Framing competitiveness: the advocacy of migration as an essential human resources strategy in Europe

ABSTRACT

This paper examines how competitiveness has been framed rhetorically and politically by interested actors in France, Germany, and the UK. Skilled rhetorical advocacy clothes particular political demands in the language of competitiveness and purported exigencies of the global economy, thus advancing political goals more easily that might otherwise encounter significant political opposition. In theoretical terms, the paper analyses the ideational framing of policy discourses. Empirically, the emphasis rests on exploring how governments, organised business, and business think tanks have attempted to advance demands for liberalised labour migration schemes in Europe by linking them rhetorically to the prerogative of economic competitiveness. Despite an adverse political climate, sceptical public opinion, and persistent unemployment, it has thus been politically possible to liberalise the regulation of labour migration considerably.