War, Work, and Want

Book excerpt: "This book asks why, against all expectations, global migration tripled in the five decades after 1973. The book argues that economic and geopolitical changes unleashed by the OPEC oil crisis led to well over one hundred million migrants that few people expected or wanted. More people are on the move than at any time in human history: 281 million. This total figure has more than tripled since 1975 (90 million) and almost doubled since 1990 (153 million). Economically, immigration has transformed multiple sectors of the economy: agriculture, meatpacking, fishing, construction, retail, and caregiving. Politically, migration has cut a swathe through national, regional, and global politics: reshaping coalitions, reconfiguring party systems, and helping propel the far-right to power in Europe and-in the form of Donald Trump -the United States. The enormity of these changes is doubly impressive because largescale migration was unexpected and, in the global north, unwanted: slower post-1970s economic growth should have led to less immigration, and both European and American politicians attempted to end it"--