Constructing and Imagining Labour Migration

Elspeth Guild and Sandra Mantu, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

'This is a welcome and timely edited collection offering an interdisciplinary, comparative perspective on labour migration governance both at a national level and in the context of regional economic and political integration systems. Importantly, the volume goes a long way towards dispelling some of the myths of labour migration control that are frequently laid claim to by States.' Ryszard Cholewinski, International Migration Programme, Switzerland 'This is an incisive and timely comparative analysis of the claims different states make about their ability to control labour migrations and the experiences individuals have of these controls.' Eleonore Kofman, Middlesex University, UK ’Labour migration control is a topical issue in Europe and beyond. One example is the European Commission’s Communication on Migration (2011), which states that the European Union needs ’targeted immigration’ to fulfil its ’labour needs’, but must ’prevent large number of economic migrants crossing the borders irregularly’. For those who wish to examine such statements from a critical and original perspective, Constructing and Imagining Labour Migration is a valuable read... Existing analyses of migration policy tend to focus either on regional clusters of countries, or on Europe and the Anglo-Saxon settler countries, complemented at best with case studies on Japan or South Korea. This book steps up to the daunting challenge of offering a truly global perspective on labour migration control on all five continents...’ Journal of Common Market Studies 'The book will be of interest to those involved in global migration debates, policy analysts and researchers alike. Applying Michel Foucault’s conceptualisations of regulatory and disciplinary power at places, the case analyses in the book operate both on levels of discourses and practices, discussing the ’grand narratives’ of migration particular to each region... The idea of presenting ’policy narratives’ is ap

• Introduction; I: Uncertain Borders, Empty Control Claims: Labour Migration Regimes with Weak Control Claims; 1: When Borders Fail: ‘Illegal', Invisible Labour Migration and Basotho Domestic Workers in South Africa; 2: (In)hospitable Border Zones: Situating Bolivian Migrants' Presence at Brazilian Crossroads; 3: Labour Migration Regulation in Malaysia: A Policy of High Numbers and Low Rights; 4: Examining Labour Migration Regimes in East Asia: Appearance and Technique of Control in Taiwan *; 5: Implications for Policy Discourse: The Influx of Zimbabwean Migrants into South Africa; II: The Appearance of Control: Examining Labour Migration Regimes with High Control Claims; 6: ‘Advantage Canada' and the Contradictions of (Im)migration Control; 7: Competing Interests in the Europeanization of Labour Migration Rules; 8: Australia and Labour Migration; 9: The ‘Outside-In' –An Overview of Japanese Immigration Policy from the Perspective of International Relations 1; III: Equivocal Claims: Examining Labour Migration Regimes with Ambivalent Control Claims; 10: Equivocal Claims? Ambivalent Controls? Labour Migration Regimes in the European Union; 11: Nationality: An Alternative Control Mechanism in an Area of Free Movement?; 12: Migration Flows and Security in North America; 13: Equivocal Claims: Examining Labour Migration Regimes with Ambivalent Control Claims – Central Asian States' Policies on Migration Control; 14: Reflections on Immigration Controls and Free Movement in Europe