Julie Weise, History, and 2023–24 Faculty Research Fellow.

The world’s first collective experiment with government-managed temporary labor migration began during World War I and grew dramatically after World War II, encouraging millions of people to cross international borders. The migration programs reshaped rural livelihoods, cemented industrialized countries’ dependence on migrant labor, and had transformative demographic consequences still felt to this day. My book offers a deeper history of this now-ubiquitous phenomenon—a synthesis of policymakers’ grand plans with the voices and experiences of recruited workers from Europe, Africa, and the Americas.