Has immigration led to a new form of labour market protectionism in Europe?

Drawing on their study published in Comparative Migration Studies on legislative changes in Austria, Germany, Ireland and the UK, for the LSE European Politics and Politics (EUROPP) Blog, our Associate Professors Dr Patrick McGovern and Dr Eiko Thielemann, co-founders of our MSc International Migration and Public Policy programme, with former LSE School of Public Policy Fellow Omar Hammoud-Gallego, identify a new development in immigration control that extends beyond borders into the workplace.

These measures are designed to limit labour market competition by placing restrictions on access to employment through labour market tests, minimum salary requirements or qualifying periods before migrants can be considered for a job. The fact that these policies emerged independently in such contrasting economies as those of Austria, Germany, the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom, could mean that they may well appear in others. What makes these developments especially interesting is that they are a form of labour market protectionism in an era in which markets are supposed to be increasingly deregulated and free from government intervention.