ABSTRACT
Labour migration between countries is not a new phenomenon; in earlier times it was associated, for instance, with migration from Old Europe to the New World, and to Australia and New Zealand, and after decolonisation, from the colonies to the respective metropolitan countries. During the colonial period also, international movements of labour had taken place when areas in the underdeveloped world were incorporated and transformed into production zones for raw materials for the industrialised centre. This was undertaken with labour drawn from other parts of the colonies through a deliberate programme of labour migration. In more recent times, the movement of labour between underdeveloped countries and the advanced industrialised countries, and to the more developed parts of the periphery, has involved two streams. First, the brain drain involving skilled labour, particularly those in the professions; and second, a movement of unskilled guest workers to different parts of the advanced capitalist countries as well as the more developed parts of the Third World. At the present moment of economic crisis in the advanced industrialised countries, which are facing both stagnation and unemployment amongst their own workers, these guest-workers are no longer as welcome.
