Profit and Loss: The Current Relevance of Historical Migration Research

Abstract

In recent years the debate about migration and integration has come prominently to the fore in many European countries, but has possibly created the most commotion in the Netherlands. In Winnaars en verliezers [Winners and losers], Leo and Jan Lucassen take a critical look at the thesis of ‘integration pessimism’, and set out to evaluate the ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ of migrations to the Netherlands in the last five centuries. This discussion raises some methodological and interpretation problems that are inherent in the concepts of profit and loss and examines the limits and possibilities of similar research in Belgium.