Labour migration and informalisation: East meets West
International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy
ISSN: 0144-333X
Article publication date: 21 October 2013
Abstract
Purpose
Against a theoretical discussion of informalisation, the purpose of this paper is to trace wider commonalities and migratory interconnections that are leading to informalised or deteriorated employment conditions both East and West in the enlarged Europe.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper examines the ways in which informalisation has come increasingly to typify employment relations both East and West via contrastive case studies from Sweden and Latvia.
Findings
The paper illustrates how a growing tendency towards informalisation of work and economy comes about as a consequence of dual tendencies towards informalisation both “from above” and “from below”. Migrant labour has a part in this process, especially in the post-EU enlargement period, increasingly enabling free movement of labour from the former socialist countries to the West.
Research limitations/implications
The implications of the paper are that the harmonisation of labour standards in the enlarged EU is not necessarily in an upward direction and that wider EU labour markets may be increasingly segmented as processes of informalisation grow in scope.
Practical implications
Policy-makers concerned with preserving labour standards and norms of decent work may consider the implications of the interconnected processes of informalisation and migration, in particular, with regard to “undeclared work”.
Social implications
The paper raises issues concerning the European social model and its viability.
Originality/value
The paper bridges research on informalisation of the economy and labour migration in the context of EU enlargement.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge ongoing research funding from the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research (FAS) Project Number: 2011-0338, East-West labour migration, industrial relations and labour standards in a Swedish-Baltic context as well as the Swedish Institute Visby Programme Grant 00749/2010. The authors are also grateful to Professor Judy Fudge, University of Victoria, British Columbia and to anonymous reviewers for comments and suggestions. The usual disclaimer applies.
Citation
Likic-Brboric, B., Slavnic, Z. and Woolfson, C. (2013), "Labour migration and informalisation: East meets West", International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Vol. 33 No. 11/12, pp. 677-692. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSSP-10-2012-0087
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2013, Emerald Group Publishing Limited