Employer Preferences for Labour Migration: Exploring ‘Varieties of Capitalism’-Based Contextual Conditionality in Germany and the United Kingdom

Abstract

European employers are rediscovering liberalised labour migration and are attempting to lobby governments to modify previously restrictive regulatory approaches. This article analyses these newly embraced interest positions, drawing on empirical evidence from the United Kingdom and Germany. Employers do not simply desire more migrants or are indifferent to their skills profile, but rather seek newcomers who can be easily accommodated and complement existing corporate strategies and skills requirements. However, they may also seek to ‘import’ missing skills that domestic educational facilities do not generate. The profile of ‘desirable’ economic migrants varies and is conditioned by production strategies and education and training schemes associated with different varieties of capitalism. This article proposes bridging the gap between comparative political economy and migration studies.

Keywords

labour migration models of capitalism employer associations

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Amable

(2003) The Diversity of Modern Capitalism (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

Balch

(2009) ‘Labour and epistemic communities: The case of “managed migration” in the UK’, British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 11:4, 613–633.

Bale

(2008) ‘Turning round the telescope: Centre-right parties and immigration and integration policies in Europe’, Journal of European Public Policy, 15:3, 315–330.

BBC (2005) ‘CBI boss rejects immigration cap’, 22 April. Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/vote_2005/frontpage/4474997.stm (accessed 11 March 2011).

BDA (2002) ‘Stellungnahme zum zuwanderungsgesetz’, 16 January (Berlin: BDA).

BDA (2007a) ‘Newsletter: Diskussion um fachkräftemangel gewinnt an dynamik’ (Berlin: BDA).

BDA (2007b) ‘Arbeitgeberpräsident Dr Dieter Hundt: Einführung des punktesystems ist ein längst überfälliger schritt’, Press Release 46/2007 (Berlin: BDA).

BDA (2007c) ‘Arbeitgeber begrüßen beschluss des bundeskabinetts zu kurzfristigen maßnahmen gegen fachkräftemangel’, Press Release 67/2007 (Berlin: BDA).

BDA (2007d) ‘Arbeitgeberpräsident Dr Dieter Hundt: Gezielte zuwanderung ja, undurchdachte europäische gesetzgebung nein!’, Press Release 105/2007 (Berlin: BDA).

10.

BDA (2008) ‘Neue regelung für arbeitsmarktmigration schritt in die richtige richtung—Punktesystem nach wie vor dringend erforderlich’. Position Paper, August (Berlin: BDA).

11.

Blair

(27 April 2004) ‘PM Speech to the Confederation of British Industry on Migration’, 27 April. Available at: http://tna.europarchive.org/20070701145120/http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/page5708.asp (accessed 11 March 2011).

12.

Bleich

(2008) ‘Review article: Immigration and integration studies in western Europe and the United States’, World Politics, 60:3, 509–538.

13.

Busemeyer

(2009) ‘Asset specificity, institutional complementarities and the variety of skill regimes in co-ordinated market economies’, Socio-economic Review, 7:3, 375–406.

14.

Castells

(1975) ‘Immigrant workers and class structure in western Europe’, Politics and Society, 5:1, 33–66.

15.

Castles

and Kosack

(1973) Immigrant Workers and Class (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

16.

Castles

and Miller

M. J.

(2003) The Age of Migration: International Population Movements in the Modern World (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan).

17.

Caterersearch (2006a) ‘Employers divided over ban on eastern European migrants’. Available at: http://www.caterersearch.com/Articles/2006/08/24/308450/Employers-divided-over-ban-on-eastern-European-migrants.htm (accessed 11 March 2011).

18.

Caterersearch (2006b) ‘CBI welcomes curbs on Bulgarian and Romanian hospitality workers’. Available at: http://www.caterersearch.com/Articles/2006/09/26/309108/CBI-welcomes-curbs-on-Bulgarian-and-Romanian-hospitality.htm (accessed 11 March 2011).

19.

Caviedes

(2006) Chipping Away at Fortress Europe: How Sectoral Flexibility Needs Shape Labor Migration Policy (University of Wisconsin, Ph.D. thesis, unpublished).

