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Abstract
Recent years have witnessed major changes to German migration policy, including most notably policy concerning labour migration. The restrictive approach associated with the end of active recruitment in 1973 has been gradually abandoned. Since 2000, a variety of liberalisation measures have been pursued, facilitating legal labour migration and making German skilled migration provisions fairly liberal by international comparison. Though this would appear to mark a radical departure from the past, unlike the post-war era, the focus rests firmly on the recruitment of skilled immigrants. This article adopts a comparative political economy (CPE) angle in analysing recent policy developments, arguing that employer preferences typical of a coordinated market economy (CME) are being articulated and help shape the policy agenda. A brief comparison of the CMEs in Austria and Sweden is pursued to explore the promise of a CPE approach. In empirical terms, the article seeks to address the question in what fashion organised business manages to shape the agenda. In theoretical terms, the article seeks to assess the utility of a CPE-inspired approach for the study of migration policy making.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Georg Menz is Professor of Political Economy at Goldsmiths College, University of London. He has published widely on the politics and policies of immigration as well as Comparative Political Economy. His main monographs include Varieties of Capitalism and Europeanization: National Response Strategies to the Single European Market (2005) and The Political Economy of Managed Migration: National Non-State Actors and Europeanization in the Formulation of European Immigration Policies (2009). He has also published articles in such journals as Journal of European Public Policy, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Comparative European Politics and Journal of Common Market Studies.
Notes
1 These constraints are identified by scholars who highlight judicial activism and its ramifications for the political margins of manoeuvre that governments still control. Courts have been pivotal actors in solidifying family reunion rights and creating residence rights for some of the more temporary first generation immigrants of the post-war era. See James Hollifield, Immigrants, Markets and States: The Political Economy of Postwar Europe (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992); Christian Joppke, ‘Why Liberal States Accept Unwanted Migration’, World Politics 50/2 (1998), pp.266–93; Virginie Guiraudon, ‘European Courts and Foreigners’ Rights: A Comparative Study of Norms Diffusion', International Migration Review 34/4 (2001), pp.1088–125.
2 Key among them are Manuel Castells, ‘Immigrant Workers and Class Structure in Western Europe’, Politics and Society 5/1 (1975), pp.33–66; Stephen Castles and Gundula Kosack, Immigrant Workers and Class (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1973). In classic Marxist analyses, immigrant workers were seen as adding to the reserve army of labour, thus weakening organised labour and strengthening the discretion of employers, not least regarding wage levels and working conditions.
3 Randall Hansen emphasises this point with regards to post-war British immigration policy. See Randall Hansen, Citizenship and Immigration in Postwar Britain (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000). Matthias Mayer makes a similar argument regarding West Germany, demonstrating that the signature of bilateral recruitment agreements with the Greek and especially the Turkish government were influenced by strategic and foreign policy considerations during a ‘hot’ phase of the cold war as well as outright US pressure. See M. Mayer, ‘Governmental Preferences on Liberalising Economic Migration Policies at the EU level: Germany’s Domestic Politics, Foreign Policy, and Labour Market’, [unpublished] PhD Thesis, London School of Economics, London, 2011.
4 Lucie Cerna, ‘The Varieties of High-Skilled Immigration Policies: Coalitions and Policy Outputs in Advanced Industrial Countries’, Journal of European Public Policy 16/1 (2009), pp.144–61; Alexander Caviedes, Prying Open Fortress Europe: The Turn to Sectoral Labor Migration (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2010); Georg Menz, ‘Employer Preferences for Labour Migration: Exploring “Varieties of Capitalism”-Based Contextual Conditionality in Germany and the United Kingdom’, British Journal of Politics and International Relations 13/4 (2011), pp.534–50.
5 Gary Freeman, ‘Modes of Immigration Politics in Liberal Democratic States’, International Migration Review 19/4 (1995), pp.881–908; Gary Freeman, ‘Winners and Losers: Politics and the Costs and Benefits of Migration’, in A. Messina (ed.), West European Immigration and Immigrant Policy in the New Century (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2002), pp.77–96; Gary Freeman, ‘National Models, Policy Types and the Politics of Immigration in Liberal Democracies’, West European Politics 29/2 (2006), pp.227–47. Freeman based these insights on earlier work: J.Q. Wilson, The Politics of Regulation (New York: Basic Books, 1980).
