How Integrated are Finns in the Swedish Labour Market? Outcomes of Free Labour Mobility

DANS QUELLE MESURE LES FINLANDAIS SONT-ILS INTÉGRÉS AU MARCHÉ DU TRAVAIL SUÉDOIS ? RÉSULTATS DE LA LIBRE MOBILITÉ DE LA MAIN-D'OEUVRE
En raison d'un accord instituant un marché commun nordique du travail, les Finlandais constituent, depuis des décennies, le plus grand groupe d'immigrés en Suède. Pourtant, rares sont les études qui ont spécifiquement tenté de déterminer dans quelle mesure ils sont intégrés au marché du travail. Cet article vise à combler en partie cette lacune en examinant comment les Finlandais ont réussi avant et après la crise économique des années 90. Les niveaux d'emploi et les salaires des immigrés finlandais dans la force de l'âge sont comparés à ceux des Suédois de souche à l'aide d'échantillons représentatifs de la population totale de 1990 et 2001. Nous cherchons à déterminer dans quelle mesure tout écart peut être attribuéà de simples facteurs de base tels que l'âge, le sexe, le niveau d'éducation et la région de résidence. D'après nos constatations, les salaires et niveaux d'emploi des Finlandais de sexe masculin sont environ 10% moins élevés que ceux des Suédois de souche et cet écart tend à devenir plus marqué au fil du temps. Il existe toutefois des variations considérables entre les cohortes d'immigrés, et les différences de niveaux d'éducation ne jouent un rôle significatif qu'en ce qui concerne les écarts de salaire. Les Finlandaises semblent en revanche mieux intégrées, leurs résultats sur le marché du travail étant très semblables à ceux des Suédoises de souche.     

International Students Pathways Between Open and Closed Borders: Towards a Multi‐scalar Approach to Educational Mobility and Labour Market Outcomes

This paper explores the complex and changing relationship between academic capitalism that encourages global mobility of highly‐skilled international students on the one hand and recent changes to immigration policy in the UK that prevent such mobility on the other. The paper is based on a longitudinal study that traces the experiences and aspirations of postgraduates from three Asian countries and their pathways from the UK universities to post study work and realities. Taking a multi‐scalar approach, the analysis of international students’ narratives unpacks the unevenness of career opportunities, barriers to settlement and various “assemblages of power” that shape students’ life trajectories. The paper illustrates how the individual‐scale projects intersect with states’ policies of both receiving and sending countries and other institutions and structures of power that operate within and beyond the nation‐states.     

Labour Mobility and the WTO: The Limits of GATS Mode 4

This paper explores the development of the labour mobility provisions within the multilateral GATT–WTO system in parallel with smaller regional and bilateral agreements. Because expanded labour mobility provisions have failed to generate a critical mass of support within the WTO, it is argued that developing countries seeking market access for lower‐skilled workers are better off seeking alternative venues, even though this is a more costly strategy. At the same time, it is useful for states to continue labour mobility negotiations within the WTO system because the regime serves as an important forum for the negotiation of common administrative processes and definitions. Multilateral efforts to increase transparency and reduced administrative costs will not only help to improve effective market access for commitments already in place, but will increase confidence in the ability of the WTO system to contribute to the management of global labour mobility.     

Labour Mobility in East Africa: An Analysis of the East African Community's Common Market and the Free Movement of Workers

This article advocates an institutional perspective in analysing labour mobility, since rules governing cross‐border labour markets are an embodiment of access and participation rights, and can determine the formalisation or informalisation of work and the protection and benefits accrued by migrant workers. It examines the East African Community's Common Market Protocol of July 2010, which seeks to promote the ‘free movement of workers’ within the Community. It argues that there are contradictions and inconsistencies in implementing the Protocol and provides recommendations for addressing them.     

The Role of Immigrants in the Italian Labour Market

In little more than a decade, Italy has become a country characterized by immigration from abroad. This pattern is far removed from what central-northern European countries experienced during the 1950s and the 1960s.
Immigration has not been explicitly demanded by employers, nor has it been ruled by agreements with the immigrants' countries of origin, nor perceived as necessary for the economic system. For all these reasons, immigration has been chaotic and managed in an emergency and approximate way, even though it is deemed useful and is requested by the informal as well as the official economy.
Following presentations of statistics on trends in the phenomenon, three issues are analysed:
- how immigrants are integrated into a labour market that has not called them and into circumstances characterized by the absence of public policies to help them in their job search.
- whether it is possible to separate regular immigration involved in the official market from irregular immigration in the hidden economy, considering advantages of the first and harmful effects of the second for the Italian socio-economic system.
- whether it is appropriate to address complementarity between immigrant labour and the national labour force in a country with 2,500,000 unemployed workers and heavy territorial unbalances.     

European Migrant Professionals in Chinese Global Cities: A Diversified Labour Market Integration

Since the early 2000s, Chinese metropolises have been emerging as hubs for the national and global economy. They attract increasing numbers of foreigners with diverse socio‐economic and educational backgrounds who tend to immigrate independently of the Chinese initiatives focused on “foreign talents”. Our analysis contributes to the understanding of these migrants’ integration into the labour market. Through a Bourdieusian capital lens, this article unpacks the access to the labour market and occupational positions of Swiss and Swedish migrant professionals in mainland China. Differentiated by how they can capitalize upon their educational, occupational, social and cultural resources in this specific context, the article distinguishes between three categories: corporarate expatriates, local hires and entrepreneurs and concludes with policy recommendations to stabilize their residence conditions.     

