Lecture by Julie Weise (University of Oregon) 

The world’s first collective experiment with government-managed temporary labor migration, which began during World War I and grew dramatically after World War II, encouraged millions of people to cross borders in the Americas, Europe, and southern Africa before it wound down amid political opposition and economic malaise in the 1960s-70s. The migration programs reshaped those continents’ rural livelihoods, cemented industrialized countries’ dependence on migrant labor, and—notwithstanding articulated intentions to make migration temporary—had transformative demographic consequences still felt to this day. Yet these developments, which were integral to the twentieth century’s unprecedented march towards greater prosperity, remain little known and poorly understood. In this talk, historian Julie Weise offers a deeper history of the now-ubiquitous phenomenon of government-recruited temporary workers—a synthesis of policymakers’ grand plans with the voices and experiences of recruited workers from Europe, Africa, and the Americas. 

The Department of History’s Seminar Series runs throughout the academic year and features guest speakers from the nation’s top universities who share their perspectives on history. Visit history.uoregon.edu for more information about this event and others in the series.