Research cluster B4: The economic dimension: work, entrepreneurship, economic integration
Cluster B4 deals with the economic dimension of migration and integration.Work, entrepreneurship and economic integration are usually seen as central dimensions of the social integration of migrants. A huge part of the discourse on integration deals with the economic performance of migrants on labour markets of the destination countries and their role as competitors to/of the indigenous labour force. However, in dealing with migrants’ strategies and performance on European labour markets the study of the economic dimension of migration throws some light on the main structural mechanisms in the host countries related to work, entretpreneurship and economic integration of migrants.
In the first work package this cluster reviewed different approaches in the social sciences to work, entrepreneurship and economic integration. This included the various disciplinary modes to conceptualise empirical, methodological and theoretical problems in this field. A group of researchers including economists, sociologists, social geographers, ethnologists and political scientists doing research in the interfaces between migration, integration and economy, contributed to the discussion of the dominant economic topics and methodologies in this research area.
In the second work package a state of the art report was written based on a heuristic model which was the outcome of the former discussions and which allowed to organise and to review the relevant approaches in the research field circumsribed by the title of this cluster. As an outcome of the two work packages and based on the current interests of the members of B4 it was agreed that three fields of research will be the focal points for the future work of B4:
1) Immigrant entrepreneurship and transnationalism
Various forms of immigrant entrepreneurship are discussed in the current literature as examples for the proliferation of transnational social relations often conceptualised as the emergence of transnational social spaces and forms of transmigration. Based on this state of the arts the aim is to initiate a joint empirical study in several European countries on the (transnational) forms of immigrant entrepreneurship among migrant populations of the same origin (Turks, Moroccans, Asians) in various european countries (Germany, France, Britain, Sweden, Portugal and Spain Ines: woher stammen diese Länderangaben?).
2) Migration and socio-economic development. Europe in a comparative perspective
Industrial countries have recently discovered that migration policies usually conceptualised in a primarily reactive and social problem oriented manner may have a potential to improve economic and structural policies, to cover shortages of (particularly high-skilled) manpower on sectoral labour markets and to promote technical and economic innovation in a mutual way: E.g. the recruitment of highly skilled migrants does not necessarily inply just another “brain drain” from the sending countries but may turn out to become a catalyst element in an emerging process of growth and development in the countries of origin and thus may rather prove to lead to a so-called win-win-situation. More generally as a result of change of perspective recent discussions focus more and more on the potential of international migration and migrant communities for development and growth in the regions of origin. The cluster therefore intends to develop a research project that centres on the structural conditions and chances of immigration and migration policies in several European countries to imply both: potentially positive effects for the receiving and the sending countries. In this context a joint pilot project on the effects of so-called ‘diasporas’ on their countries of origin has been started by two research institutes involved in the cluster.
3) Irregular migration, the informal economy and the state
A working group of the cluster is developing a joint project that analyses the relationships between the emergence and growth of informal economies and patterns of irregular migration, focusing specifically on the peculiar social conditions of knowledge production in this field. The starting assumption is that the structure building processes of the informal economy, irregular migrations and the modes by which migration policies handle problems of knowledge and control are deeply inter-related. The aim of the envisaged project is analyse these interrelations based on a comparative emprical study involving four countries.
The third work package consisted of a series of conferences based on the former work of three subclusters:
1) Conference: economics and the social sciences in migration research
To enhance its collaboration with economists, IMISCOE Cluster B4 organised a joint conference with the International Network for Economic Research (INFER) on Migration Research in Economics and Social Sciences ( Osnabrück, January 2006). It was linked to a former workshop at the HWWA/ Hamburg in June 2005 dealing with the same topic and succeeded to intensify the exchanges between economists and other social scientists working in migration research. It allowed for a combination of thematicatically more focused but interdisciplinary network of IMISCOE/B4 and the thematically broader but highly disciplin centred network of INFER/ESS. Main topics of the conference were: decision processes in migration, causes and forms of migration, the economic and political impact of migration on receiving states and the effect of migrant remittances. The papers presented will be published in a joint publication.
2) Conference: highly skilled migration, organisations and networks
Research on highly skilled migration is fraught with several theoretical, methodological and empirical difficulties: the absence of integration problems among highly skilled migrants seems to make this group less attractive for research on social integration and inequality, the research is significantly aggravated by insufficient statistical data and non-harmonised data collection procedures and the relative small amount of highly skilled migrants supports the impression that this group refers to a quantité négligeable. Various scholars, however, have challenged this underestimation and point to a particularly interesting theoretical perspective which is the transformation of migration to a kind of international mobility within organisations. Therefore the interrelation of organisational decision-making in the context of personnel policies, the use of intra-organisational networks and patterns of highly skilled movements took center stage of this conference that took place in Trento, Italy, 24-26th April, 2006.
3) Conference: illegal migration and the informal economy
The study of irregular migration systems in Western Europe suffers from two main weaknesses: a lack of reliable conceptual and empirical research and a tendency to talk in general country-framed terms, without paying attention to the specificities of both migratory systems and sectors of irregular employment. Theconference took place in Madrid in June 2007 (also including a summer school for PhD candidates) and aimed to overcome both weaknesses, stressing the discussion of conceptual and empirical works on strictly academic basis. Hereby, the employment of irregular migrants in domestic services and construction received special attention since neither of them can easily be externalised to other countries and largely seem to escape the controlling capacities of states.