6 Freeman, ‘National Models, Policy Types and the Politics of Immigration in Liberal Democracies’, p.230.
7 Christian Joppke, Immigration and the Nation-State: The United States, Germany and Great Britain (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999). Note Freeman's response in Freeman, ‘National Models, Policy Types’, pp.234–5.
8 The term is developed by R. Deeg, ‘Complementarity and Institutional Change in Capitalist Systems’, Journal of European Public Policy 14/4 (2007), pp.611–30. I suggest using broadening his term of supplementarity to encompass the ‘import of input factors’ missing or underprovided due to the institutional particularities of domestic institutions. See Andrea Herrmann, One Political Economy, One Political Strategy? Comparing Pharmaceutical Firms in Germany, Italy, and the UK (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), p.18.
9 The distinction between general and specific skills has been regarded as difficult to operationalise, but this is not a major impediment for this study. See Marius Busemeyer, ‘Asset Specificity, Institutional Complementarities and the Variety of Skill Regimes in Coordinated Market Economies’, Socio-Economic Review 7/3 (2009), pp.375–406.
10 John Salt, International Movement of the Highly Skilled, OECD Occasional Paper 3 (International Migration Unit, London, 1997), p.5.
11 Peter Hall and David Soskice (eds), Varieties of Capitalism: The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), pp.6–8.
12 Bob Hancké, Martin Rhodes and Mark Thatcher, ‘Introduction: Beyond Varieties of Capitalism’, in B. Hancké, M. Rhodes, and M. Thatcher (eds), Beyond Varieties of Capitalism: Conflict, Contradictions, and Complementarities in the European Economy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), pp.3–38 (p.6 and p.9).
13 Ibid., p.18; Peter Hall and Daniel Gingerich, Varieties of Capitalism and Institutional Complementarities in the Macroeconomy: An Empirical Analysis, Discussion Paper 04/5 (Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung, Cologne, 2004).
14 Caviedes, Prying Open Fortress Europe, 2010.
15 Freeman, ‘National Models, Policy Types’; Gary Freeman and Alan Kessler, ‘Political Economy and Migration Policy’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 34/4 (2008), p.668.
16 Interview, BDA in Berlin, summer 2005.
17 Initiative Neue Soziale Marktwirtschaft, Deutschland im Reformstau: Muster-Koalitionsvertrag, No. 72 (Initiative Neue Soziale Marktwirtschaft, Berlin, 2002), p.8; Initiative Neue Soziale Marktwirtschaft, Deutschland braucht qualifizierte Zuwanderer (Initiative Neue Soziale Marktwirtschaft, Berlin, 27 Feb. 2004); Initiative Neue Soziale Marktwirtschaft, Deutschland muss die Zuwanderung aus eigenem Interesse steuern (Initiative Neue Soziale Marktwirtschaft, Berlin, 3 July 2006); see also D. Kinderman, ‘Pressure from Without, Subversion from Within: The Two-Pronged German Employer Offensive’, Comparative European Politics 3/4 (2005), pp.432–63.
18 BDA, Stellungnahme zum Zuwanderungsgesetz (BDA, Berlin, 16 Jan. 2002).
19 Interview with official at employer association, BDA, Berlin, 2005.
20 BDA, Newsletter: Diskussion um Fachkräftemangel gewinnt an Dynamik (BDA, Berlin, 2007); BDA, Arbeitgeberpräsident Dr. Dieter Hundt: Einführung des Punktesystems ist ein längst überfälliger Schritt, Press Release 46/2007 (BDA, Berlin, 2007); BDA, Arbeitgeber begrüßen Beschluss des Bundeskabinetts zu kurzfristigen Maßnahmen gegen Fachkräftemangel, Press Release 67/2007 (BDA, Berlin, 2007); BDA, Arbeitgeberpräsident Dr. Dieter Hundt: Gezielte Zuwanderung ja, undurchdachte europäische Gesetzgebung nein!, Press Release 105/2007 (BDA, Berlin, 2007).
