"The Varieties of High-Skilled Immigration Policies: Sectoral Coalitions and Outcomes in Advanced Industrial Countries"

The paper presents a comparative political economy theoretical framework of high-skilled immigration (HSI thereafter) policies in advanced industrial countries and seeks to explain differences in countries’ policies in terms of HSI openness. I take from the traditional partisanship approach that political parties will pursue policies consistent with the preferences of their major constituencies. However, I divide labour and capital into high- and low-skilled sectors. I argue that, despite converging policy goals for more open HSI in order to fill labour market shortages, divergence between countries’ HSI policies continues. No consistent HSI position of left and right parties exists cross-nationally because different coalitions between sectors of high-skilled labour, low-skilled labour and capital take place. I analyze more open or restrictive HSI outcomes by portraying actors’ preferences that are aggregated in coalitions and intermediated by institutional constraints (such as labour market organization and electoral system) across advanced industrial countries

The Governance of High-Skilled Labour Immigration in Advanced Industrial Countries

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Changes in Swedish Labour Immigration Policy : A Slight Revolution?

This paper examines changes in Swedish labour immigration policy from early 2000s, but particular attention is paid to recent changes. The new Immigration Law of 2008 liberalised immigration policy and made it more employer-driven. These changes are called by some as ‘slight revolution’. The paper analyses the preferences of three main actors (native high-skilled labour, native low-skilled labour and capital), the coalitions built between them and the institutional constraints in order to explain labour immigration changes. It draws on the examination of media coverage, elite interviews, and labour relations and political representation literature. The paper also provides a first evaluation of the new immigration policy

Changes in Swedish Labour Immigration Policy: A Slight Revolution?

This paper examines changes in Swedish labour immigration policy from early 2000s, but particular attention is paid to recent changes. The new Immigration Law of 2008 liberalised immigration policy and made it more employer-driven. These changes are called by some as ‘slight revolution’. The paper analyses the preferences of three main actors (native high-skilled labour, native low-skilled labour and capital), the coalitions built between them and the institutional constraints in order to explain labour immigration changes. It draws on the examination of media coverage, elite interviews, and labour relations and political representation literature. The paper also provides a first evaluation of the new immigration policy.Labour immigration; labour market relations; political economy; public policy; Sweden

The regional dimension in the global competition for talent : lessons from framing the European Scientific Visa and Blue Card

To examine the role of regional co-operation in the global race for top foreign talent, we study how the Lisbon Strategy's implementation contributed to these efforts. Specifically, we analyse the Scientific Visa and the Blue Card, two European Union (EU) legislations for attracting the ‘best and brightest’ from abroad. Official figures tell us that the number of highly skilled migrants recruited so far is low and, following an inductive logic, we parse out the ‘value-added’ of regional collaboration beyond legislative co-ordination. Taking as our departure point Borrás and Radaelli's (2011) concept of the Lisbon Strategy as ‘governance architecture’, we apply the framing approach to show how the Scientific Visa and Blue Card framed labour migration differently: as initiatives for ‘mobile excellence’ and ‘border management’ respectively. Our findings reveal that they contributed to the Lisbon Strategy's evolution as a process of ‘conversion’ and point to the ‘value-added’ of regional co-operation as a ‘sense-making’ exercise.Accepted versio

Politics of internationalisation and the migration-higher education nexus

Taking the migration-higher education nexus as an analytical entry point, we address the question: How can we account for different internationalisation outcomes? We focus on three actors involved in the global race to internationalise higher education activities: higher education institutions (HEIs), states, and migrants. We argue that the migration-higher education nexus enables us to begin describing and explaining differences in internationalisation outcomes (i.e. greater, limited, or none) by focussing our empirical attention on the interaction between HEI internationalisation strategies, state policies, and migrant agency to move/stay. We delineate various configurations of these interactions and how they determine internationalisation outcomes.Published versio