Reporters: Jeremy James, Jeanne La Chard, John Pitman, Jack Pizzey, Desmond Wilcox, Harold Williamson
It's little more than a form of slave labour; doing the dirtiest, the most menial jobs in the affluent societies of Europe today. As prosperity and affluence increase so does the need to import a labour force to do the jobs that the newly rich will no longer consider.
The situation is thought by some to be an international scandal. It's an open secret, for instance, in Germany that the 'guest workers' shipped in from poorer countries are used to do all the dirty jobs. For legions of women there are higher wages than they can earn in Korea, the Philippines and other Third World nations - but at what human cost? What is life like for these women in the cities of Europe who wash the dishes in hotels, change the bedpans in hospitals, scrub the floors in the homes of the middle-classes?
Jeanne La Chard and a Man Alive team have looked at the situation in Germany, Italy and this country: and in the studio Desmond Wilcox meets those responsible.