20.

CBI (Confederation of British Industry) (2005) Selective Admissions: Making Migration Work for Britain (London: CBI).

21.

CBI (Confederation of British Industry) (2006) Business Summaries: Immigration and Illegal Working (London: CBI).

22.

Cerna

(2009) ‘The varieties of high-skilled immigration policies: Coalitions and policy outputs in advanced industrial countries’, Journal of European Public Policy, 16:1, 144–161.

23.

Coates

(2000) Models of Capitalism: Growth and Stagnation in the Modern Era (Cambridge: Polity Press).

24.

Coates

(ed.) (2005) Varieties of Capitalism, Varieties of Approaches (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan).

25.

Cole

and Dale

(eds) (1999) The European Union and Migrant Labour (Oxford/New York: Berg).

26.

Culpepper

(1999) ‘The future of the high skill equilibrium in Germany’, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 15:1, 43–59.

27.

Culpepper

and Finegold

(eds) (2001) The German Skills Machine: Sustaining Comparative Advantage in a Global Economy (New York: Berghahn Books).

28.

Deeg

(2007) ‘Complementarity and institutional change in capitalist systems’, Journal of European Public Policy, 14:4, 611–630.

29.

DEHOGA (2008) ‘Stellungnahme des Deutschen hotel-und gaststättenverbandes e.V. zum … arbeitsmigationss-teuergesetz’ (Berlin: DEHOGA).

30.

Demo

(2004) ‘Policy and media in immigration studies’, Rhetoric and Public Affairs, 7:2, 215–229.

31.

Ensor

and Shah

(2005) ‘United Kingdom’ in Niessen

Schibel

and Thompson

(eds), Current Immigration Debates in Europe: A Publication of the European Migration Dialogue (Brussels: MPG). Available at: http://www.migpolgroup.com/public/docs/141.EMD_UK_2005.pdf (accessed 11 March 2011).

32.

Freeman

(1995) ‘Modes of immigration politics in liberal democratic states’, International Migration Review, 19:4, 881–908.

33.

Freeman

(2002) ‘Winners and losers: Politics and the costs and benefits of migration’, in Messina

(ed.), West European Immigration and Immigrant Policy in the New Century (Westport CT: Praeger), 77–96.

34.

Freeman

(2006) ‘National models, policy types and the politics of immigration in liberal democracies’, West European Politics, 29:2, 227–247.

35.

Freeman

and Kessler

(2008) ‘Political economy and migration policy’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 34:4, 655–678.

36.

Guiraudon

(2000) ‘The Marshallian triptych reordered: The role of courts and bureaucracies in furthering migrants' social rights’, in Bommes

and Geddes

(eds), Immigration and Welfare: Challenging the Borders of the Welfare State (London: Routledge), 72–89.

37.

Guiraudon

(2001) ‘European courts and foreigners' rights: A comparative study of norms diffusion’, International Migration Review, 34:4, 1088–1125.

38.

Hall

(2007) ‘The evolution of varieties of capitalism in Europe’, in Hancké

Rhodes

and Thatcher

(eds), Beyond Varieties of Capitalism: Conflict, Contradictions, and Complementarities in the European Economy (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 39–88.

39.

Hall

and Gingerich

(2004) ‘Varieties of capitalism and institutional complementarities in the macroeconomy: An empirical analysis’. Discussion Paper 04/5 (Cologne: Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung).

40.

Hall

and Soskice

(eds) (2001) Varieties of Capitalism: The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

41.

Hancké

Rhodes

and Thatcher

(eds) (2007) Beyond Varieties of Capitalism: Conflict, Contradictions, and Complementarities in the European Economy (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

42.

Hansen

(2002) ‘Globalization, embedded realism, and path dependence: The other immigrants to Europe’, Comparative Political Studies, 35:3, 259–283.

43.

Haus

(2002) Unions, Immigration, and Internationalization: New Challenges and Changing Coalitions in the United States and France (New York: Palgrave Macmillan).

44.

Herrmann

(2009) One Political Economy, One Political Strategy? Comparing Pharmaceutical Firms in Germany, Italy, and the UK (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

45.

