Postcolonial Migrations to Europe

The global dynamics of decolonization set in train a whole matrix of mobility that in turn transformed European social and political trajectories. Ostensibly a moment in which empire vanished, metropole and colony in fact switched roles—the massive inward migration of formerly colonized peoples now made the major cities of Britain, France, Portugal, Belgium, and the Netherlands much more ethnically diverse. This chapter examines the debates these post-colonial migrations triggered about nationality, citizenship, social welfare, and border controls, all of which have rarely been examined from a comparative European perspective. The ways in which immigration was rendered problematic, recurrent official concerns regarding ‘integration’, ‘assimilation’ and ‘segregation’, and the language in which these new cultural encounters were mediated are considered, as are European discourses of tolerance, pluralism, and discrimination. Particular attention is paid to the longer-term effects of post-colonial migrations for comprehending Europe’s place in the world.