The History of the European Migration Regime

After the Second World War the international migration regime in Europe took a course different from migration regimes in other regions of the world. On the basis of national and international archives, this book explains how German geopolitical and geo-economic strategies during the Cold War shaped the openness of that original regime. The volume embraces a time frame mostly between 1947 and 1992 and deals with all types of migration between and towards European countries: the movements of unskilled labourers, skilled professionals, self-employed workers, along with those of migrants’ family members, examining both their access to economic activity and their social and political rights.