The Governance of Migrant Labour Supply in Europe, Before and During the Crisis

Abstract

After more than two decades of policy inertia, since the late 1990s a new interest in labour migration arose across Europe and at the EU level. This translated into a new season of policy experimentation which expressed itself in very different forms across the continent. Such an uneven wave of policy change has not been interrupted by the crisis, which however has deeply altered its dynamics, propelling innovation in some countries and blocking it elsewhere. Based on in-depth fieldwork carried out in the framework of a comparative research project (www.labmiggov.eu) in six European countries VOL. 2, NO. 4, 2014

Looking for the Best and Brightest? Deservingness Regimes in Italian Labour Migration Management

“…One especially relevant issue pertains to the conceptualization of labour migration management itself, which, according to Pastore (), should go beyond a narrow focus on the targeted admission of foreigners from abroad for specific and explicit working purposes, to encompass all policies aimed at granting, furthering or boosting access to domestic labour markets to foreigners. These include the regulation of those flows of migrants which, while admitted through other routes, have access to the labour market (such as family migrants, students, refugees) as well as the “back door” of ex‐post regularizations.…”

“…In recent years, labour migration governance has attracted increasing interest from migration scholars and policymakers across Europe and beyond (Caviedes, ; Menz and Caviedes, ; OECD, ; Paul, ; Ruhs, ; Ruhs and Anderson, ) after the ‘recruitment stop’ (Pastore, ) that began in the first half of the 1970s. Contemporary discourses on labour migration and management are, however, marked by significant discontinuities compared to old post‐war labour migration schemes.…”

So close but yet so far? Labour Migration Governance in Italy and Spain

“…Monzini et al., ). Attention was given to the growing relevance of labour migration channels such as labour migration quotas for privileged countries (Pastore, ). Finally, first embryonic integration plans, such as the National Integration Plan in Spain and the Action Plan for Immigration Integration in Portugal, were developed (Peixoto et al., ).…”

A Crucial Testing Ground

“…those regulating the admission of third-country nationals for employment purposes) as part of a competitiveness strategy do not allow to understand how and why States admit a substantial share of their migrant workforce through alternative channels. Consistently with the analytical framework used in the LAB-MIG-GOV research project, I will instead adopt here a broader focus on the complex and dynamic policy mix in what may be defined as a migrant labour supply (MLS) policy field (Pastore, 2014 and. I will therefore look at both official labour migration policies addressing MCWs and at what we have defined as their 'functional equivalents', i.e.…”

“…As for the geographical scope of the comparative analysis, this will be limited to the five largest European countries, namely Germany, France, Italy, the United Kingdom and Spain, plus Sweden. These were in fact the target countries of the LAB-MIG-GOV research project from which this article originates (see Pastore, 2014).…”