International Labour Migration, Economic Growth and Labour Markets: the Current State of Affairs

The second half of the 20 century has seen major shifts in the nature and the extent of worldwide migration. While the classical immigration countries such as the United States have remained major receiving areas, their sources of immigration have changed substantially, away from the traditional European sources to Latin America and Asia. At the same time, many societies in Europe have been transformed by their intense and multi-faceted immigration experience in the sixty years after World War II. Finally the enlargement of the EU – in combination with increasing migration activity worldwide – has placed migration high on the European agenda. This does not only apply to the EU 15 countries. In addition, Central European countries face increasing problems with their new role as transit countries for people heading towards Western Europe. Also the characteristics of the migration flows have become more diverse. Temporary migration of workers, especially highly skilled workers, is increasingly growing in importance, while traditional migration networks appear to be losing their significance. More restrictive migration policies towards asylum seekers, refugees and unskilled workers has increased the volume of illegal immigration and human trafficking.