CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2007
| Author | Ivan, Irina Raluca |
|---|---|
| Title | Who is Afraid of EU Enlargement? Labour Migration Policies in the European Union: Italy and the United Kingdom |
| Summary | After the 2004 and the 2007 EU Enlargement rounds, the EU-15 member states implemented different transitional arrangements towards the A8 (the new member states which entered the EU in 2004, except Cyprus and Malta) and the A2 (Romania and Bulgaria). My thesis will discuss the case of the United Kingdom and Italy because they adopted significant changes in their labour migration policies towards the new member states. While the UK had an open-door policy towards the A8 in 2004, the British government announced restrictive measures towards Romanian and Bulgarian workers in 2007. Italy represents a different case, because it proved to be more flexible in 2007 than in 2004 in relation to admittance of A2 workers. The cases become more interesting when we consider the estimated number of immigrants from A2 to the two old member states. The UK imposed restrictions towards two countries that do not have a tradition of migrating to Britain, while Italy adopted a more open policy towards Romanians, who have a specific preference of migrating there. I will attempt to determine the specific reasons that could explain the shift in the preferences of the two countries. In order to do this, I shall look at the chain migration model, immigration and labour migration traditions/patterns/policies in Italy and the UK, and at the importance of the migration issue in the political and public discourse in the two countries. Italy and UK can be used as examples of two old member states that have different domestic interests regarding labour migration. The two case studies illustrate that a common labour immigration policy at the level of the European Union is still not possible, although the recommendations of the European Commission stress the benefits of the freedom of labour for the member states. |
| Supervisor | Bohle, Dorothee |
| Department | International Relations MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2007/ivan_irina.pdf |
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