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Migration and Selection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2008

Pieter Emmer*
Affiliation:
Department of History, Leiden University and AIAS, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Abstract

Over the past forty years our ideas about migration have changed dramatically. In fact, I know of hardly any other aspect of our daily lives that has seen such a complete reversal of appreciation. Until the 1970s, immigration was something to be proud of. Over the past few decades though, we seem to have forgotten that it is far better to live in a country that people are queuing to enter rather than one that they are desperate to leave. In fact, the modern migrant and the present-day smoker have something in common: both have become outcasts almost overnight. In the Netherlands, we even have coined a new term in order to express our dislike of the modern migrant: ‘fortune seeker’. That word seems somehow to make him or her different from, and less desirable than, the classic migrant of the past centuries.

Type
Focus: Labour Migration
Copyright
Copyright © Academia Europaea 2008

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References

Notes and References

1. For an overview of the history of human migration see L. Page Moch (1992) Moving Europeans: Migration in Western Europe since 1650 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press). W. Gunwu (ed.) (1997) Global History and Migrations (Boulder, CO: Westview Press). K. J. Bade (2000) Europa in Bewegung: Migrationen vom späten 18. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart (München: Beck).Google Scholar
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