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Valuing diversity: guidance for labour market integration of migrants

CHAPTER 3.
Demography and social-economic context

3.1. European countries and immigration

European countries have had different historical relationships to migration, with a
basic distinction between the following three groups:
(a) countries with a strong tradition in receiving immigrants;
(b) countries which have recently joined the EU;
(c) countries which evolved from emigration to immigration countries.

3.1.1. Countries with a strong tradition in receiving immigrants
Those countries which traditionally have received immigrants in Europe are
generally post-colonial countries, or countries with large intake of migrants
generated by post-war political and economic processes. This group includes
Germany, France, Austria and the United Kingdom.
France has had economic immigrants from its former colonies since the 19th
century, especially from Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia, together with a more
recent (second half of the 20th century) intake of Portuguese, Spanish and sub-
Saharan African migrants. Immigration control has become progressively tighter
since the 1970s.
The United Kingdom has fundamentally admitted citizens from the British
Commonwealth (especially from India and Pakistan) in the post-war period, to
compensate for severe labour shortages. Immigration law has become
progressively more stringent since the 1980s.
Germany has also had a strong intake of immigrants in its post-war period,
due to movements of refugees and displaced persons to both eastern and
western Germany. During the 1940s and 1950s, mass migration occurred from
the east to the west. From the 1960s to the 1990s, Germany experienced a large
intake of citizens from south European countries, the Maghreb countries and
Turkey.
Austria was a destination for many political refugees from east European
countries during the cold war period, such as Hungary, former Czechoslovakia,
Poland, former Yugoslavia, as well as Russia and middle-eastern countries such
as Afghanistan. In recent decades it has also become a destination for economic
migrants, namely from Turkey and former Yugoslavian states.
Portugal can also be considered part of this group, although it has
traditionally been a country characterised for both immigration and emigration
(especially to France, Germany and South America). During the 1970s and

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