2.5: economic migration

guest worker programs

• guest worker: an immigrant (typically from a poorer state) who is allowed to immigrate temporarily to obtain a job in another (typically wealthier) state
  • supposed to be circular migration → guest workers eventually return to their state of origin
• circular migration: the temporary movement of a person between their home and host countries (often to seek employment)
  • migrants were intended to return home after they finished working
• former guest workers often made families and became citizens of their host countries rather than returning home; largely because of this, most guest worker programs have since ended
• migrants make more than they would back home and lower the strain on the economy of their country of origin by working elsewhere
  • their families are also supported via remittances
  • remittance: a sum of money sent, especially by mail, in payment for goods or services or as a gift

attitudes towards immigrants in Europe

• 8% of people in Europe are foreign born
  • half of these are originally European (eg. France moving to Germany), half are from other regions (eg. Syria moving to the United Kingdom)
• some political candidates accuse immigrants of rising crime rates, unemployment, and expensive welfare
  • “threat” to European culture because of varying traditions and ways of life (food, music, etc.)
• Europeans don’t like that immigration is the reason for population increase
  • reference stage 4 of the demographic transition model
  • ironic because Europe used to be an emigration hub before the Industrial Revolution
  • European emigration spread originally-European languages to 50% of the world, and led Christianity to become the most practiced religion, and had global cultural impacts via art, music, literature, philosophy, and ethics
• cultural diffusion and surges in population have been brought to previously-uninhabited or sparsely inhabited continents, namely North America and Oceania
• by moving into other areas (including Asia and Africa), Europeans threatened and in many cases wiped out Indigenous peoples, and changed their economics and ways of life to more European styles
  • ironically, many present-day refugees are fleeing their homes because of conflicts whose roots can be traced back to European colonization
  • North America and Australia: European political and economic systems
  • Asia and Africa: agriculture-based economies for shipping goods to Europe
  • conflicts stem from colonizers drawing arbitrary boundary lines and discrimination among local ethnic groups