After World War II, the amount of refugees that had been displaced from their original countries was astounding. Having been forced from their homes in some manner via the war, these individuals found “homes” elsewhere in foreign countries. Naturally, these refugees sought employment to sustain their ways of life. What is interesting about displaced people after the war is that they contributed to the massive labor shortages and surpluses felt across Europe. Some countries had a large number of people in their work force, while others had far too few. In the attempt to reconstruct and rebuild Europe, something that was needed was a healthy economy fueled by good laborers. Europe needed a way to balance out the people across the continent, largely where labor was concerned. Refugee labor was especially sought after. The French Minister of Population, Robert Prigent noted that displaced persons would provide excellent sources of good labor when he said, “Having witnessed their clean and skillfully arranged interiors in these ruined barracks, we are convinced that they could restore our abandoned villages and revive dying fields.” (G Cohen, In Wars Wake, Ch. 5, Pg. 105) Not only did nations seek the return of their displaced people, but they also sought out the labor that they could supply to help restore their war torn countries.
Something that happened often was the creation of DP camps. People who fled their countries during the war would often settle in a camp with people in similar situations. These DP camps became places where countries could pick and choose people to claim as one of their citizens for the purposes of their labor skills. Robert Prigent, the French Minister of Population, advised France to pick their refugees wisely because “it will be easy to examine refugees regrouped in the camps according to their professional ability, physical shape, social background, and behavior.” (G Cohen, In Wars Wake, Ch. 5, Pg. 110) This interest me because while countries were fighting to win back their citizens who had left the country due to war, other countries were fighting to take people who were not technically “theirs” in order to utilize the labor they would provide. Most European countries were looking to not only rebuild, but also to expand and boost their economy to prove their nation’s economic might and worth. There were countries like Belgium, who enticed over 30,000 males laborers to do hard labor in mines by telling them that after two years they would be able to work in a less strenuous environment, and the British, who picked men who were preferably single with no strings attached to work in coal mines, make bricks, and do hard labor on farms. Ultimately, countries did what they could to acquire the labor they needed from a population that they did not have post war.
Those most people would object to being a commodity, it’s understandable given the times. Do you believe the methods taken could have been improved upon?
Chris Jackson
For the countries accepting Displaced Peoples, they were mostly seeing it as a way to improve their country under the idea of helping others. I believe, after this period, governments chose to keep them as citizens so that they could continue to help the state. It was more about providing for the state so that you could provide for yourself.
The idea that nations were fighting over refugees of many nationalities in the post-war is strange, but it makes sense with the sources you put forward. Governments needed cheap labor and to rebuild their population base, which would have seemed like a win-win for the both parties, by some perspectives. Great post.