THE UNSETTLING OF EUROPE

THE GREAT MIGRATION, EUROPE TO THE PRESENT

Mass migration, whether voluntary or involuntary, has helped to define post-war Europe. In 1945 the continent’s map was redrawn, resulting in the displacement of millions of people. This was followed by ‘opportunity migration’, when people from poorer countries came to better themselves, and ‘internal migration’ from the country to the city, which transformed Italy and Spain. It was never a smooth process, but social unrest was contained. Then Yugoslavia broke up and with it came ethnic cleansing, a euphemism for crimes that recalled The Final Solution.

In the Times, David Aaronovich described The Unsettling of Europe as ‘a definitive book’ which proves, among other things, that it is wrong In 1945 the continent’s map was redrawn, displacing millions of people to describe ‘today’s migrant levels as “unprecedented”.’ Gatrell’s sympathies, said Aaronovich, ‘are plainly with the migrant … But he might have done more to explore the attitudes of the “indigenous” and non-mobile populations.’ Walter Clemens, in the New York

Journal of Books, said the two dozen photos Gatrell features ‘illustrate the multifaceted impacts of migration: a female Estonian farmworker in Sweden, 1946; a Jamaican policeman in England helping an injured white motorcyclist, 1968; guest workers from Vietnam in an East German factory in the 1980s; Pieds-noirs leaving Algeria for France in the 1960s next to a photo of a Harki family – Arabs who collaborated with the French – now uprooted.’

The Guardian’s Daniel Trilling concluded his review with this tribute: ‘Gatrell’s eye for detail and sensitivity make this a compelling account that challenges the “us” and

“them” framing into which much discussion of migration is forced. Among the many vivid stories to be found here is that of the Swiss journalist who, when asked about Italian workers in the country in the mid-60s, commented: “We asked for hands, but we got people instead.”’