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9 - Labour migration to western Europe after 1945
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- By Muhammad Anwar, University of Warwick, Nermin Abadan-Unat, Bosporus University, Carl-Ulrik Schierup, the University of Umeå, Philip E. Ogden, University of London, Tomas Hammar, University of Stockholm, Hans-Joachim Hoffmann-Nowotny, University of Zurich, Hans van Amersfoort, University of Amsterdam, Rossettos Fakiolas, National Technical University, Carlota Solé, Universität Autònoma
- Edited by Robin Cohen, University of Warwick
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- Book:
- The Cambridge Survey of World Migration
- Published online:
- 05 December 2012
- Print publication:
- 02 November 1995, pp 271-320
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Summary
As we reach the end of the twentieth century, ‘Fortress Europe’ confronts immigrants and asylum-seekers trying to enter western European countries. It is difficult to recall that half a century ago governmental policies were very different. As the British, French, Russian and American tanks rolled into German-held Europe at the end of the Second World War, they confronted millions of displaced persons. Yet, despite the chaos of this period, the war-torn economies of western Europe needed labour and, within two to three years, all the displaced persons were settled.
One must not imagine that all were absorbed without difficulty. Within the British ruling class, for example, fine distinctions were drawn between those from the Baltic States who were seen as ‘superior types’ who would easily be assimilated and those from south-east Europe who were seen as ‘alien Slavs’ or ‘simple peasant types’ and were considered less malleable immigrants. And, despite the horrors witnessed by the British troops as the concentration camps emptied, the recruiters from the British Ministry of Labour only managed to find 3000 suitable Jewish immigrants (Cohen 1994: 75–6; Kay and Miles 1992: 124). So, in short, behind the need for labour there remained a deep-seated fear of the foreigner. As Anwar construes it, Britain sent out and received millions of ethnically similar migrants, yet the existence of an ‘immigration problem’ was only proclaimed once non-white Commonwealth labour migrants were attracted to the metropolis.
7 - Switzerland
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- By Hans-Joachim Hoffmann-Nowotny, University of Zurich
- Tomas Hammar
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- Book:
- European Immigration Policy
- Published online:
- 05 November 2011
- Print publication:
- 10 October 1985, pp 206-236
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Summary
Immigration and immigration policy
Historical background
Considering its economic capacity Switzerland was long overpopulated. The problems arising from this situation were dealt with by the systematic promotion of emigration. Military emigration, i.e. enlistment as mercenaries, was the preferred form of emigration, and it had become institutionalized by the sixteenth century. Between 300,000 and 350,000 mercenaries emigrated from Switzerland in the eighteenth century (Bickel 1947:91).
Compared with the huge emigration of this period, immigration was of little importance. The only significant immigration resulted from religious persecution in neighboring countries. Between 100,000 and 150,000 Huguenots rushed to Switzerland after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685), but only about one tenth remained there permanently (Bickel 1947:88,106f; Ludwig n.d.:14). Civil immigration never came close to military emigration in importance; only 40,000–50,000 persons immigrated in the eighteenth century, a time when Switzerland's total population was 1.7 million (Bickel 1947:50,99). The main reason for this low immigration rate was probably that Switzerland had little economic attraction at the time. In addition, the extremely restrictive immigration policy of the cantons and communities, which tried to keep out even other Swiss, may also have played a role (Bickel 1947:102; Langhard 1913:3f).
In the first decades of the nineteenth century Switzerland had no centralized immigration policy. A short phase of leniency during the Helvetic Republic (1799–1802) and the Mediation Period (1803–14) was followed in 1815 by a return to the extremely restrictive policy of the eighteenth century (Moser 1967:331).