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Political Representation of High-Skilled Workers

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Immigration Policies and the Global Competition for Talent

Part of the book series: International Series on Public Policy ((ISPP))

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Abstract

This chapter considers the impact of political representation on high-skilled immigration policy outputs. It analyses the positions of political parties, as well as the links between labour market actors and political parties. The chapter provides a comparative analysis between the case studies in terms of political representation. The countries display different degrees of representation of (high-skilled) actors and hence high-skilled immigration policy outputs. The chapter also offers a discussion of the impact of the global economic crisis on high-skilled immigration and considers in particular changes in policies and the institutional representation of actors. In some countries, representatives of high-skilled labour became mobilised to push for more restrictions, whereas policy liberalisations have taken place in other countries.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    ‘There is no doubt that immigration control is an exercise of executive power; that is, it is exercised by the executive arm of government, in this case principally by the Home Secretary, Home Office civil servants, immigration officers, and entry clearance officers’ (Clayton 2006: ch.1).

  2. 2.

    However, the number of immigrants has not changed considerably in the last few years. For instance, a 39 % drop in non-EU migration between 2011 and 2013 was substituted by an increase of 53 % in migration from EU countries (Vargas-Silva and Rienzo 2014).

  3. 3.

    Nonetheless, labour shortages persisted despite high unemployment rates (Uchitelle 2009).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. OECD, Paris, Cedex 16, France

    Lucie Cerna

  2. COMPAS, Oxford, UK

    Lucie Cerna

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  1. Lucie Cerna
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Cerna, L. (2016). Political Representation of High-Skilled Workers. In: Immigration Policies and the Global Competition for Talent. International Series on Public Policy . Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57156-4_7

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