IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/palcom/v10y2023i1d10.1057_s41599-023-01885-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Irregular migration is skilled migration: reimagining skill in EU’s migration policies

Author

Listed:
  • Damini Purkayastha

    (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)

  • Tuba Bircan

    (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)

  • Ahmad Wali Ahmad Yar

    (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)

  • Duha Ceylan

    (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)

Abstract

Irregular migration, the movement of people outside legal regulations, is largely viewed either as a security threat or a moral, humanitarian impetus to help the vulnerable. The lack of data on irregular migration obscures the contribution of migrants without legal residence in the farms and factories of Europe. It also makes invisible their skill levels and labour market potential. A growing body of literature that centres coloniality and racism in contemporary migration policies informs our study on how the category of skill is instrumentalised as an othering tool. Through the lived experiences of 34 non-European migrants who arrived in Belgium through irregular routes, we examine skilled migration and irregular migration as modalities of inclusion and exclusion. What we find is a high degree of heterogeneity of skills among irregular migrants in terms of education levels and aspirations. Skills are dynamic and responsive to migration trajectories as individuals acquire a whole gamut of proficiencies while on the move. At the same time, individuals face a high degree of deskilling when forced into legal limbo, especially those living in camps without pathways to legalisation. Experiences also highlight how the construct of illegality and irregularity leaves migrants vulnerable to labour market exploitation and negative social discourses. The core of our contribution lies in challenging the assumptions of rigid migration categories and their role in reproducing global inequalities and racial hierarchies.

Suggested Citation

  • Damini Purkayastha & Tuba Bircan & Ahmad Wali Ahmad Yar & Duha Ceylan, 2023. "Irregular migration is skilled migration: reimagining skill in EU’s migration policies," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-10, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:10:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-023-01885-7
    DOI: 10.1057/s41599-023-01885-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-023-01885-7
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41599-023-01885-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ahmad Wali Ahmad-Yar & Tuba Bircan, 2021. "Anatomy of a Misfit: International Migration Statistics," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-22, April.
    2. Juan Sebastian Olier & Camilla Spadavecchia, 2022. "Stereotypes, disproportions, and power asymmetries in the visual portrayal of migrants in ten countries: an interdisciplinary AI-based approach," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-16, December.
    3. Martin Ruhs, 2013. "The Price of Rights: Regulating International Labor Migration," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 10140.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dorte Sindbjerg Martinsen & Gabriel Pons Rotger, 2017. "The fiscal impact of EU immigration on the tax-financed welfare state: Testing the ‘welfare burden’ thesis," European Union Politics, , vol. 18(4), pages 620-639, December.
    2. David, Blight, 2020. "Trends of International Migration since Post-World War II," MPRA Paper 106307, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2020.
    3. Juan Sebastian Olier & Camilla Spadavecchia, 2024. "Migration and emotions in the media: can socioeconomic indicators predict emotions in images associated with immigrants?," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 963-994, April.
    4. Adamson, Fiona, 2019. "The Migration State in the Global South: Nationalizing, Developmental, and Neoliberal Models of Migration Management," SocArXiv wze2p, Center for Open Science.
    5. Alexander Reilly, 2015. "Low-cost labour or cultural exchange? Reforming the Working Holiday visa programme," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 26(3), pages 474-489, September.
    6. David McKenzie & Dean Yang, 2015. "Evidence on Policies to Increase the Development Impacts of International Migration," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 30(2), pages 155-192.
    7. Suresh Naidu & Yaw Nyarko & Shing-Yi Wang, 2016. "Monopsony Power in Migrant Labor Markets: Evidence from the United Arab Emirates," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 124(6), pages 1735-1792.
    8. David McKenzie, 2014. "The tyranny of experts: economists, dictators, and the forgotten rights of the poor, by William Easterly," Journal of Development Effectiveness, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(2), pages 211-214, June.
    9. Bożena, Chrząstowska, 2018. "The Effectiveness of Migration Policies," MPRA Paper 106128, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2018.
    10. Philip Martin, 2014. "The Global Economic Crisis and the Future of Migration by Bimal Ghosh , Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan , 2013 , xvii + 338 pp," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 52(2), pages 202-205, June.
    11. Suresh Naidu & Yaw Nyarko & Shing-Yi Wang, 2014. "Worker Mobility in a Global Labor Market: Evidence from the United Arab Emirates," NBER Working Papers 20388, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Henry Sherrell, 2014. "The "price of rights" and labour immigration: an Australian case study," Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(2), pages 108-122, June.
    13. Elsa Underhill & Dimitria Groutsis & Diane Broek & Malcolm Rimmer, 2018. "Migration Intermediaries and Codes of Conduct: Temporary Migrant Workers in Australian Horticulture," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 153(3), pages 675-689, December.
    14. Mihaela MATEI & Monica ROMAN & Alexandru FLOREA & Adina IORGANDA, 2020. "International migration policies in two post-communist countries: comparative evidence from Romania and Poland," Eastern Journal of European Studies, Centre for European Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, vol. 11, pages 427-448, December.
    15. Richard Curtain & Matthew Dornan & Stephen Howes & Henry Sherrell, 2018. "Pacific seasonal workers: Learning from the contrasting temporary migration outcomes in Australian and New Zealand horticulture," Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(3), pages 462-480, September.
    16. Antonella, Barbarito, 2019. "Trends of International Migration since Post-World War II," MPRA Paper 106133, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2019.
    17. Kunz, Johannes S. & Zhu, Anna, 2023. "Welfare Reform and Migrant's Long-Term Labor Market Integration," IZA Discussion Papers 16285, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Jansson, Olle, 2017. "Organized interests and foreign-educated professionals: The case of the associations for physicians and nurses in Sweden," Working Paper Series 2017:18, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    19. Isabel Shutes, 2022. "Immigration Policies and the Risks of Single Parenthood for Migrant Women," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 702(1), pages 149-162, July.
    20. Michael, Owiso, 2018. "International Migration since Post-World War II: Trends and Determinants," MPRA Paper 106280, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2018.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:10:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-023-01885-7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.nature.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.