The new edition takes into account recent changes in migration since the fall of the Soviet bloc and the unification of Germany. Current developments in Europe brought forth by the European Union's attempts at increasing mobility between countries and in Japan, where the government was forced to permit greater immigration, are also discussed.

The contributors examine in greater detail the role of unfree labour in the world wide spread of capitalism in the nineteenth century. New historical, sociological, and economic research on labour markets and ethnic groups is for the first time synthesised in this new edition.