Inleiding: Arbeidsmigranten en grensarbeiders. Vergelijkende perspectieven op de mijnarbeidsmarkten in het Belgisch-Duits-Nederlandse grensgebied in de twintigste eeuw
Ad Knotter
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Labour migrants and cross-border commuters. Comparative perspectives on mining labour markets in the Belgian-Dutch-German borderland in the twentieth century
In the Belgian-Dutch-German borderland, known today as the Euregio Meuse- Rhine, four coalfields were situated close to each other: the Campine and Liège areas in Belgium, the mining region around Aachen in Germany, and the Dutch basin of South Limburg. In this introductory essay the spatial structures of international migration and cross-border commuting to these mining areas are related to the institutional impact of state borders. There appears to have been a hierarchy of preferred recruitment areas, with international migration at the lowest end. This does not mean, however, that these preferences invariably resulted in a ‘dual labour market’, restricting migrants to a secondary market segment within the mining industry only. Migrants and commuters were recruited for a variety of reasons, depending on the phase in the life cycle of exploitation in a specific basin. A series of migration regimes are suggested, related to the ‘start’, ‘expansion’, ‘consolidation’, ‘war intermezzo’, ‘rebuilding’, and the ‘closing’ of the mines. The general conclusion is that there were large differences in the migration regimes of the areas concerned, and that national borders played an increasingly important role in the labour market strategies of both miners and mining companies.

Arbeidsmarktstrategieën in de Belgische mijnindustrie tot 1940
Frank Caestecker
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Labour market strategies in the Belgian mine industry until 1940
This article analyses the composition of the labour force in the Belgian mining industry from the early nineteenth century until 1940. The recruitment of labour and the settlement of workers in the mining profession are analysed within changes in the economic structure of Belgium. Also the organisation of work, technological innovations, social ambitions and political factors had an input in how this work force changed during this time period. In the mining industry a core of miners assured basic production, while peaks in demand were met by hiring casual labourers. The mining companies had great difficulties to assemble a stable and full-time body of manpower to assure permanent extraction. During the nineteenth century peasants from the Walloon countryside grudgingly resigned themselves to the new industrial order. At the end of the nineteenth century the Walloon miners, by then miners since generations deserted the mines and were replaced by Flemish peasants. The availability of cheap transport, due to political considerations, enlarged considerably the choices available to the labour surplus in the Flemish countryside. They commuted on a weekly and increasingly daily basis to the cities and industrial basins. The loyalty of the Flemish workers to the mining profession was remarkably limited. The desertion of Walloon miners called however for the immigration of a settler population. The mining companies resorted to recruiting foreign labour. At the end of the interwar period foreign labour had become an indispensable part of the labour force in the Belgian mining industry.

Bekende buren en verre vreemden. Buitenlandse arbeiders in de Nederlandse steenkolenmijnen, 1900-1974
Serge Langeweg
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Known neighbours and far-away strangers. Foreign labour in the Dutch coalmines (1900-1974)
During the three quarters of the twentieth century the Dutch coalmines existed, migrant workers were recruited in different roles and numbers. In the build up and expansion phase of the industry before the 1930s the mining companies needed skilled and experienced workers. They found them mainly in the nearby German mining districts of Aachen and the Ruhr. These migrants transferred their professional experience to unskilled Dutch miners, so over the years the mining companies became less dependent on skilled miners from abroad. At the end of the 1920s also unskilled migrant workers were recruited, for instance from Poland. In the depression of the 1930s they were the first to get fired again. From that time on, Dutch miners formed the skilled core of the labour force. In the period after the Second World War, the mines were able to keep many of them (and their sons) as regular and stable workers. The relative number of migrants employed by the Dutch mines was much lower than in the years around 1930. Foreigners, in the 1950s mainly from Italy and Austria, in the 1960s from Spain, Yugoslavia and Morocco, most of them unskilled, were only recruited as temporary labourers, as guest workers.

Op zoek naar koolputters. Buitenlandse mijnwerkers in Belgisch-Limburg in de twintigste eeuw
Bart Delbroek
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Searching for colliers. Foreign miners in Belgian-Limburg in the twentieth century
This article discusses the changing size and composition of the foreign labour force in the Belgian Limburg coalfield during the twentieth century. Since the local labour market in this rural region could not supply sufficient miners, employers increasingly had to look for labour elsewhere. In the 1920s elsewhere mostly meant Italy and Poland. After the Second World War Italy, Spain and Greece were the main recruitment areas, later to be replaced by Turkey and Morocco. Only in the 1930s the number of foreign coalminers dropped significantly, mainly because the catholic and socialist unions and the national government urged to employ Belgians. There were significant regional differences in the recruitment of foreign labour. The companies in the west of the coalfield could recruit sufficient and experienced miners from a larger hinterland, while the easternmost companies suffered from competition from Dutch and other Belgian mines. Mainly recruited for harsh and dangerous underground labour, foreign miners turned out to be highly mobile. In spite of considerable efforts by employers to bind them to the company (by providing cheap and decent housing) turnover among foreigners remained high.

Buitenlandse arbeiders in de Luikse steenkolenmijnen, 1900-1974
Leen Roels
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Foreign workers in the Liège coal mines, 1900-1974
During the twentieth century the Liège mines experienced an exodus of the local labour force. This can be explained by the bad, unsafe and unhealthy working conditions, the availability of alternative employment in the region and the demographic situation. It was no longer a fact of life that sons became miners just like their fathers. In order to solve the shortage on the labour market, Flemish workers from nearby districts at the other side of the language border were recruited from the 1880s onwards. After the First World War, commuting and migration of Flemish miners came to a halt. Employers and the government increasingly had to look for workers abroad. Groups of Poles and Italians already arrived in the twenties, but labour migrants became essential for the Liège mines from 1948 onwards. Until the closing of the last mine in 1980 the number of foreigners exceeded the number of Belgians. While in the Dutch and Belgian Limburg basins the recruitment of foreign labour force followed a cyclical pattern, labour migration to the Liège mines became structural.

Secondary labour force or permanent staff?
Kristin Klank
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Foreign workers in the Aachen coal mines
The paper gives an overview of the recruitment and professional status of workers in the coal mining district of Aachen from different origins, i.e. local miners, miners from other German coal districts, cross-border commuters from Dutch South-Limburg and labour migrants. Migration history generally assumes that foreign workers were primarily employed as temporary workers in workplaces abandoned by the local population. This article argues that the labour market situation of foreign commuters and labour immigrants has to be studied separately. Commuters were primarily skilled miners, who came to the mines on their own account. After the First World War, labour mobility between the Aachen region and South-Limburg was ephemeral and often resulted from sudden institutional changes. In general, long distance labour migrants were unskilled. They arrived in the mines in large groups hired directly by agents of the mines or mediated by the Federal Employment Office. The position of foreign immigrants underwent important changes. During the first recruitment drives of the Aachen mines between 1906 and 1912, immigrants were indeed considered as temporary workers; after the Second World War, the companies tried hard to make these workers stay beyond the minimal period of one year. Long-term labour contracts could lead to integration of immigrant workers into the permanent workforce, but also penalised workers who wished to leave prematurely.