The Palgrave Handbook of International Labour Migration ― Law and Policy Perspectives

This authoritative and accessible state-of-the-art reference collection maps the changing landscape of labour mobility in terms of the dialectic between state sovereignty and market-based logic, which is transforming the speed, scope and scale of transboundary migration-for-employment.

Faced with the absence of a multilateral treaty and of a global architecture, governments today are turning to bilateral agreements as the preferred mode of migration governance to deal with the cross-border movement of capital and persons. In this context, more recently, private actors have challenged state regulations to increasingly bypass the complexities of their immigration laws and policies. This duality between immigration regulations and the market-based logic of trade agreements offers the opportunity to conduct a deep examination of the relationship between labour migration and the state-centred regime, arguing that this mobility and related transnational dynamics in particular provides an opportunity to examine the changing– or indeed unchanging – nature of the sovereign principle.

This insightful collection offers a conceptual framework of the development of interdisciplinary approaches to the management of labour mobility – including transnationalism, economics, legal and social sciences. Eminent scholars from various disciplines and perspectives analyse labour mobility issues across the major countries of origin and destination over four continents, with an emphasis on theoretical reflection and empirical analysis.

The Palgrave Handbook of Labour Migration goes beyond the assumption that states are the only actors in the design and implementation of migratory policies. It maps the field, framing legal and political questions to address the main elements of labour mobility, including the limits and challenges of state action.

Marion Panizzon is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Bern, Switzerland. In 2010, Marion was elected officer of the International Economic Law Interest Group of the European Society of International Law (ESIL). Marion's work has been published in American Journal of International Law, European Journal of International Law, Melbourne Journal of International Law, Journal of Migration and Refugee Issues, Journal of World Trade and Nordic Journal of International Law. Her book publications focus on selected topics of international economic law and include Good Faith in the Jurisprudence of the WTO (2006), GATS and the Regulation of International Trade in Services (2008) co-edited with Pierre Sauve and Nicole Pohl, and Multilayered Migration Governance (2011) co-edited with Sandra Lavenex and Rahel Kunz. Marion has worked as a consultant for the World Bank, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Swiss Federal Office for Migration, the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation, the Institut du Developpement Durable and the Migration Policy Institute.
Gottfried Zurcher is the former Vice Director of the Federal Office for Migration and Director of the Directorate for Migration Policy, Switzerland. Since 1979 he has different posts held within the Federal Administration in the field of asylum, refugee and migration policy. Since 1991 Gottfried has been Deputy Director of the Federal Office for Refugees, the Swiss representative in various ad hoc and permanent working groups and committees (Council of Europe and UN organisations), and also the head of the Swiss delegation in bilateral and multi-lateral negotiations on migration issues (co-operation, migration and readmission agreements).

Elisa Fornale joined the WTI and CDM to be part of the on-going research programme 'Markets for Migration and Development: Trade and Labour Mobility Linkages – Prospects for Development?' under the supervision of Prof. Panizzon and Prof. Amarelle, working on diverse topics linked with multi-layered governance, trade and labour mobility. During the work for her PhD she focused on the legal difficulties and human rights violations associated with irregular migratory flows. She analysed the potential and limitations of European migration policies to take contextual complexity into account with a review of the EU global approach to migration and mobility. Building on the research efforts of her doctoral studies, her post-doc position at the WTI/CDM expands her results in two ways. She addresses the extent to which trade liberalization facilitates migrants' access the global labour markets and she is investigating the migration–trade nexus in international law.