Canada's Guestworkers: Some Comparisons of Temporary Workers in Europe and North America 1

Abstract

Historically, as the new world opened up, many of the 60 to 70 million migrants who arrived in the Americas between 1800 and 1930 intended to make a permanent settlement and break with their homelands, while others intended to eventually re-migrate home. Contemporary migration increasingly includes the flow of temporary workers along with the flow of permanent settlers. Böhning (1979), as noted in Martin and Richards (1980:9), cites a current situation of increased migration pressure in the world at a time when most countries are moving to restrict immigration. Furthermore, Miller (1981:xv) notes:

The world today is awash with international migrants; legally admitted foreign workers, illegal aliens, political refugees, and, proportionally fewer, fewer than heretofore, permanent immigrants…international migration increasingly encompasses either legally admitted foreign workers who are expected and sometimes constrained to repatriate after sojourns abroad or illegal aliens who enter a country outside the ambit of immigration law.