The Narrowing-Down of the OEEC/OECD Migration Functions, 1947–1986

This chapter explains how West European states determined the migration functions of the organisation. In the early years of the Cold War, the United States tried to use the OEEC to open the migration regime in Western Europe. However, the OEEC included too many low-income countries of emigration to develop an open migration regime. Given immigration states’ reluctance to more ambitious projects, the organisation served as a forum of weak coordination of immigration practices. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the shift from liberal to restrictive migration policies appeared to open a window of opportunity for the OECD. Emigration countries, supported by the OECD Secretariat, tried to develop cooperation to redistribute the costs of those policies. However, disagreements within its diverse membership and competition from other international organisations, undermined the OECD’s position. The organisation found itself in the mid 1980s assuming migration functions only at the level of reciprocal information.