IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp10365.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Rise of the Free Movements: How Posting Shapes a Hybrid Single European Labour Market

Author

Listed:
  • Mussche, Ninke

    (University of Antwerp)

  • Corluy, Vincent

    (University of Antwerp)

  • Marx, Ive

    (University of Antwerp)

Abstract

Intra-EU mobility has been the subject of debate from its very inception. Some scholars argue that intra-EU labour migration improves the allocation of human capital in the EU and contend that the level of permanent-type labour mobility is still too low to talk of a single European labour market. Others point to the social downside of both free labour mobility and free service mobility, such as the increased precariousness of industrial relations, and problems of wage dumping. Since the downsides are acute and demand attention, less attention has been given to the origins, destinations and nature of the posting flows more generally. One of the reasons for this is the fact that data on posting are still scarce. This article aims to fill this gap by exploring unique posting data for Belgium. Based on these data we argue that while the free movement of labour and a single European labour market has been a policy goal for decades, it is the free movement of services that is well on its way to shape a hybrid single European labour market. Permanent type mobility is greatly complemented with high levels of short term service mobility. Service mobility/posting is as much a phenomenon of intra-EU15 mobility, than it is of EU12 mobility. Moreover, posting is set to remain more popular than classical free movement of labour among EU12 citizens. Service workers circumvent the most important linguistic, cultural, institutional and social hurdles that classical mobile workers face in a diverse EU. The free movement of services is developing to such an extent that it complements permanent type free labour mobility in shaping a single but typically European labour market that is driven by diversity and circular mobility.

