Strategic contextualisation: free movement,labour migration policies and the governance of foreign workers in Europe

Heightened levels of internal labour mobility since the European Union (EU)'s Eastern enlargements in 2004 and 2007 have shifted the context for member state policies geared towards the admission of non-EU workers. This article contends that the strategic use of the internal mobility regime by member states, as a justification for selective recruitment of labour from outside the EU, deserves more analytical attention. This contribution examines how labour migration policies (LMP) in the United Kingdom, France and Germany make use of the EU free-movement framework in current legislation, and how associated policy rationales are justified. In an interpretive policy analysis of legislative documents and decision-makers' meaning-making, as related in semi-structured interviews, the article identifies the logics, tools and rationales which link LMP to EU free movement. These links are shown to be highly selective and they serve common as well as nationally distinct governance goals. Across all three cases LMPs ascribe various degrees of relevance to EU internal labour supply, depending on the different skill levels of migrants targeted in respective policies. This shared pattern of economic coordination of LMP by skill level – in which the EU common labour market plays the role of delimiting additional migration in the skilled and especially low-skilled segments – is conflated with national migration control agendas. Member states draw on EU free movement to justify migration restrictions targeted at specific sending countries. As a result, the governance of the foreign workforce produces skills- and origin-based privileges rather than granting rights to mobile migrant workers in Europe.     

Fear of Others: Social Exclusion and the European Crisis of Solidarity

In recent years a major challenge for the EU has emerged around social issues and collective identities. With the emergence of a European political community that has diminished national sovereignty at a time when global forces are also undermining nation states, both Europe and migration become linked as sources of instability. Anxieties about Europe and migration are linked with fears of a clash of civilizations and anxieties about social securities. Social discontent, fuelled by socio‐economic changes, has undermined the traditional sources of identity around class and the nation, releasing xenophobic and nationalistic currents. Fear of others and anxieties about the future have emerged as potent social forces in contemporary society. The result is a crisis of European solidarity, along with a wider crisis of collective purpose. To combat such developments it is essential that the European project gives greater attention to issues of social justice and inclusive forms of social solidarity.     

Exchange rate and wage policies in Central and Eastern Europe

After the eastern enlargement of the European Union (EU) and due to increasing labor market integration, wage determination in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has become a key issue in European economic policy making. In addition, a controversial discussion concerning the monetary integration of CEE countries into the EMU has emerged. Both issues have earned particular academic and political interest because Eastern and Western Europe are at different stages of economic development and volatile international capital flows seem to require either a higher degree of wage or exchange rate flexibility. Based on the Scandinavian model of wage adjustment by Lindbeck (1979), we analyze the role of exchange rates in the wage determination process of the Central and Eastern European countries to identify which exchange rate strategy contributes to faster wage convergence in Europe. Panel estimations suggest that workers in countries with fixed exchange rates are likely to benefit in the long run from higher wage increases.     

A Social-symbiotic Approach? EU Industrial Policy and the Pharmaceutical Industry in the EU

The purpose of this paper is to develop the debate about a symbiotic approach to industrial policy with respect to the pharmaceutical industry in the EU. The EU has an increasingly important role to play in European markets but it seems, at best, to be following a fragmented industrial strategy. There is a real and growing danger that this strategy becomes worse for everyone than no strategy at all. Thus the EU can either go for a comprehensive and comprehensible strategy or let the industry fend for itself amongst disparate health care systems amongst member states. Alternatively it can continue to stumble along with a pastiche of policies. There are signs of some debate about a more holistic approach to industry. In the European Union for example DG (Directorate General) V and DG III produced a communication arguing that “the [European Union] Community policy in favour of the pharmaceutical industry must take notice of [the] twofold context of public health and social security” (Com(93)718:3). This paper identifies current fragments of EU pharmaceutical industrial policy and indicates what a social-symbiotic approach is. Whether or not the industry in the EU continues to decline with respect to the industry elsewhere Asia and America in particular, the sick people of the EU will still need medication: a symbiotic approach to industrial policy can help stem the relative decline in the EU and indeed could reverse it.     

