National Effects of the Implementation of EU Directives on Labour Migration from Third Countries

In National Effects of the Implementation of EU Directives on Labour Migration from Third Countries, six distinguished European labour law academics discuss how three EU Directives on labour migration – the Single Permit Directive, the Blue Card Directive, and the Directive on Seasonal Employment – are being implemented in EU Member States. Guaranteeing third-country national workers robust equal treatment with regard to working conditions and pay is a crucial criterion for avoiding social dumping, exploitation, and other reasons for regime shopping within the EU. However, Member States are still reluctant to compromise control of their borders and their labour markets. The EU legislation adopted is, as a result, fragmented and full of solutions that give Member States an extensive margin of room for manoeuvre. This book looks at the interaction of the EU legislation adopted with the labour migration systems of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Sweden – five countries with very different characteristics and approaches to the implementation of these Directives.

What is in this book: Concrete issues dealt with in each country include the following:

• conditions for granting work permits;
• reasons for withdrawing a work permit;
• how long a migrant worker can stay;
• whether a migrant worker can bring his or her family;
• employment and labour rights of migrant workers;
• migrant workers’ access to social rights;
• how a migrant worker may enforce rights;
• sanctions for violations of applicable provisions; and
• potential for permanent status for a migrant worker.

For each of these issues, the authors analyse to what extent national legislators are prepared to adapt their national systems in order to fulfil the aims of the EU Directives. They also identify unintended, or at least not explicit, effects of the implementation process. The authors clearly reveal whether the ambitions of the EU, when initiating this process, can be detected in the implementation process and how implementation of the three Directives have changed, and could change national law on these issues thereby providing a detailed consideration of legal issues faced by third-country migrant workers in the five EU Member States.

How this will help you:

As the first in-depth analysis of how the intersection of migration and labour law (and how their impact on labour and employment relations plays out in the EU context), this book brings important insights into the growing literature in the field of labour and employment and migration. The book serves to provide a solid basis for developing policy initiatives on migration into the EU and its Member States. The analysis provided will be of particular interest to national legislators, but it is also sure to be warmly welcomed by academics and practitioners in fields related to labour and employment and migration.