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