Economic Incorporation Without Inclusion? Labor Migration and Boundary-Making in Europe’s New Immigration States

• In Event: International Migration Section Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): 18. Methods and measurement

Abstract

Labor shortages across Europe have reached historic highs, transforming countries long defined by emigration into active recruiters of non-EU migrant workers. In Central and Southeast Europe, states are increasingly relying on workers from South and Southeast Asia and Turkey to fill gaps in construction, tourism, and services. Yet it remains unclear whether economic incorporation in these newly recruiting contexts produces broader civic inclusion or reinforces conditional and stratified membership. Building on Wimmer’s multilevel theory of ethnic boundary-making, this paper conceptualizes these developments as “new labor migration” and examines whether labor-shortage-driven recruitment leads to boundary expansion, boundary blurring, or boundary reinforcement. While economic necessity may incentivize pragmatic acceptance, temporary permit regimes and sector-specific recruitment may institutionalize what Ruhs terms a trade-off between openness and rights. To assess these dynamics, we analyze repeated Standard Eurobarometer waves (2014-2024) to construct a longitudinal “boundary differentiation gap” capturing divergence in attitudes toward intra-EU versus non-EU immigration. These data are merged with Eurostat indicators on first residence permits and permit duration to measure the intensity and legal structuring of non-EU labor recruitment. We estimate whether increased recruitment predicts shifts in public attitudes toward non-EU migrants. To examine normative orientations toward membership, we analyze Special Eurobarometer 519 (2022), constructing indices of support for civic equality, state responsibility for integration, and conditionality of inclusion. Findings speak to broader debates on assimilation, stratified citizenship, and nationalism by testing whether labor scarcity catalyzes symbolic inclusion in contexts not historically theorized as immigration societies. The paper challenges the migrant-sending/migrant-receiving binary and asks whether economic incorporation under conditions of demographic decline reconfigures who counts as a member or reproduces hierarchy through temporary and conditional inclusion.

Authors

• Tamara Pavasovic Trost, University of Ljubljana

• Denis Marinsek, University of Ljubljana

• Julija Sardelic, Victoria University Wellington, New Zealand