The Economic History of Immigration in Northwestern Europe
June 6, 2026 · Frisian News
Between 1995 and 2015, immigration added millions of workers to Northwestern Europe's labor markets. Economists celebrated the GDP gains, but most of those gains went to business owners, not workers.
Between 1995 and 2015, immigration to the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium added millions of workers to the labor force. Economists claimed this boosted GDP growth and filled labor shortages. The actual distribution of those gains tells a different story.
Business owners and large employers captured most of the economic benefit. Lower wages for unskilled work meant higher profit margins in construction, agriculture, and hospitality. Manufacturers could expand without paying workers more. Workers already in these sectors saw their real wages stagnate or fall. Immigration in this period suppressed wages in unskilled occupations. Those costs fell on the least educated native workers, not on business or capital.
Post-war immigration to Northwestern Europe did not happen by accident. Capital deliberately engineered it. France, Germany, and the Netherlands recruited from southern Europe, Turkey, and North Africa starting in the 1950s and 1960s. It was labor arbitrage. Employers wanted cheap workers. Governments wanted to avoid raising wages or improving conditions. The official story spoke of shortages and growth. The real story was keeping labor costs down and labor power weak.
Did immigration boost total GDP? Yes, because more workers produce more output. But did it boost GDP per person? The data is less clear. Average wages in both Germany and the Netherlands stayed flat in the 2000s and 2010s compared to earlier decades. Productivity growth slowed. The gains from immigration went mainly to owners of capital, not to workers. A worker competing for a job is not the same as a worker sharing in economic gains.
The mainstream story about immigration and economics misses the core fact: it can be very good for capital and very bad for workers at the bottom. When policymakers claim immigration helped the economy, they are usually talking about GDP, not wages. When they say it filled shortages, they mean it allowed them to avoid paying more. The economic history is honest about this. Our public debate should be too.
Published June 6, 2026 · Frisian News