Labor Market Structure and Career Occupational Status Mobility: A Theoretical Model*

Sociological explanations of career or intragenerational occupational status mobility generally have not taken into explicit account the effects of labor market structure. Rooted in structural-functionalist sociological theory or neoclassical economic theories of the labor market, models typically misrepresent the process of individual occupational status mobility, primarily by including only individual characteristics. Dual labor market theory is introduced, direct as well as indirect effects of labor market structure on career occupational status mobility are outlined, and a theoretical model is presented. It is hypothesized that labor market structure will have direct effects on opportunities for career occupational status mobility that are independent of the effects of individual characteristics. Additional indirect effects are suggested: through their effects on social network structures, labor markets operate as job opportunity information filters.     

The Changing Role of the Labour Market within the EMU: the Case of Slovenia

The paper conceptualizes changes in the labour market and suggests labour market policies/reforms after Slovenia has joined the European Monetary Union. The loss of monetary sovereignty implies that in case of an external shock the labour market is burdened by a large amount of the adjustment process. But to increase flexibility of the labour market requires politically unpopular reforms. At the moment, Slovenia is faced with high inflation and a rigid labour market, which is also a key element of its low competitiveness. The reforms were halted under the pressure of their unpopularity. The paper, although concentrating on Slovenia, has general implications since the experiences of the newcomer to EMU are significant for other transition economies which are expected to follow the same path.

Five Debates on International Development: The US Perspective

Andrew S. Natsios was Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development until January 2006. The US has the largest aid programme in the world but labours under certain constraints, notably a proliferation of Congressionally‐imposed budget earmarks. Mr Natsios has been an articulate advocate as well as an outspoken reformer of the US approach to aid. It was appropriate, then, for the All‐Party Parliamentary Group on Overseas Development of the Westminster parliament, together with ODI, to invite him to speak in Parliament on 12 October 2005. ¹ 1 The audio of Andrew Natsios' speech, and the subsequent discussion, are available on the ODI website at http://www.odi.org.uk/speeches/apgood_oct05/apgood_oct12/index.html .
The present article, a version of that APGOOD speech revised by Mr Natsios since his November resignation, has been judged by DPR Editors to be an important development policy statement worthy of publication. Adrian Hewitt     

A Process Perspective of International Research Collaboration

International collaboration on research projects is becoming important as countries experience similar problems that need attention. The process of such research collaboration is discussed with specific reference to initiating collaborative research, evaluating the potential of entering into a research partnership, preparing for travel, developing and completing a project, and maintaining international collaborative research relationships. Factors that enhance and diminish such relationships are also discussed.     

Labour Market Limbo: The Uneven Integration of Co‐Ethnic Argentine Immigrants in Spain

Immigration and citizenship laws that discriminate by race, ethnicity, and national origins are increasingly illegitimate in contemporary democracies, yet laws that grant privileged access and membership to immigrants who share natives' ethnicity persist. This enduring positive selection rests upon the assumption that co‐ethnicity fosters integration. Countering this logic, this article centers on co‐ethnics' insertion into local labour markets. It draws from a case study of Aguaviva, Spain, a depopulating village in which both co‐ethnic Argentines and Romanian immigrants reside. The analysis qualifies the trend of deracialization in immigration and citizenship policy and shows that positive preferences do not uniformly foster integration. In dual labour market systems, co‐ethnics struggle because they are not different enough for secondary sector jobs reserved for immigrant “others,” yet in the primary sector they enter into direct competition with natives.     

Professional Identities in Transit: Factors Shaping Immigrant Labour Market Success

Immigrant professionals comprise a growing segment within current migration waves, but the determinants of successful transnational skill transfer are poorly understood. In this paper, I offer a framework for the evaluation of these determinants, drawing upon three empirical studies among immigrant professionals from the former Soviet Union in Israel. I start by describing the social context of immigrant integration, including policies aimed at assisting skilled immigrants to get a fresh start on the local labour market. Next, I reflect on the nature of various professions in terms of their cultural and linguistic dependency, with the ensuing adaptive potential upon migration. I also tap into the main macro‐economic and institutional characteristics of the host society that may facilitate or hinder the initial entry and subsequent mobility of immigrant professionals within local organizations. I apply this analytical frame to the discussion of Israeli studies among immigrant professionals who represent three different points on the scale of cultural dependency: engineers (technical occupation), physicians (combining standard medical training with cultural skills) and schoolteachers (most dependent on language and local cultural codes). In every case, the resulting success or failure of occupational continuity reflects a complex interplay of context‐bound and individual factors, aggravated by the small size and rapid saturation of the local labour market.     

International Academic Mobility in Chinese Academia: Opportunities and Challenges

International academic mobility is an important dimension of the internationalization of higher education institutions, which aims to enact practical changes in economies and societies. Although many studies have investigated the mobility of international students, the mobility of international academics has been less investigated, particularly in the context of mainland China. This qualitative study explores the experience of international academics in Chinese academia. The study is based on semi-structured interviews with twenty-six international academics from different countries, working at different universities in Beijing. Through a four-stage systematic analysis, the study shows that international academics’ engagement with mobility in Chinese academia can be characterized by a combination of gains and losses. This article explores how international academics view Chinese academia as either resourceful or restrictive for their academic career. It then discusses the hidden narratives concerning the challenges that international academics face in relation to mobility.