Introduction: Labour migration in Europe: Changing policies – changing organizations – changing people

Abstract

Under which circumstances do labour migration policies change? When do organizations become agents of change? And what triggers significant transformation in labour migration flows? We start from the assumption that, during the last years, change in the field of labour migration has intensified. In some countries, paradigmatic changes towards more liberal immigration regimes have taken place; new organizations have emerged; and the profile of intra‐European workers’ mobility has changed. The articles assembled in this volume shed light on developments in the field of labour migration by using the notion of change as their conceptual lens. They show that changes can best be captured with a multi‐level model and an interdisciplinary approach that connects labour migration issues to broader political science and sociological theories. Such an analysis shows that recent changes are paradigmatic, multi‐layered and ambiguous with regard to a further liberalization of the European labour migration regime.

Actors, Ideas, and International Influence: Understanding Migration Policy Change in South America

“…The literature studying specific cases of MPCh has typically centered on Global-North countries, particularly in Europe and North America (e.g., Martín-Pérez and Moreno-Fuentes 2012;Kolb 2017;Laubenthal 2017;Caponio and Jones-Correa 2018). This literature frequently includes state-centered, interest group, and institutional approaches (e.g., Freeman 1995;Massey 1999;Abou-Chadi 2016), all of which see policies as a result of domestic pressures and interactions by diverse interest groups, party politics, state institutions, and public opinion (Freeman 1995;Joppke 1998;Breunig and Luedtke 2008;Hollifield, Martin and Orrenius 2014;Abou-Chadi 2016).…”

“…Piñera's “migration reform,” which was based on the idea of “cleaning up the house” (Thayer 2019), proposed to deal with “almost a third of that [migrant] population that is in an irregular situation” and the “urgent” need for new legislation (Prensa Presidencia 2018 a ). As he stated in a 2018 speech, the reform aimed to get “modern legislation that opens the doors to those who are good to our country, but that closes the door to all who could cause harm to the Chilean people” (Prensa Presidencia 2018 a ), distinguishing between “good” and “bad” immigrants.…”

“…This literature frequently includes state-centered, interest group, and institutional approaches (e.g., Freeman 1995;Massey 1999;Abou-Chadi 2016), all of which see policies as a result of domestic pressures and interactions by diverse interest groups, party politics, state institutions, and public opinion (Freeman 1995;Joppke 1998;Breunig and Luedtke 2008;Hollifield, Martin and Orrenius 2014;Abou-Chadi 2016). This narrow geographical focus limits the explanatory power of existing theoretical explanations of MPCh, which are consequently centered on party politics, coalitions, the influence of public opinion, and migration flows (Laubenthal 2017;Giugni and Grasso 2021). Global-South countries, however, often have different political dynamics (Sadiq and Tsourapas 2021;Natter 2021aNatter , 2021b and are more subject to the influence of external political units (Acharya and Johnston 2007;Adamson and Tsourapas 2019).…”

Can we get them moving? The impact of mobility assistance on cross‐country migration of young adults in Europe

“…Participants have been actively recruited via official channels, especially the EURES-network, a network for jobs and mobility in Europe launched by the European Commission, and the German Central Administration for Migration (ZAV), but also more informal channels such as language schools in the country of origin. This programme represents a change towards a more liberal migration policy in Germany that considers migration as a policy tool to tackle shortages of skilled labour (Ette et al, 2016;Laubenthal, 2017; for a systematic analysis of the political discourse on MobiPro see Heimann & Wieczorek, 2017).…”

Migration processes in European Union: problems and challenges

“…Другими факторами были усиление влияния экономического и культурного развития на политику национальных государств, преференциальные интересы отдельных групп стран, а также глобализация экономики. Изменения в процессах трудовой миграции состояли в переходе миграционной политики большинства стран от рестриктивной к более либеральной и наоборот, в растущей роли организаций и институтов в качестве регуляторов трудовой миграции, в новых географических и социально-экономических характеристиках миграции, отличающихся от более ранних этапов процессов миграции, в появлении новых интеграционных паттернов вместо приглашения гастарбайтеров 104 .…”