Windrush and Guest Workers: Postwar Migration to Europe

After 1945, rebuilding Europe needed workers, and migration flowed from former colonies and from southern Europe and Turkey. In 1948 the ship Empire Windrush brought hundreds of Caribbean passengers to Britain, where the British Nationality Act of that year recognized people across the empire as citizens. West Germany signed agreements to recruit so-called guest workers, Gastarbeiter, from Italy in 1955 and Turkey in 1961, expecting them to leave after a few years; many stayed and brought families.

France recruited workers from Algeria, Morocco and Portugal. These migrants rebuilt cities, staffed hospitals and transport systems, and changed food, music and religious life, but they also faced discrimination in housing and work. Later disputes, such as Britain's Windrush scandal from 2017, revealed how unclear legal status could harm long-settled residents. Postwar migration turned many European nations into diverse societies.