“Migrant labour regimes and the regulation of temporary labour migration in Europe”

Abstract

This special issue develops the concept of “migrant labour regime” (MLRs), to analyse the regulatory infrastructure of labour migration. MLRs involve complex networks of actors, institutions, norms, and expectations, that facilitate migration, and regulate the labour processes in migrants’ workplaces, and migrants’ interactions with labour markets. MLRs arise out of employers’ demands and employer requirements for control of the labour process in specific production activities. Other actors, such as migrants, unions, and the state shape them at various points. MLRs are influenced by employer efforts to avoid norms, regulations and institutions of worker protection. The empirical contributions to this special issue analyse particular MLRs, teasing out their characteristics, which are focused on placing migrants at a labour market disadvantaged vis-a-vis employers and other workers. These include the presence of labour market intermediaries, dualized labour markets, restrictive status regimes, sector specificity, expansive dynamics, limited state capacity for enforcement, and an emphasis on social isolation of migrants. Both eastern and western European countries receive migrant labour through MLRs, although each MLR's characteristics are specific to its context.