Prototypes for modern living: planning,sociology and the model village in inter-war Romania

This article reassesses the concept of the ‘model village’ in the context of inter-war debates about rural development in Romania and in Europe more widely through the story of Dioti, a small locality in south-western Romania that was reconstructed as a model village after a great fire in 1938. Imagined by Dimitrie Gusti, the founding father of Romanian sociology, and realized under the auspices of the authoritarian King Carol II, Dio?ti was the outcome of a longer process of imagining a model of rural modernization for Romania that was tightly connected to and influenced by international agendas of reforming and improving rural living conditions. This project offers an opportunity to examine the interplay between the local, national and international levels of rural modernization as they were shaped by the disciplines of architecture, rural planning and sociology. Finally, the article also engages with the concept of the model itself, asking how and why models of rural living were used to produce or manage social change.     

Hybridization instead of Clustering: Transformation Processes of Welfare Policies in Central and Eastern Europe

Welfare state theories tend to use concepts of clustering for defining the affiliation of national social security systems to overarching worlds of welfare. A closer look at the transformation processes of welfare policies in Central and Eastern Europe shows a great variability among those countries in approximating their welfare states to Western European standards. In the design of their pension systems, their health care provision and their unemployment protection, Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) follow different reform paths. Welfare clusters in Western Europe are used as reference models, but no single example applies to all sectors of social security. Thus, a generalizing picture of welfare provision cannot be drawn for Central and Eastern Europe. Instead of constituting a new individual type of welfare arrangement, a hybridization process is observable.     

Mind the Covid-19 crisis: An evidence-based implementation of Next Generation EU

This paper develops an evidence-based approach to the selection and prioritisation of Next Generation EU (NGEU) projects for timely implementation and impact of the Recovery Plan for Europe. The analysis of a large sample of projects, currently funded by the European Union (EU) with the same priorities and objectives of NGEU, suggests that a timely implementation should be driven – within the EU Commission coordination framework – by national governments liaising directly with their citizens through participatory procedures, involving relevant stakeholders. Simplified implementation procedures with clear spatial targeting and limited involvement of regional authorities are necessary conditions for the avoidance of implementation delays.     

EU Integration and the Transformation of Post‐communist Welfare: Traversing a ‘Quantum Leap’?

While many academic accounts treat post‐communist Europe as just another site of Europeanization with an emphasis on ‘adaptation’ and ‘learning’, this article argues that EU integration and the transformation of post‐communist Europe is a much more complex, volatile and uncertain process; not so much one of adaptation but more a ‘quantum leap’, apparently bypassing the stage of a Keynesian regime. Post‐communist Europe is asked to join an EU agenda that has many features of what Jessop calls the ‘Schumpeterian Workfare Postnational Regime’ (SWPR). In that sense, EU integration of post‐communist welfare is not simply a ‘catch‐up’, it is a complex transformation process whereby, rather than EU Enlargement and Eastern Europe being seen as a threat to ‘Social Europe’, the EU imposes its own ‘social deficit’ and economic hegemony onto Eastern Europe.     

Balancing informality and need – policy responses to informal East-West migration in Austria,the Netherlands and Sweden

The article provides an analysis of policy responses to mobile EU citizens without legal residence in the Netherlands, Austria and Sweden. A comparative case study design uses qualitative survey and interview data to identify national and local policy responses to the implications of EU citizens from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) living without legal residence in the aforementioned countries. The theoretical framework specifies how the institutional logic of welfare regimes is likely to generate policy responses that address need, sanction informality or do both. The choice indicates the priority given to redistributive outcomes, administrative procedures, or both. The results reveal similar responses to those implications relating to the labour market, but slightly different approaches to the implications in the social domain. Policy responses to labour market implications have predominantly focused on sanctioning informality. Swedish and Austrian policy responses in the social domain have focused on addressing need. Dutch policy responses to social issues instead focused on sanctioning informality, prioritizing procedure. The results indicate that local and national policy responses to implications of informal intra-EU migration may be fruitfully understood through the prism of welfare regimes and related approaches to need and informality.     

Transition Countries of Central Europe Entering the European Union: Some Social Protection Issues

A brief overview of essential choices facing the transition countries of central Europe with regard to social security policy precedes the discussion of some selected issues related to their entry into the European Union (EU). While not much weight is given to the idea of these countries bringing in yet another social model, the problem of social dumping is considered more seriously, particularly in view of the continuing impact of neoliberal ideology. The central issue of maintaining equilibrium between economic and social development is then examined in the context of current preparations for accession, and attention is drawn to the inherent weakness of the present EU policy, which deals with economic aspects of social protection only and fails to give the populations concerned a clear vision of attainable social goals for the future.     

