Labour Markets - Cluster Overview

This cluster analyses the socio-economics of international labour migration, particularly the economics and politics of labour shortages and the determinants of the demand for migrant labour.

The skills and labour of migrants are often promoted as of significant benefit to national economies. Yet there is also anxiety both at potential displacement of citizens from labour markets and the exploitation of migrants in low-wage sectors. All of this occurs in the context of global economic change and an increasingly international labour market. These tensions have implications for research methods and analysis as well as for policy.

This cluster aims to:

  • understand the role of migration in the economics, politics and sociology of labour markets at the macro and micro levels, both empirically and conceptually.
  • examine the nature and determinants of employer demand for migrant workers in different occupations and sectors of the economy
  • explore the link between labour markets, immigration and public policy in international comparative perspective

Work at COMPAS investigates the link between labour and skills shortages, immigration and public policy. Increasingly, there is a focus within policy development on making labour migration policy responsive to the changing needs of the labour market. In the UK and in other countries there is a move towards using research to help identify shortages in the labour market and to assess the implications for labour immigration policy (see, for example, the work of the UK’s independent Migration Advisory Committee on which COMPAS is represented). COMPAS research on employer demand is therefore directly relevant to discussions within the national, European and international arenas.

Core strands of work include:

Labour shortages, immigration and public policy: an international comparative perspective: Cluster work explores the nature and determinants of labour shortages, the perceived demand for migrant labour and the increasing reliance of high- and middle-income economies on migrant labour. In particular we examine the feasibility and desirability of alternatives to immigration as a response to perceived labour and skills shortages. We investigate the relationship between labour shortages, immigration and public policy in an international comparative way.

Immigration control and the production of workers: We investigate the extent to which immigration laws and policy work with migratory processes to create certain types of workers and certain types of social and employment relations. We explore how age, ethnicity, stage of life-cycle, gender, and class contribute to this, and what it means for migrants’ experiences of employment.

Care work: Care work is a sector where migration policy intersects with a range of other regimes (welfare, employment etc.) leading to unintended consequences, particularly demand for migrant labour. This strand of work is engaged with private and public social care provision, and has a particular focus on domestic work in private households. We are interested in exploring employment, caring and gender relations, and how they intersect in situations where migrants care for children and the elderly.