Refugees as Labor: Post World War II Displaced Persons in Australia, Canada, and the USA

Abstract The resettlement of approximately one million European displaced persons (DPs) after the Second World War was a major milestone in humanitarian resettlement. It was also a major milestone in the expansion of immigration in Australia, Canada, and the USA. The humanitarian and immigration expansion aspects of DP resettlement were the result of formal government policy as well as humanitarian organizations, interest groups concerned about the need for labor, and individuals linked to DPs by ties of blood, national origin, and religion. This article examines how the search for labor was integrated into public policy, program implementation, and political debate about DPs and became an essential component of DP resettlement. Specific discussions of Australia, Canada, and the USA help show the different ways a program of humanitarian resettlement could be structured to produce immediate—rather than delayed—economic benefits. This comparative consideration of post-war DP resettlement helps open up future research options for a more integrated understanding of humanitarian and labor aspects of immigration policy more generally, especially in the way profit of various kinds can accrue to policy-guided humanitarian resettlement.