The Global Migration Turn and the New International Order in the Long 1970s

Introduction

EMMANUEL COMTE AND SIMONE PAOLI

1 The Global Migration Turn: Inequality, Labour, and Conflict in an Age of Transformations

EMMANUEL COMTE

2 Dead Ends and Passageways: ‘Temporary’ Migrant Workers in the Long 1970s

JULIE M. WEISE

3 Both Imperial Citizens and Immigrants: The United Kingdom’s Struggle with the Immigrant-Citizen Dichotomy Amidst Decolonisation

MIKE SLAVEN

4 Migration Reframed: The Politicisation of Migration in France

CATHERINE WIHTOL DE WENDEN

5 Migrant Rights Activists in the Formation of Australian Multiculturalism

ALEXANDRA DELLIOS

6 The International Labour Organisation and the New International Order: The Dilemma Between Migration Control and Migrant Rights

SIMONE PAOLI

7 The Refugee Regime Going Global: Dynamic Shifts in UNHCR Responses to Population Displacement

PETER GATRELL

8 ‘Taking the “E” Out of ICEM’? Extending the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration’s Work to the World

CHRISTOPHER SZABLA AND LINA VENTURAS

9 How the Conference for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the New International Economic Order Transformed Global Migration Governance

JANNIS PANAGIOTIDIS

PART III: Europe Between Integration and Restriction

10 Diplomatic Overtures: Western Negotiations for Free Movement with Poland, 1975–1983

PAWEŁ JAWORSKI

11 (Re)Turning Around: The Influence of Gastarbeiter Migration on Greece’s European Trajectory

MARIA ADAMOPOULOU

12 Culture as a Political Tool for Migrant Activists Facing Repression in France

CHRISTIAN JACOBS

13 Perceptions from the South: Cooperation and Migration in the 1976 Tunisian-EEC Agreement

NANCY DE LEO

Conclusion

EMMANUEL COMTE AND SIMONE PAOLI

Biography

Emmanuel Comte is Marie Skłodowska-Curie–ONISILOS Fellow at the University of Cyprus. Specialising in migration history and politics, he authored The History of the European Migration Regime (2018) and co-edited Discussing Pax Germanica: The Rise and Limits of German Hegemony in European Integration (2025).

Simone Paoli is Associate Professor at the University of Pisa, Italy. His research focuses on mobility and migrations in Euro-Mediterranean history. He authored Frontiera Sud. L’Italia e la nascita dell’Europa di Schengen (2018) and co-edited Child Migration and Biopolitics (2021) and Peoples and Borders (2017).

This outstanding book persuasively argues that the 1970s was the defining decade in the history of migration. It dismantles the myth that the "migration stops" of that era ended low-skilled migration, and it shows how the international agreements and organizations that shape migration today emerged from contested interactions between the global North and global South during what the authors call the "long 1970s." This book is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand international migration today.

Randall Hansen, University of Toronto, author of War, Work, and Want: How the OPEC Oil Crisis Caused Mass Migration & Revolution

Echoing the broader interest in the long 1970s, this volume shows how important was the decade for the history of migration governance and evolution of the international migration regime. At the intersections the North-South imbalances and the East-West détente, the expansion of the welfare state in the destination countries and efforts to reconcile their interests with those of the sending ones, there emerged tendencies still present today, and dilemmas that remain unsolved. Those seeking to understand contemporary migration-related problems and those interested in the global history of the 1970s will find this volume highly informative.

Dariusz Stola, Polish Academy of Sciences

This excellent, well-focused collection of essays both clarifies and advances the scholarly discussion about the political importance of immigration in Europe. These essays serve to reset the scholarly agenda and will remain important for years to come.

Martin Schain, New York University, USA