Muslims in Europe: - International Institute - University of Michigan

f. Agriculture – Changes in agriculture rivaled the revolutionary transformation of industry.
Many European countries made the transition from small-scale subsistence agriculture before
1945 to agricultural production aimed primarily at the much larger urban market. Despite the
rapidly growing demand in Europe, a technological revolution in agriculture began to produce
massive surpluses by the 1970s. (Wegs and Landrech)
B. Migration
1. Migration Statistics: http://www.medea.be/index.html?page=2&lang=en&doc=280
http://www.medea.be/?page=2&lang=en&doc=339
2. Some brief notes on migration:
a. Definitions:
Immigration: The movement of people from one national-based society to another.
Migration: Permanent or semi-permanent change of residence of an individual or group of
people. However, the meaning has changed over time. Modern migration IS largely
immigration.
b. “Post-WW II Europe experienced its longest sustained period of economic growth between
1950 and 1962. But the effects of the growth varied across the different nations. As a result of
this unevenness of growth, Europe witnessed a new phenomenon of voluntary movement of
labor across national boundaries for temporary periods of employment. The continued economic
growth encouraged the organized importation of labor, which at its peak in 1973 saw 11 to 12
million foreign workers living and working in Western Europe. By 1974, in the wake of the oil
crisis and the recession that followed it, all the major labor importing countries were banning
imported labor from non-EEC (European Economic Community) countries.
The immediate postwar period brought economic reconstruction and with it the creation of the
European Economic Community, which guaranteed free labor mobility within EEC member
countries. Though it started slowly, international migration soon overwhelmed certain areas of
Europe that were disproportionately hit by population flows. At its peak in 1973, employment
from foreign labor was estimated by the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and
Development) to be at 8 to 9 million people.
Foreign workers differed demographically and occupationally from the indigenous population.
Immigrants tended to be young, single males at prime working age who were largely uneducated
and tended to stay in their temporary locales for about 5 years. The males disproportionately
took jobs requiring unskilled manual labor, particularly in construction, while women were for
the most part evenly distributed throughout the service sectors and manufacturing. As a
consequence to these socioeconomic differences many immigrants faced prejudice and a clear
division between them and the native populations. Countries were faced with deciding between
integrating the alien population (which could cause “overforeignization”) or to allow workers to
remain separate and cast out from the societies in which they were making their homes, as
temporary as they were. (“Issues in the Evaluation of European Labor Flows,” Philip Martin,
1977)”
69