The impacts of postwar migration to Western Europe

"This essay identifies and analyzes the four most important impacts of postwar migration to Western Europe. First, early postwar immigration facilitated the rapid and sustained expansion of the domestic economy. Second, it eventually precipitated major changes in domestic immigration and citizenship regimes. Third, the influx of millions of immigrants, refugees, asylees, and migrant workers profoundly and permanently altered the social and cultural bases of West European societies. And finally, postwar immigration exacerbated the social tensions that helped to undermine the consensual foundations of the postwar political order."