"Guest workers" constituted the bulk of labour migration in the past. Their flows were regulated by industry - mainly coal mines - asking for temporary workers. Therefore, it was considered that labour migrants did not affect the regional demographic and socio-economic patterns. However, the historical analysis of the industrial areas in Europe contradicts such a simplistic view. Immigrants in the industrial basins constituted a permanent component of the regional population. Moreover, they contributed to globalisation of the labour market. A long process of intermingling people has given birth to new local communities in industrial areas, different both from urban or rural communities. Increasing demand for labour migrants after the Second World War strengthened the multiethnic composition of industrial areas. When the process of industrial decline began in the late 1950s, the international nature of these local communities appeared. Case studies performed under the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community revealed the social complexity of industrial basins. From the beginning, the ECSC set up a new social policy in the framework of redeployment policies to maintain the former immigrants. They were then considered as a dynamic component of local demographic growth. Industrial areas therefore stimulated a policy of free movement of labour, a common market of labour. From the 1970s onwards free movement of labour has been a key issue in the process of European integration. Such a process is deeply rooted into the history of industrial areas.

Regional geography European Integration migration policy Industrial decline Free movement of labour globalisation labour migration

labor migration mobility industrial district Europe historical perspective Coal Mining migrant worker