This work investigates how the transition from post-war economic expansion to long-term stagnation fundamentally altered the class position and social integration of immigrant workers in Western Europe. Authors Godula Kosack and Stephen Castles utilize a structuralist framework to analyze the mass migration of labor from Southern Europe and developing nations into the industrial centers of the West. By examining the intersection of capital accumulation and labor supply, the authors argue that immigrant populations were systematically integrated into the lower strata of the class structure to serve the needs of expanding economies.

Experts recognize this text as a foundational contribution to the study of migration and labor economics in the late twentieth century. Scholars frequently cite the authors' rigorous structural analysis as a key reference for understanding the socioeconomic dynamics of the European guest worker programs.