Suggested Citation

  • Mussche, Ninke & Corluy, Vincent & Marx, Ive, 2016. "The Rise of the Free Movements: How Posting Shapes a Hybrid Single European Labour Market," IZA Discussion Papers 10365, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10365
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp10365.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ines Wagner & Nathan Lillie, 2014. "European Integration and the Disembedding of Labour Market Regulation: Transnational Labour Relations at the European Central Bank Construction Site," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(2), pages 403-419, March.
    2. Ines Wagner, 2015. "The Political Economy of Borders in a 'Borderless' European Labour Market," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(6), pages 1370-1385, November.
    3. Bonin, Holger & Eichhorst, Werner & Florman, Christer & Hansen, Mette Okkels & Skiöld, Lena & Stuhler, Jan & Tatsiramos, Konstantinos & Thomasen, Henrik & Zimmermann, Klaus F., 2008. "Geographic Mobility in the European Union: Optimising its Economic and Social Benefits," IZA Research Reports 19, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Boeri, Tito & Hanson, Gordon H. & McCormick, Barry (ed.), 2002. "Immigration Policy and the Welfare System: A Report for the Fondazione Rodolfo Debenedetti," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199256310.
    5. Jo Ritzen & Klaus Zimmermann, 2014. "A vibrant European labor market with full employment," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 3(1), pages 1-24, December.
    6. Amelie F. Constant & Olga Nottmeyer & Klaus F. Zimmermann, 2013. "The economics of circular migration," Chapters, in: Amelie F. Constant & Klaus F. Zimmermann (ed.), International Handbook on the Economics of Migration, chapter 3, pages 55-74, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    7. Sara Lemos & Jonathan Portes, 2008. "New Labour? The Impact of Migration from Central and Eastern European Countries on the UK Labour Market," Discussion Papers in Economics 08/29, Division of Economics, School of Business, University of Leicester.
    8. Krause-Pilatus, Annabelle & Rinne, Ulf & Zimmermann, Klaus F., 2014. "How Far Away Is a Single European Labor Market?," IZA Discussion Papers 8383, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Ferrera, Maurizio, 2005. "The Boundaries of Welfare: European Integration and the New Spatial Politics of Social Protection," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199284672.
    10. Maurizio Ferrera, 2009. "The JCMS Annual Lecture: National Welfare States and European Integration: In Search of a ‘Virtuous Nesting’," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(2), pages 219-233, March.
    11. Blanchflower, David G. & Saleheen, Jumana & Shadforth, Chris, 2007. "The Impact of the Recent Migration from Eastern Europe on the UK Economy," IZA Discussion Papers 2615, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Barslund, Mikkel & Busse, Matthias, 2016. "Labour Mobility in the EU: Addressing challenges and ensuring ‘fair mobility’," CEPS Papers 11705, Centre for European Policy Studies.
    13. Hazans, Mihails & Philips, Kaia, 2011. "The Post-Enlargement Migration Experience in the Baltic Labor Markets," IZA Discussion Papers 5878, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. repec:bla:jcmkts:v:47:y:2009:i::p:219-233 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Drinkwater, Stephen & Eade, John & Garapich, Michal, 2006. "Poles Apart? EU Enlargement and the Labour Market Outcomes of Immigrants in the UK," IZA Discussion Papers 2410, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Blanchflower, David G. & Lawton, Helen, 2008. "The Impact of the Recent Expansion of the EU on the UK Labour Market," IZA Discussion Papers 3695, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Lucia Kureková, 2013. "Welfare Systems as Emigration Factor: Evidence from the New Accession States," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(4), pages 721-739, July.
    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. Martin Kahanec, 2013. "Labor mobility in an enlarged European Union," Chapters, in: Amelie F. Constant & Klaus F. Zimmermann (ed.), International Handbook on the Economics of Migration, chapter 7, pages 137-152, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Åslund, Olof & Engdahl, Mattias, 2013. "1 Open borders, transport links and local labor markets," Working Paper Series, Center for Labor Studies 2013:7, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
    3. Martin Kahanec & Klaus F. Zimmermann, 2008. "Migration in an Enlarged EU: A Challenging Solution?," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 849, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    4. Kahanec, Martin & Zaiceva, Anzelika & Zimmermann, Klaus F., 2009. "Lessons from Migration after EU Enlargement," IZA Discussion Papers 4230, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Kahanec, Martin, 2012. "Skilled Labor Flows: Lessons from the European Union," IZA Research Reports 49, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Anzelika Zaiceva & Klaus F. Zimmermann, 2008. "Scale, diversity, and determinants of labour migration in Europe," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 24(3), pages 428-452, Autumn.
    7. Jean-Claude Barbier & Fabrice Colomb, 2011. "The unbearable foreignness of EU law in social policy, a sociological approach to law-making," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00639906, HAL.
    8. Lemos, Sara & Portes, Jonathan, 2008. "New Labour? The Impact of Migration from Central and Eastern European Countries on the UK Labour Market," IZA Discussion Papers 3756, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Jean-Claude Barbier & Fabrice Colomb, 2011. "The unbearable foreignness of EU law in social policy, a sociological approach to law-making," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 11065, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    10. DavidG. Blanchflower & Chris Shadforth, 2009. "Fear, Unemployment and Migration," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(535), pages 136-182, February.
    11. repec:bla:jcmkts:v:47:y:2009:i::p:17-42 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Jean-Claude Barbier & Fabrice Colomb, 2011. "The unbearable foreignness of EU law in social policy, a sociological approach to law-making," Post-Print halshs-00639906, HAL.
    13. Martin Kahanec & Mariola Pytliková, 2017. "The economic impact of east–west migration on the European Union," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 44(3), pages 407-434, August.
    14. Muysken, Joan & Vallizadeh, Ehsan & Ziesemer, Thomas, 2012. "The impact of Medium-Skilled immigration: A general equilibrium approach," MERIT Working Papers 2012-055, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    15. Kancs, D’Artis & Kielyte, Julda, 2010. "Education in the East, Emigrating to the West?," European Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 18(2), pages 133-154, May.
    16. Zimmermann, Klaus F. & Yuksel, Mutlu & Brenke, Karl, 2009. "EU Enlargement under Continued Mobility Restrictions: Consequences for the German Labor Market," CEPR Discussion Papers 7274, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    17. Ondřej Schneider, 2022. "Labour Migration In The European Union: The Case Of Central And Eastern Europe," Economic Annals, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Belgrade, vol. 67(233), pages 7-38, April – J.
    18. repec:mod:depeco:0008 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Werner Eichhorst & Corrado Giulietti & Martin Guzi & Michael J. Kendzia & Paola Monti & Tommaso Frattini & Peter Huber & Klaus Nowotny & Barbara Vandeweghe, 2011. "The Integration of Migrants and its Effects on the Labour Market," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 42955, January.
    20. Andrea Iossa & Maria Persdotter, 2021. "Cross‐Border Social Dumping as a ‘Game of Jurisdiction’ – Towards a Legal Geography of Labour Relations in the EU Internal Market," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(5), pages 1086-1102, September.
    21. Simonetta Longhi & Magdalena Rokicka, 2012. "European immigrants in the UK before and after the 2004 enlargement: Is there a change in immigrant self-selection?," RF Berlin - CReAM Discussion Paper Series 1232, Rockwool Foundation Berlin (RF Berlin) - Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM).
    22. Ken Clark & Stephen Drinkwater, 2009. "The Labour Market Impact of Recent Immigration on Ethnic Groups in The UK," Nordic Journal of Political Economy, Nordic Journal of Political Economy, vol. 35, pages 1-4.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    labor mobility; migration; posting;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:iza:izadps:dp10365. 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: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    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.