Pertti Koistinen

A Manifesto for Social Europe

The European Union is still far from having social legitimacy. The issue is indicative of a huge uncertainty about Social Europe. What is it? What are the principles of social justice behind it? In our view, a new social constitution of the European Union is needed. Political democratisation must be accompanied by the foundation of a social Europe. We argue that were the IGC to combine the Charter of The Fundamental Social Rights of Workers with the Maastricht Protocol on Social Policy, inserting both into the TEU, it would lay the legal foundations for a dynamic European social constitution; a Social Europe dedicated to the combating of social exclusion and the maintenance of solidarity.

Labour market attachment following major workforce downsizings: a comparison of displaced and retained workers

In plant downsizings, attention tends to be paid to displaced workers, while the retained are considered ‘fortunate survivors’. Exploiting a comprehensive Finnish employee-employer dataset, this study examines both displaced and retained workers and compares their seven-year labour market attachment after downsizing. Advanced statistics, including trajectory analysis, are used to identify groups characterized by ‘immediately weakening’, ‘gradually weakening’ and ‘strong’ employment. Workers displaced in major downsizings have a significantly higher risk of immediately weakening employment than those retained. Sequence analyses were performed for those on weakening employment trajectories and it was found that the pathway ‘unemployment – unemployment pension – old age pension’ was quite common among displaced workers but also among those retained. The results support the segmentation theory hypothesis of a dualism in outcomes, but surprisingly there is little difference in the labour market outcomes of retained and displaced workers in the long run.

A Manifesto for Social Europe 2000

After the Treaty of Amsterdam, and on the eve of the new millennium, the European Union remains paralysed. Nationalism is reinforced by a static and rigid interpretation of subsidiarity. Monetarist economism blocks democratic control over the European Central Bank and creates obstacles against effective implementation of the new Employment Title of the EC Treaty. Protectionist self-interest prevents Europe taking a lead in reform of the global trading system.

Patterns of Integration : A Longitudinal View of the Labour Market Attachment of Immigrants in Finland

Abstract The labour market integration of immigrants is often time-consuming and a socially selective process that depends on macroeconomic, institutional and individual characteristics. In this paper, we studied the labour market integration of immigrants as a longitudinal process through different patterns of labour market attachment. Using information about individuals’ main activity statuses based on the Finnish Longitudinal Employer-Employee Data (FLEED) and using sequence analysis, we followed the labour market transitions of immigrants during the years 2000–2010. The theory on transitional labour markets provides an analytical tool for analysing the heterogeneity of the individuals’ labour market attachment. The results contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the labour market integration of immigrants.