So close but yet so far? Labour Migration Governance in Italy and Spain
| Date | 01 December 2017 |
| Author | Claudia Finotelli,Gabriel Echeverría |
| Published date | 01 December 2017 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12362 |
So close but yet so far? Labour Migration
Governance in Italy and Spain
Claudia Finotelli* and Gabriel Echeverr
ıa**
ABSTRACT
Southern European countries have traditionally been perceived as weak immigration countries
with inefficient legal entry avenues for foreign workers, high irregular migration rates and poor
integration policies. In recent years, however, the adoption of more efficient control policies,
new recruitment strategies and embryonic integration plans throughout the region has led to a
change of paradigm in the governance of migration. And yet policy reforms do not seem to
have produced the same results everywhere. The aim of this article is to enquire into possible
explanations for the divergent paths of labour migration governance in Southern Europe, using
Italy and Spain as comparative cases. As it will emerge, policy efficacy in the field of labour
migration relates not only to the quality and consistency of policy design and implementation
but also to factors that escape direct political control.
INTRODUCTION
The debate about the ability of states to govern international migration is a long-standing issue in
the field of migration studies. Central research questions address not only the presence of unwanted
migrants (e.g. Cornelius et al., 2014; Joppke, 1998), but also the specific weaknesses of certain
control regimes. Southern European countries in particular have been blamed for their “partial and
ineffective attempts to organize legal entry, curtail illegal entry, and regularise those already inside
the country without authorization”(Freemann, 1995: 894-895). Regularization soon became the
hallmark of their migration policy approach (Finotelli and Arango, 2011). Marginalization and
exclusion, rather than integration, were often considered to be the final outcome of ineffective poli-
cies and a generalised laissez-faire attitude towards immigration (e.g. Calavita, 2005; Freeman,
1995; Floya and Lazaridis, 1999; Gonz
alez-Enriquez and Triandafyllidou, 2009).
In recent years, however, Southern European countries have attempted to improve their “poor
reputation”showing, not least under European pressure, the political will to improve their ability to
control international migration. In this respect, several scholars have emphasized a process of rein-
forcement of external control systems (e.g. Monzini et al., 2006). Attention was given to the grow-
ing relevance of labour migration channels such as labour migration quotas for privileged countries
(Pastore, 2014). Finally, first embryonic integration plans, such as the National Integration Plan in
Spain and the Action Plan for Immigration Integration in Portugal, were developed (Peixoto et al.,
2012). A migration paradigm that stood in clear contrast to the dominant European anti-immigra-
tion dogma was especially visible in new recruitment schemes for foreign workers (Sciortino,
* Department of Sociology II, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain
** Department of Sociology, University of Trento, Italy
doi: 10.1111/imig.12362
©2017 The Authors
International Migration ©2017 IOM
International Migration Vol. 55 (S1) 2017
ISSN 0020-7985Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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