JUST MIGRATION | Labour Migration Regimes in transnationalised contexts

The EU and its Member States increasingly seek labour migrants—especially highly skilled workers—to address demographic and labour-market needs. Yet migration policy remains dominated by destination-country interests and the assumption that law can directly control migration, treating it as exceptional rather than as a normal social process. This overlooks migrants’ aspirations and capabilities, conditions in countries of origin, global inequalities, and major societal changes such as digitalisation, climate change, deglobalization, and shifts in the international order.

Labour migration law has an ambiguous role: it strengthens border controls and visa requirements while creating new migration pathways, but its effects are often indirect and shaped by economic, commercial, cultural, and technological factors. Governance also involves numerous public and private actors—including governments, migrants, employers, and recruitment agencies—whose roles and accountability may be unclear. The growing marketisation of migrant selection further increases private actors’ influence.

JUST MIGRATION therefore aims to:

Examine how labour migration regimes reflect migrants’ agency and countries-of-origin perspectives.
Explore competing understandings of “just” labour migration and their translation into law.
Investigate how migrants navigate and use EU labour migration law.
Develop a framework incorporating migrant agency and transnational perspectives into legal analysis and policymaking.

Two PhD projects support this work:

Agency, Power, and Global Inequality studies how highly skilled migrant women from Africa, Asia, and Latin America navigate European labour migration regimes and how legal rules affect their professional and social lives.
Transnational Dimensions in Labour Migration Lawmaking analyses the revision of EU labour migration legislation, focusing on how lawmakers incorporate the perspectives of migrants and origin countries into legislative processes and outcomes.