Labour migration and the work permit system in the United Kingdom

"The aim of this paper is to examine the effects of the work permit today [in the United Kingdom], using official data. It first reviews the operation of the [labor migration] system and describes the main schemes incorporated. Then, it uses data for 1984-88 to describe the general characteristics of labor immigration through the schemes. Finally, by means of a small random sample of applications and issues, it presents details on particular aspects of the immigration. It demonstrates that current labour immigration through the system is selective: most of those entering with long-term permits are highly skilled, well paid, and moving within the internal labor markets of large transnational corporations." (SUMMARY IN FRE AND SPA)     

The South-to-North migration of women

"This article challenges the conventional wisdom that, since the circa 1974 discontinuation of policies encouraging temporary labor migration, female migration has significantly outnumbered male migration. Drawing on data from Belgium, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, the article shows that the proportion of women in gross immigration is lower when the flows originate in developing rather than in developed countries. Women outnumber men only in terms of net migration. Each receiving country has its own variations on these generalizations, with the chief variables being the receiving countries' admission policies and the stage in migration history of the expatriate population."     

Emigration of Poles to the United Kingdom: history,present state and future prospects

The history of Polish immigration within the United Kingdom is several centuries old. Yet never in its history was such a mass migration as that after the Polish accession to the EU in 2004. During the over ten years that followed, almost a million Poles chose to settle in the United Kingdom. This article reviews and analyses past and present Polish emigration to the United Kingdom. It provides answers to questions regarding who the Polish immigrants are, what work they perform and how they have integrated within British society. It also considers the factors that have influenced the future dynamics of migration from Poland. Based on these, we have formed the hypothesis that while the years of 2004‐2016 saw, statistically, the largest emigration from Poland to the United Kingdom in recorded history, in the future, the number of Polish expatriates living in the United Kingdom will drop or at least the number of newcomers will decrease.     

Venues and Filters in Managed Migration Policy: The Case of the United Kingdom

The United Kingdom, like many developed world economies, has witnessed unprecedented immigration since the early 1990s. Also in line with other developed world economies, the United Kingdom has adopted a “managed migration” policy paradigm. The paper argues that the operation of this paradigm is best understood with reference to two key concepts: migration policy “venues” and migration policy “filters.” In terms of the former, the paper argues that managed migration policy is associated with outward, upward, and downward rescaling and commensurate venue growth and diversification. In terms of the latter, the paper argues that six policy filters (legal, geographical, credential, transfer‐based, monetary, and humanitarian) are commonly used to determine legitimate forms of migration but that one (the geographical filter) has been particularly prominent within the United Kingdom's managed migration policy paradigm.     

Possible approaches to improving the international comparability of immigration and emigration statistics: an illustration of the Canadian situation

"This article seeks to highlight the extent of the lack of standardization which exists in the field of international migration statistics and, using statistics for Canada as an example, to illustrate how significant progress towards resolving this problem could be made if sufficient numbers of countries made their immigration and emigration statistics gradually comply more fully with the United Nations recommendations."     

Migration processes among the highly skilled in Europe

"This article seeks to show that the migration process for highly skilled workers in contemporary Europe is part of the structuring of European business. It focuses on the employer's perspective and role in articulating movement, using data from various official sources as well as survey evidence from the United Kingdom. It suggests that the increasing importance of this form of mobility is related to the process of internationalization by large employers and that the particular form of movement is dependent on the evolution of corporate business."     

International migration in Western Europe since 1973: developments,mechanisms and controls

"This presentation describes the development of migration to and from Western Europe and seeks to determine to what extent such immigration and return migration movements are influenced by governmental action and regulation." It is observed that the basic factors determining immigration and return migration flows are the characteristics of the migrants themselves, policies of the receiving countries, and economic conditions in the sending and receiving countries. Data comparing alien populations and migration trends in selected European countries are provided     

Germany at the crossroads: national identity and the challenges of immigration

"In Germany the discussion [of immigration] is taking place between two extreme positions, one that denies Germany is de facto an immigration country...and one that compares Germany with traditional immigration societies like the United States, Canada, or Australia. As will be demonstrated, both arguments are too simplistic.... To illustrate the importance of migration movements for Germany's national fabric, first an overview of the history of pre- and postwar migrations and refugee movements as well as their effects on the domestic situation in Germany are presented. Next, the origins of the contradictory nature of the current asylum, citizenship and naturalization regulations and the need to redefine Germany's legal framework, immigration policy, and national identity after unification are discussed."     

International migration and New Zealand labour markets

"This paper seeks to assess the value of the overseas-born members of the labour force in ensuring a flexible labour supply in New Zealand since the beginning of the 1970s. Three main issues are considered: first, the role of the labour market in New Zealand's immigration policy; second, international migration trends and the labour market; and third, the evidence on migration and labour market segmentation in New Zealand." Data used are from official external migration statistics, quinquennial censuses, and recent research. The author notes that "in New Zealand immigration measures are currently being taken that emphasize that immigration continues to add to the flexibility of the labour market while uncontrolled emigration is a major cause of labour market instability." (SUMMARY IN FRE AND SPA)     

The new grounds for deportation of European Union citizens in the United Kingdom

Politicians often mention immigration enforcement, and deportation in particular, as a means to assert state sovereignty. This article looks at deportation through exiting the European Union, an event that was interpreted as regaining sovereignty from the supra-national organisation. New immigration regulations in the United Kingdom were meant to end the EU Freedom of Movement and equalise the statuses of EU- and non-EU migrants in the United Kingdom. The research question this article addresses is the following: how do the new immigration regulations and policies affect the possibility of deportations of EU citizens in the United Kingdom? With the lens of Interpretive Policy Analysis, the article analyses primary sources and expert interviews. It concludes that the deportability of EU citizens has increased post-Brexit. It also anticipates that the deportability of EU citizens will be differentiated, as rough sleepers, former convicts and irregular migrants may be first to be targeted with deportation.     

