Immigration, Poverty, and Socioeconomic Inequality

Chapter 13. Immigration: The European Experience

/ 423 Chapter 13 Immigration: The European Experience Christian Dustmann and Tommaso Frattini F or most European countries, large-scale immigration is a more recent phenomenon than for countries such as Australia, the United States, or Canada. For instance, although Germany and Spain today have foreign-born populations similar to that of the United States in relative terms (14.5 percent and 13 percent of their total populations, respectively), the share of foreign born in West Germany before 1960 and in Spain before the early 1990s was below 1 percent. By contrast, the foreign-born population in the United States was 12.5 percent in 2009, but 13.6 percent in 1900. Immigration to Europe is also heterogeneous: immigrant populations differ in terms of ethnicity, origin, and educational attainment . For instance, more than 70 percent of the foreign born population in Ireland comes from within the EU, but only 21 percent does in the neighboring United Kingdom, where almost one-third of the immigrant population comes from South Asia. Why are immigrant populations so different across countries? How are the different historical experiences of individual countries reflected in the current composition of immigrants and their labor market integration? We begin with a brief overview of the history of migration to European countries, highlighting differences and similarities across countries. mIgRaTIoN To EuRoPE: a bRIEF hISToRICal PERSPECTIvE The heterogeneity in migrations experienced across countries is enormous after World War II. Some countries saw large immigration, others predominantly emigration , and still others have changed from emigration to immigration. Countries differ also in the type, origin, and composition of their immigrant populations. Immigration, Poverty, and Socioeconomic Inequality 424 / Population movements after world war II The peace treaties at the end of World War II lay the foundation for the new geopolitical landscape in postwar Europe, giving rise to large population movements into and across Europe. Countries like Germany and Austria were substantially reduced in their national boundaries, and other countries expanded. Further, the beginning of the cold war created a politically and economically divided Europe with separate political structures and economic systems. The postwar period also saw a continuation of decolonization and the withdrawal of the old colonial powers from their former colonies. Strong economic growth in some European countries in the decades between the mid-1950s and the mid-1970s led to large immigration movements from the periphery of Europe into its center, and from countries to which links existed through colonial histories. In addition, the foundation of the European Economic Community in 1957 and its subsequent expansion , establishing an ever-larger common market with free movement of people, goods, and capital affected migration movements. Finally, the collapse of the Soviet empire led to conflicts and refugee movements as a consequence of a worldwide political and economic restructuring, as well as previously suppressed intraEuropean movements. Immediate Postwar Period An immediate consequence of the partitions and political separations following World War II were large intra-European movements due to displacement and forced resettlement. The country most affected was Germany. According to John Salt and Hugh Clout (1976), by 1950 some 7.8 million refugees had found a new home in West Germany and 3.5 million in East Germany. Refugees were largely displaced ethnic German populations from new Eastern bloc countries like Poland , Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and the Soviet Union, or refugees who resettled for political reasons. These movements gradually ebbed away as eastern European countries became increasingly insulated, symbolized by the building of the Berlin wall in 1961. Economic Expansion and Decolonization Starting in the early 1950s, European countries experienced a second large migration wave, quite different from the first. This time the movement was one from southern Europe, as well as non-European Mediterranean countries and former colonies, into western and northern Europe. Reasons for these movements were a combination of the tremendous economic expansion, due to reconstruction of the economies of northern European countries, coupled with serious labor shortages, Immigration: The European Experience / 425 as well as decolonization of former colonial powers. A most significant feature of these migrations was that they drew ethnically diverse populations into European countries that so far had been ethnically homogenous. Many European colonial powers—such as the United Kingdom, France, Netherlands , Belgium, and Portugal—lost their colonies in the immediate postwar decades . Among the significant events were the independence from Great Britain of India and Pakistan in 1947 and of Ghana in 1957, Congo’s...