Convergence in the Social Welfare Systems in Europe: From Goal to Reality

The history of the social welfare systems in Europe in the postwar period appears as autonomous national processes because the construction of Europe which imposed common rules in many areas was equally consistent with the national development of social welfare systems, within each national culture. However, the idea of a common system of social protection has always remained linked to political and economic European construction which would create a more cohesive society. Many studies have analysed the trend of specific social policies and their convergence or divergence in Europe. Therefore, global convergence is often conceived as resulting from the domestic dynamics of each social risk. The paper focuses on one specific topic: the quantitative evaluation of convergence among the EU and OECD countries at the macroeconomic level. In the first part we explain the construction of social indicators which can assess the convergence or divergence of social expenditure in EU and OECD countries. In the second part we show many methodological problems and difficulties of interpretation of the social indicators. Then we see that the analysis of national trajectories of social expenditure and the link with economic development can enrich the analysis of convergence in social protection. Finally, the empirical analysis supports the idea of “adjustment” reforms rather than radical changes in a transitional period.     

Swimming against the tide: why Sweden supports increased labour mobility within and from outside the EU

While the free movement of labour in the EU is generally depicted as a positive feature of the single market, it was also controversial in the debate on EU enlargement. Actors opposing enlargement argued that large waves of migrants from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) would ‘swamp’ Western labour markets, leading to so-called social tourism and increasing xenophobia. Contrary to the developments in other countries, Sweden was one of the only three Member States to immediately open its doors to citizens from the EU accession countries of 2004 and 2007. Sweden has also been one of the few EU countries to actively promote greater liberalisation of labour migration policy for third-country nationals (TCNs) within the EU, and the new Swedish Immigration Law of 2008 dramatically liberalised the TCN labour migration policy and made it more employer-driven. We argue that in order to understand why Sweden has supported increased labour mobility within and from outside of the EU, we need to complement existing explanations by analysing the preferences of the political parties. A two-dimensional analysis focusing on economy and culture provides an understanding of why so-called unholy coalitions of parties in support of liberal labour policies have emerged in Sweden during the 2000s. The article ends with a discussion of lessons learned from the Swedish case and wider implications for rights-based mobility in the EU.     

Anti-Semitic Attitudes in Europe: A Comparative Perspective

The article uses available survey data to depict the depth and spread of anti-Semitic attitudes across Europe. The main assumption is that European anti-Semitism, both currently and historically, is closely tied to issues and crises of national self-identification; for this reason, social identity theory is employed to study the varying configurations of anti-Semitic prejudice. In most European countries, Jews are a small and socially integrated minority. Attitudes toward them are determined less by concrete experiences of cultural differences, or conflicts over scarce resources, but rather by a perceived threat to the national self-image. This leads to an accentuation of the pertinent prejudices that blame Jews to be responsible for that threat. This perspective brings to light considerable differences between Eastern and Western Europe and the continuing influence of national traditions.     

当代中国乡村社区重建的传统资源——以徽州村庄为例

从徽州村庄颇具特色的传统文化资源延续方式和地方社会变迁轨迹入手,得出一些关于自治性村庄的基本判断以及基本命题,并将之运用于当代中国乡村社区重建和乡村善治之间的互动关系研究,进而推及中国乡村复兴与构建和谐社会的路径分析。     

The Decoupling of Social Policy Reforms in Romania

Social reforms in Romania have been, from the beginning of the 1990s and throughout the EU post‐accession phase, the battlefield for many domestic and international actors. The article identifies, from an historical institutionalist perspective, the international actors who decisively influenced reforms of social protection in Romania during the transition, with a special emphasis on the EU pre‐ and post‐accession stages. Further, the article attempts to understand the impact of the various external influences on the sustainability and effectiveness of domestic reforms, by assessing the convergence, or the decoupling, between the rationales – i.e. ideologies and values – that explicitly grounded social reforms in Romania and the domestic public rhetoric on social risks and values. Answers to these questions can provide important insights in regard to both the impact of the EU upon new member states and the challenges of EU enlargement for the EU and its core member states.     

Social work and sustainable rural development: The practice of social economy in China

The impact of globalisation on local agriculture and food systems has brought issues such as food security and rural sustainability to the forefront of policy‐making in developing countries. In China, the restructuring of domestic agriculture and liberalisation of trade following accession to the World Trade Organization have led to the growing reliance on imported food and raised concerns for food self‐sufficiency and safety. Inspired by the concept of social economy, social workers in China have explored alternative pathways towards sustainable food production and consumption through local initiatives. Based on participatory action research in a Chinese village, this study examines the potential contribution of social work intervention in responding to China’s agrarian challenges. It is shown that by linking rural cooperatives with the local food system and allowing farmers to sell directly to urban consumers at fairer prices, social economy initiatives provide a viable pathway for sustainable transformation by empowering rural producers while giving urban consumers access to sustainably produced food.     