Long-term immigration to the United States: new approaches to measurement

"The United Nations has recommended the measurement of types of international migration using demographic criteria, including length of stay and purpose of travel. Information systems at the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) have the potential to provide a basis for documenting these demographic characteristics, in particular, length of stay of temporary migrants to the United States. This article analyzes these characteristics of selected categories of nonimmigrant aliens. The results of the analysis are used to produce series of estimates of alien immigration that conform more closely to the U.N. recommended definitions and better represent demographic concepts of long-term immigration. A strategy for measuring emigration of aliens from the United States using INS information systems is also described."     

Migration pressure

"The basic message of this paper is that migration pressure is caused by an excess supply of migration-willing people relative to migration demand in immigration countries....I will also analyse the willingness of destination countries to accept immigrants.... This article concentrates more on political (in-)stability as probably the most important determinant of migration pressure....I also focus on the enormous migration-retarding effect of stable and well defined political institutions." Data concerning migration from Turkey to Europe, and especially to Germany, are used to illustrate. (SUMMARY IN FRE AND SPA)     

Patterns of household immigration into South Texas

This article examines Mexican migration into South Texas in recent decades and focuses on changes in the characteristics of the migrants' households. An ethnographic approach is used in examining 56 permanent, immigrant households. "This article introduces a hypothesis for explaining the increase and permanency of household immigration." It is found that "immigration often leads to downward social mobility with respect to legal status of household members, type of employment, and property ownership. Of particular note is the transformation of the household from a single to a multiple worker unit, in response to agricultural labor demands and growing employment opportunities in the non-agricultural sector."     

Undocumented residents in the United States in 1990: issues of uncertainty in quantification

"Uncertainties are abundant about the measurement of net undocumented migration [to the United States] and change over the past two decades. This analysis presents possible upper and lower boundaries on components for estimating legal migration in 1980-1989 and on the foreign-born population in 1990. Positing ranges for net undocumented immigration, between 2 million and 4 million undocumented residents may have been counted in the 1990 census. The total number of undocumented residents may have been as high as 6 million."     

Immigration theory for a new century: some problems and opportunities

"This essay examines some of the pitfalls in contemporary immigration theory and reviews some of the most promising developments in research in this field. As a data-driven field [of] study, immigration has not had to contend with grand generalizations for highly abstract theorizing. On the contrary, the bias has run in the opposite direction, that is toward ground-level studies of particular migrant groups or analysis of official migration policies. As the distillate of past research in the field and a source of guidance for future work, theory represents one of the most valuable products of our collective intellectual endeavor. Ways to foster it and problems presented by certain common misunderstandings about the meaning and scope of scientific theorizing are discussed." The geographical focus is on the United States.     

U.S. Immigration Policies, 1798-1992

U.S. policy towards immigrants since 1798 serves as a clear window through which to view both change and continuity in official resistance to the growth of a multicultural nation. Traditions of nativism, racism, and xenophobia are clearly documented in the history of immigration policy. So also are efforts to supplant these virulent traditions with greater receptivity to demographic diversity. Two centuries of federal policies on immigration, together with case records of social work agencies that served immigrants, constitute excellent texts from which to teach social work students about the historical ambivalence of the people of the United States and their government towards welcoming "others."     

Migration policy and politics in the receiving states

"This article explores the politics of migration policies in the receiving states." The author finds that "a survey of the politics of immigration in the major receiving states shows a strong pattern of restrictionism in the face of unprecedented pressures for entry, but also amnesties, exceptions on humanitarian grounds, and hesitation to enforce the law. As individual states founder, multilateral strategies abound, but with scant success....Ironically, the failure of states to deal with the crisis may reinforce national prerogatives and capacities with respect to immigration and strengthen rather than erode the distinction between economic migrants and refugees."     

Dual chain migration: post-1965 Filipino immigration to the United States

In analyzing Filipino migration to the United States since 1965, the authors identify two distinct chains of immigrants. One derives from the Filipinos who entered the country prior to 1965; the other comes from the flow of highly trained professionals who immigrated during the late 1960s and early 1970s. "To establish the historical basis for the two patterns of immigration that unfolded in the post-1965 period, the article begins with a brief examination of Filipino immigration to the United States. An analysis of the modes of entry used in both chains follows this overview. The study concludes with a discussion of the degree of convergence in these two chains and the consequences of each for contemporary Filipino-American community development." Data are from published U.S. census material and from Immigration and Naturalization Service reports and tapes dating from 1972 to 1985.     

Transnationalism and vocabularies of motive in international migration: the case of Israelis in the United States

"The great body of recent work on international migration has generally considered immigration as a permanent movement and explored the phenomenon from either a micro or macro perspective. Transnationalism offers a new model that integrates these dichotomized views. This paper uses the perspective of transnationalism to explore the motives of Israeli immigrants in the U.S. Integrating insights from both micro and world systems perspectives, findings emphasize the importance of personal and macro-level networks as well as Israelis' international culture and experience as both facilitating and giving meaning to their presence in the United States."     

The causes of international labor migrations--a demand-determined approach

The author first studies the reasons why people migrate using a neoclassical approach concerning income differentials. He tests this approach empirically and demonstrates its limits. A demand-determination approach based on human capital theory is then outlined to overcome these limits and to take into account restrictive immigration controls. Migration from Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal, and Turkey to the European Community destination countries is examined. It is concluded that "the demand for immigrants in the destination country is the decisive condition for the phenomenon of international labor migration, and the supply of migration-willing workers is only a necessary condition."