INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION AND THE POLITICS OF ADMISSION AND EXCLUSION IN POSTWAR EUROPE

Although nation-states assume territorial, political and cultural boun dedness, their boundaries are not uniform barriers, but rather are cha racterized by varying degrees of openness and closure to international migrants. The manipulation of the permeability of these boundaries co nstitutes the politics of admission and exclusion. There are two dimen sions to such a politics: a geographic one, allowing foreign migrants access to residence and work in the national territory; and a civic on e, allowing foreign migrants access to citizenship. This paper provide s a discussion of the complex economic, political and social forces im pinging on the politics of admission and exclusion and an analysis of how these forces have been operating in a particular historical and ge ographical context to determine the admission of international migrant s into national territory and community. Throughout the postwar period the prosperous countries of Western Europe have willingly accepted fo reign migrants as temporary labor, but have been less willing to provi de them access to the civil and political rights of citizenship, illus trating how economic self-interest and exclusionary nationalist and ra cist ideologies are combined in the admission policies of advanced ind ustrialized countries. There are signs that the integration of nation- states into regional blocs such as the EC is shifting the politics of admission and exclusion practised by the dominant member countries to the supra-national scale.