ABSTRACT
This chapter chronicles and analyzes some of the changes that occurred in the labor markets of the three regions as a result of the removal of the impediments to labor flows across at least some of the former borders, and points out some of their social and economic implications. In the economically active population the differences were even greater while Gaza accounted for less than one-twentieth. This ascending disparity between Israel and the other two areas was an expression of differences in their respective stages of economic growth and of social development. Like most military conflicts, the six days war generated a refugee movement that continued after the cessation of hostilities and took the form of massive emigration from the territories occupied by Israel as economic conditions there deteriorated. In a severe economic contraction many workers could find downgrading to less skilled and less responsible occupations to be the only alternative to being laid off.
