The conditions for non-EU migrant workers to gain legal entry to Britain, France, and Germany are at the same time similar and quite different. To explain this variation this book compares the fine-grained legal categories for migrant workers in each country, and examines the interaction of economic, social, and cultural rationales in determining migrant legality. Rather than investigating the failure of borders to keep unauthorized migrants out, the author highlights the different policies of each country as "border-drawing" actions. Policymakers draw lines between different migrant groups, and between migrants and citizens, through considerations of both their economic utility and skills, but also their places of origin and prospects for social integration. Overall, migrant worker legality is arranged against the backdrop of the specific vision each country has of itself in an economically competitive, globalized world with rapidly changing welfare and citizenship models.
List of Figures, Tables and Boxes Preface Abbreviations Introduction: Labor Migration Management: A Case for Interdisciplinary and Interpretive Policy Studies PART I: BORDER-DRAWING AS A FRAMEWORK FOR MIGRATION POLICY Chapter 1. Labor Migration Management as Meaningful Border-Drawing Chapter 2. Border-Drawing across Capitalist Economies, Welfare States and Citizenship Regimes Chapter 3. Contextualized Border-Drawing: Profiling Migration Histories and Policy Legacies for Comparative Analysis PART II: BORDER-DRAWING IN GERMAN, FRENCH AND BRITISH LABOR MIGRATION POLICIES Chapter 4. What Makes Migrant Workers 'Legal'? Mapping Entry RegulatioN Chapter 5. A "Tool for Growth"? The Shared Cultural Political Economy of Labor Migration Policies Chapter 6. "Poles Don't Even Play Cricket!" Embedding Labor Migration Policies in National Socio-Cultural Norms Conclusion: Border-Drawing, Policy Analysis, and the Governance of Mobility in Europe Documents and Interviews References Index