Intra-European Migration of Labour and Migration of High-level Manpower from Europe to North America¹

Abstract

Intra-European migration and immigration from Europe to North America both stem essentially from differences in the levels of economic development of the countries involved. Emigration of industrial workers from Europe to North America has remained at moderate levels: it is the movement of highly qualified manpower that has been the more significant phenomenon in this connection. In contrast, the pattern of migration between the countries of the Mediterranean littoral and industrial northern Europe has been characterised by very large-scale movements of manual workers. And, in fact, intra-European migration has largely consisted of rural agricultural workers moving to the factories and construction sites of industrialised northern Europe, where they have been rapidly transformed into an industrial labour force. The steps towards European integration taken through the E.E.C. and EFTA have accelerated and enlarged these migratory movements.