Des "travailleurs étrangers" aux "citoyens européens". Mobilité et migrations dans les bassins industriels en Europe aux 19ème-20ème siècles

Abstract

From "Guest workers" to "European citizens". Mobility and migration in industrial areas in Europe, 19-20th centuries. "Guest workers" constituted the bulk of labour migration in the past. Their flows were regulated by industry — mainly coal mines - asking for temporary workers. Therefore, it was considered that labour migrants did not affect the regional demographic and socio-economic patterns. However, the historical analysis of the industrial areas in Europe contradicts such a simplistic view. Immigrants in the industrial basins constituted a permanent component of the regional population. Moreover, they contributed to globalisation of the labour market. A long process of intermingling people has given birth to new local communities in industrial areas, different both from urban or rural communities. Increasing demand for labour migrants after the Second World War strengthened the multiethnic composition of industrial areas. When the process of industrial decline began in the late 1950s, the international nature of these local communities appeared. Case studies performed under the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community revealed the social complexity of industrial basins. From the beginning, the ECSC set up a new social policy in the framework of redeployment policies to maintain the former immigrants. They were then considered as a dynamic component of local demographic growth. Industrial areas therefore stimulated a policy of free movement of labour, a common market of labour. From the 1970s onwards free movement of labour has been a key issue in the process of European integration. Such a process is deeply rooted into the history of industrial areas.