Fostering inter-European cooperation: Technological collaboration among nations of the European Union

This article examines the reasons for the technology gap between Europe and its Japanese and U.S. counterparts, and assesses the EU's effort towards reducing this gap. The EU considers technological collaboration the best way to reduce the gap, and we assess it for technologies: (1) High Definition Television (HDTV) and (2) telecommunications. These catch up efforts have been only partly successful. The HDTV program did not make much progress, and the worldwide switch from analogue to digital technology has hobbled the European attempt. Telecom manufacturers have cleverly adapted to a number of niche markets, such as Nokia in portable telephones, but the industry remains fragmented and poorly equipped to compete against global rivals such as AT&T. Application of pure research to industrial and commercial uses has been spotty, only half-heartedly been implemented by European states or the EU Commission. Even so, the EU Commission continues to promote a wider European perspective. Future technology policies could usefully promote greater entrepreneurial activity and national technical specialization.     

Jobs in the Bush: Global Industries and Inclusive Rural Development

How do rural communities manage the challenge of local governance and community capacity‐building, given the policy choices of central government (both state and national) in favour of global resource‐development industries? Central government policy choices expose rural communities to the vagaries of the global economy, even as the Australian government's stated intent vis‐à‐vis rural Australia is the exact opposite: to encourage locally driven economic and community sustainability. Rural development policy in Australia often has the effect of denying the very outcomes it hopes to achieve. On the one hand, government policies encourage rural communities to be independent, to build ‘social capital’, and to add value to their local produce; on the other hand, macroeconomic policies change the contexts within which these communities function, creating a tension which is difficult to reconcile. In the case of the Western District of Victoria, an established agricultural and pastoral region, the cycles of economic activity have been disrupted in recent years by new and exciting global industries whose trajectories sit largely outside local control. This paper questions whether governments have a systemic view of the impact of these competing demands on rural communities, and calls for a more informed, whole‐of‐government policy‐making for the development of Australia's rural regions.     

分利秩序与基层治理内卷化——资源输入背景下的乡村治理逻辑

农村税费改革以后,国家资源的不断输入为农村发展和乡村治理带来新的契机。然而,资源输入乡村社会,基层组织却无法有效承接,并遭遇官民不合作的困境。基层组织主要呈现出两种样态：消极作为与难以作为,以及富人和灰黑势力主政后的摆平式“积极”治理。两种治理形态皆导致国家公共资源的耗损,基层组织的权威与合法性进一步下降。在资源不断输送的利益链条中,权力寻租者、地方富人与灰黑社会势力、谋利型的机会主义农民等几个行动主体相赖相生,形成分利秩序,普通民众被排除在外,乡村治理出现内卷化。从根本上说,这是国家在压力型体制与有效治理之间产生的张力,并在推动乡村社会从整体性支配向技术治理转型中产生的结果。这一转向试图建立新的公共规则,却使得乡村治权弱化,缺乏公共规则实践的强制力保证,造成国家、基层组织与农民三者之间的利益与责任的连带制衡关系发生断裂,乡村治理陷入新困境。     

Gender Equality Policies and Practices in Croatia – The Interplay of Transition and Late Europeanization

This article contributes to understanding change in gender regimes in post‐communist countries. Using Croatia as a case, it juxtaposes the observed change in key indicators of the position of women in various walks of life with the context of the European gender agenda and the positions of actors involved in the national political arena and policies introduced throughout the transition period. The article reviews the previous enlargement waves and indicates that the gender agenda was added to the negotiation process rather late – primarily via the EU accession conditionality requirement. Although narrow in scope and often limited in impact to just ‘paper compliance’ with EU legislation, it opened discussions in the gender equality area in post‐communist countries and empowered women's organizations. In all the countries, the implementation of the European agenda was heavily influenced by the power and discourses of the main actors involved. The article provides a map of social actors involved, together with gender‐related policies as they have changed in three distinct periods in Croatia. The final analysis of observed practices and structures indicates very slow change and the crucial impact of structural and institutional developments as well as economic cycles, but little association of observed developments with dominant discourses or policies implemented over the past two decades.