I thought I’d make my first contribution to Bi2.0 by asking a question.  After reading Pedro’s very interesting post about immigrants from Spain to the Basque region and emigrants from the Basque region to the new world, I was left wondering how the same region could be both an importer and an exporter of migrant labor during broadly the same historical period.  Isn’t this pretty unusual?  Have other European regions been both magnets for immigrants from other areas while at the same time exporting large numbers of emigrants to far off places?  Most Basque immigrants to the new world left their homeland in search of economic opportunity, but it would seem that labor was in much demand in Basque industry.  What explains this social and economic paradox?