger than immigration policy. It became a debate over citizenship, belonging, sovereignty, and what it means to be European.