European Migratory Labor

Abstract

The present poverty of the Southern European countries of emigration (Portugal, Spain, Southern Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Yugoslavia) must be seen, not simply as a historical, demographic, or geographic artifact, but as the continuing effect of a total and ongoing economic system, a system which extends far beyond anyone country's borders. All of the nations of emigration are integrated into an international capitalist economy which produces enormous wealth in some areas and among some classes and enormous poverty in other areas and among other classes. The economic forces which now produce the comforts of Stockholm or Dusseldorf are simultaneously sustaining the historical poverty of Cordoba or Messina. In this context, the present system of migratory labor in Europe is a major factor perpetuating the poverty and concomitant political and social backwardness of the countries of emigration.

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