2 The transition from colonialism to the migration policies in Europe Toni Ricciardi Introduction For some decades now, an increasing number of countries have been going through a prolonged migration transition, presenting themselves as both countries of immigration and emigration. Other countries, on the other hand, have experienced the phenomenon at the same time. What at first glance appears to be a recent phenomenon, however, has its roots in the last two centuries. During the period of European imperialism, definitions, structures, ways of acting and managing migratory phenomena, as we still know them today, were born. After all, international migration is not simply a result of individuals’ search for better opportunities, but is also linked to a complex series of economic and geopolitical processes (Sassen, 1996). It is also an especially important interpretive key through which to understand the long history of globalisation. Migration is a collective action that increasingly changes the social, political, economic, and cultural landscape of the world (Castles and Miller, 2009); it is a fait social total (Mauss, 1925). To understand how some decisions have been taken in the field of migration policies, that is how the transition from colonial management of migration to migration policies in Europe occurred after the Second World War, we consider it appropriate to start with what Hatton and Williamson define as “the age of mass migration” (Hatton and Williamson, 1998). This period, from the mid-nineteenth century to the outbreak of the First World War, was characterised by trans- oceanic migration. After 1945, this type of movement affected every region of the globe, and it became even more widespread in the 1980s. States took as a normative model the international system that emerged after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. In the following centuries, the nation-state, which emerged in Europe, became a universal phenomenon, first through colonisation and then through decolonisation. Since the colonial era, ever more foreign labour has been required for each era of economic growth. Over time, this workforce has become sedentary, contributing to the growth and well-being of the countries that hosted it or forced it, as in the case of slaveholding states. However, European states have denied being countries of immigration at several points in history, attributing the phenomenon exclusively