21 BDA, Neue Regelung für Arbeitsmarktmigration Schritt in die richtige Richtung – Punktesystem nach wie vor dringend erforderlich, Position Paper (BDA, Berlin, Aug. 2008).
22 Interview with official at employer association BDA, Berlin, 2005; interview with official at sectoral employer association for the metal sector, Berlin, 2006.
23 O. Koppel, Ingenieurmangel in Deutschland: Ausmaß und gesamtwirtschaftliche Konsequenzen (Institut der Deutschen Wirtschaft, Cologne, 2007); O. Koppel, Ingenieursarbeitsmarkt in Deutschland: gesamtwirtschaftliches Stellenangebot und regionale Fachkräfte (Institut der Deutschen Wirtschaft, Cologne, 2008). More recent publications by this institute repeat the same claim ad nauseam.
24 Deutscher Hotel- und Gaststaettenverband e.V. (DEHOGA), Stellungnahme des Deutschen Hotel-und Gaststättenverbandes e.V. zum … Arbeitsmigrationssteuergesetz (DEHOGA, Berlin, 2008); DEHOGA: interview with official at sectoral employer association for gastronomy, Berlin, 2008.
25 Ministry of the Interior, Aktionsprogramm der Bundesregierung – Beitrag der Arbeitsmigration zur Sicherung der Fachkräftebasis in Deutschland (Bundesministerium des Inneren, Berlin, 2008), available from http://www.bmi.bund.de/SharedDocs/Pressemitteilungen/DE/2008/mitMarginalspalte/07/aktionsprogramm_arbeitsmigration.html (accessed 26 Feb. 2014); Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, Fachkräftesicherung: Ziele und Maßnahmen der Bundesregierung (Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales, Berlin, 2011), available from http://www.bmas.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/DE/fachkraeftesicherung-ziele-massnahmen.pdf?__blob=publicationFile (accessed 26 Feb. 2014).
26 Albert Kraler, ‘Immigrant and Immigration Policy Making in Austria’, in G. Zincone, R. Penninx and M. Borkert (eds), Migratory Policy-Making in Europe (Amsterdam: IMISCOE, 2010), pp.10–28; Emmerich Talos and Ferdinand Karlhofer (eds), Sozialpartnerschaft: Wandel und Reformfähigkeit (Wien: Signum, 1999).
27 Kraler, ‘Immigrant and Immigration Policy Making’, p.11.
28 WK – Wirtschaftskammer, Zuwanderung gestalten: Ein zukunftorientiertes Migrationsmodell (Wirtschaftskammer Österreich, Wien, 2008).
29 Interviews with representatives of the Austrian Ministry of Interior Affairs and the employer association Wirtschaftskammer, Vienna, June 2014.
30 Details are available on the Ministry of Interior Affairs' website at http://www.migration.gv.at/de/formen-der-zuwanderung/dauerhafte-zuwanderung-rot-weiss-rot-karte/besonders-hochqualifizierte.html#c55 (accessed 26 Feb. 2014).
31 Die Presse, ‘Rot-Weiß-Rot-Zuwandererregeln kaum genutzt’, 25 Feb. 2013, available from http://diepresse.com/home/politik/innenpolitik/1348988/RotWeissRotKarte_ZuwandererRegeln-kaum-genutzt;internet (accessed 20 Mar. 2016); Martin Kahanec and Klaus F. Zimmermann, High-Skilled Immigration Policy in Europe, Discussion Paper Series, Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit, No. 5399 (2010); WK – Wirtschaftskammer, Rot-Weiß-Rot-Karte: WKÖ setzt Erleichterungen für Unternehmen durch (Wirtschaftskammer Österreich, Wien, 2013).
32 Bijan Fahimi, Öppna den svenska arbetsmarknaden [Open the Swedish Labour Market] (Stockholm: Svenskt Näringsliv, 2001).
33 K. Ekenger and F. Wallen, Invandring för tillväxt och nya job [Migration for Growth and New Jobs] (Stockholm: Svenskt Näringsliv, 2002).
34 L. Cerna, Changes in Swedish Labour Immigration Policy: A Slight Revolution?, Working Paper (Stockholm University Linnaeus Centre for Integration Studies, Stockholm, 2009), p.10.