Hollifield

(1992) Immigrants, Markets and States: The Political Economy of Postwar Europe (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press).

46.

Home Office (2002) Secure Borders, Safe Haven: Integration with Diversity (London: Home Office).

47.

Home Office (2005) Controlling Our Borders: Making Migration Work for Britain—Five Year Strategy for Asylum and Immigration (London: Home Office).

48.

Initiative Neue Soziale Marktwirtschaft (2002) ‘Deutschland im Reformstau: Muster-Koalitionsvertrag’, No. 72 (Berlin: Initiative Neue Soziale Marktwirtschaft).

49.

Initiative Neue Soziale Marktwirtschaft (2004) ‘Deutschland braucht qualifizierte Zuwanderer’ (Berlin: Initiative Neue Soziale Marktwirtschaft).

50.

Initiative Neue Soziale Marktwirtschaft (2006) ‘Deutschland muss die Zuwanderung aus eigenem Interesse steuern’ (Berlin: Initiative Neue Soziale Marktwirtschaft).

51.

Joppke

(1998) ‘Why liberal states accept unwanted migration’, World Politics, 50:2, 266–293.

52.

Joppke

(1999) Immigration and the Nation-State: The United States, Germany and Great Britain (Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press).

53.

Keep

and Mayhew

(1997) ‘Vocational training and education and economic performance’, in Buxton

Chapman

and Temple

(eds), Britain's Economic Performance (London: Routledge), 367–398.

54.

Koppel

(2007) ‘Ingenieurmangel in Deutschland: Ausmaß und gesamtwirtschaftliche Konsequenzen’, IW-Trends: Vierteljahresschrift zur empirischen Wirthschaftsforschung aus dem Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft Köln, 34:2, 1–16.

55.

Koppel

(2008) ‘Nicht besetzbare stellen für beruflich Hochqualifizierte in Deutschland: Ausmaß und Wertschöpfungsverluste’, IW-Trends: Vierteljahresschrift zur empirischen Wirthschaftsforschung aus dem Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft Köln, 35:1, 1–16.

56.

Lahav

and Guiraudon

(2006) ‘Actors and venues in immigration control: Closing the gap between political demands and policy’, West European Politics, 29:2, 210–223.

57.

Leif

(2004) Die politischen Strategien der Initiative Neue Soziale Marktwirtschaft (Düsseldorf: Hans-Böckler-Stiftung).

58.

Menz

(2008) The Political Economy of Managed Migration (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

59.

Messina

(1990) ‘Political impediments to the resumption of labor migration to Western Europe’, West European Politics, 13:1, 31–46.

60.

Piore

(1979) Birds of Passage: Migrant Labor and Industrial Societies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

61.

Salt

(1997) ‘International movement of the highly skilled’. OECD Occasional Paper 3 (London: International Migration Unit).

62.

Sommerville

(2007) Immigration under New Labour (Bristol: Policy Press).

63.

Statham

and Geddes

(2006) ‘Elites and the “organised public”: Who drives British immigration politics and in which direction?’, West European Politics, 29:2, 248–269.

64.

Streeck

and Hassel

(2004) ‘The crumbling pillars of social partnership’, in Kitschelt

and Streeck

(eds), Germany: Beyond the Stable State (London: Frank Cass), 101–124.

65.

Streeck

and Höpner

(eds) (2003) Alle Macht dem Markt? Fallstudien zur Abwicklung der Deutschland AG (Frankfurt: Campus).

66.

Thelen

(2004) How Institutions Evolve: The Political Economy of Skills in Germany, Britain, the United States and Japan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

67.

TUC (Trades Union Congress) (2005) ‘Managed migration: Working for Britain—a joint statement from the Home Office, CBI and TUC’. Press Release (London: TUC).

68.

Unabhängige Kommission (2001) Zuwanderung Gestalten, Integration Fördern (Berlin: Unabhängige Kommission Zuwanderung).

69.

Watts

J. R.

(2002) Immigration Policy and the Challenge of Globalization: Unions and Employers in Unlikely Alliance (Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press).

70.

Wilson

J. Q.

(1980) The Politics of Regulation (New York: Harper).