Georg Menz

This project explores the politics of labour migration policy design in two coordinated market economies with strongly neocorporatist legacies and one hybrid case with no such tradition. Despite similar structural constellations, Austria, the Czech Republic and Sweden have pursued radically different economic migration policies since 2000, with Austria pursuing a markedly more restrictive stance than the others. Party politics and the role of the Far Right cannot wholly account for such pronounced difference. This project explores the role of employer organisations in shaping policy regarding economic migration. It hypothesizes that employer organizations are enunciating a nuanced discourse that stresses the need for liberalized migration regulation, but reflects the specific skill portfolio they see as complementary with their production strategies. Consequently, policy output will be conditioned by these preferences. The project applies insights from the comparative political economy literature to migration studies.