ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how the European experience of migration is different from that of the USA. It contrasts migration in the fordist and post-fordist periods: contemporary post-fordist migration is very different to that of the classical post-World War II period through which the contemporary situation is often still understood. The population movements of the immediate post-war period created a labour reserve for the rebuilding of West European industry. In the fordist period immigrants entered quite specific areas of the labour market. More recent empirical work in economics has disaggregated the impact of immigration and clearly suggests that immigration has different impacts on different groups of wage and salary earners. The new availability of large numbers of people ready to work long hours in unpleasant and even unregulated environments changes the jobs that are available. The chapter indicates the transformation of the US social structure.
