Ursula Reeger

Statistics and reality: concepts and measurements of migration in Europe

Table of contents - 6[-]List of figures - 10[-]List of tables - 12[-]Preface - 18[-]European migration: Historical overview and statistical problems - 22[-]Part 1 Post-colonial countries - 46[-]1. Belgium - 48[-]2. France - 68[-]3. United Kingdom - 90[-]Part 2 Guestworker receiving countries - 110[-]4. Austria - 112[-]5. Germany - 132[-]6. Switzerland - 152[-]Part 3 Post-communist countries - 168[-]7. Hungary - 170[-]8. Poland - 196[-]9. Romania - 218[-]Part 4 New immigrant receiving countries - 232[-]10. Greece - 234[-]11. Portugal - 264[-]12. Turkey - 282[-]Statistics and migration: Past, present and future - 298[-]List of contributors - 314

The commodification of mobile workers in Europe - a comparative perspective on capital and labour in Austria, the Netherlands and Sweden

One of the defining features of contemporary Europe is the freedom of movement of persons. Despite its advantages, this ‘freedom of movement’ is also contested, since it has been shown to cause discrimination, exploitation and pave the way for a ‘race to the bottom’. How can we understand the social-economic consequences of free movement in Europe? To answer this question, we developed a typology along the dimensions value of work and degree of power which delivers four ideal types of labour relationships: exploitative, deprived, greedy and esteemed. This has been applied to Central and Eastern European (CEE) workers in Austria, the Netherlands and Sweden.Our study shows dual labour market strategies of both capital and labour agents, using on the one hand strategies of cost minimisation, and on the other hand compliance strategies and dual frames of reference, both of which contribute to a low degree of freedom and a low value of work. It addresses the responsibility and significance of both capital and labour contributing to exploitative and greedy relationships throughout all three cases. The results contribute to a more balanced understanding of the responsibilities towards the ‘shadow sides’ of free movement in the EU, as it shows that not all free movement of persons is totally free. Moreover, instead of bold political statements, it demonstrates the relevance of a more differentiated perspective on the downsides and benefits of European free movement.

Labour Migration and Social Cohesion – Some Empirical Evidence from Vienna

This chapter examines the challenges for maintaining social cohesion in a period of industrial restructuring and strong pressure on labour market. This is specifically done through a study of the development of Vienna’s economic competitiveness between 1991 and 2001 and the development of ethnic and social segregation in the city as well as labour and housing market inequalities of low-status migrants residing in Vienna. Both are the most important indicators for the status of integration that are strongly interlinked, as the individual’s position on the labour market is one of the main factors defining the chances and possibilities on the housing market and his/her socio-economic position as such. It also determines the chances of the next generation regarding the educational system and a successful integration into the receiving society. The chapter aims at linking the social consequences of immigration and development of a strategy for competitiveness with spatial effects upon the entire city.

Business activities of immigrants from Turkey and the former Yugoslavia in Vienna

Migrants who came to Vienna as guest workers from the former Yugoslavia and Turkey during the 1960s still form the majority of the local immigrant population. Business activities of Turks and former Yugoslavs cover a multitude of diverse sectors; what was once a niche economy has now become an important part of Viennese business life. This paper combines official statistics for Vienna as a whole, survey material and expert interviews, to analyse business ventures run by migrant entrepreneurs on two commercial streets in Vienna. Our research shows significant local variation in the migrant economies of the two groups in the study areas, highlighting the importance of the local context as an additional determinant shaping the diversity of business activities of certain immigrant groups.

Consequences of Intra-European Movement for CEE Migrants in European Urban Regions

In Europe today, EU citizens are free to move within the entire EU and may take up jobs, enter universities, enjoy retirement or try their luck wherever they want to. As many scholars have pointed out (Favell 2008, 2009; Ciupijus 2011; Castro-Martin and Cortina 2015) this complete freedom of movement marks a turning point in European history, and the predominant direction of movement is currently from East to West. Post-accession migration from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) thus brings back old European migration patterns, in which CEE migrants are making use of this still quite new freedom of movement. So, being mobile as such is simple and easy without any legal constraints whatsoever, as nowadays even more sceptic EU 15 countries like Austria and Germany have abolished most of the transitional provisions regulating access to their labour markets. One might exaggerate and say that the official term “mobility” implies that internal EU migrants never really arrive anywhere, but are rather floating freely through the EU, which of course is a completely inaccurate picture. With the national level becoming less important in the present setting, having been “taken out of the equation”, CEE migrants are arriving at and settling within varying periods of time in cities and urban regions, which are still the most important destinations, though rural areas, e.g. in Southern Europe, are also becoming more attractive destinations (see Caglar 2014). Still, CEE migration to Western Europe is to a large extent an urban issue.

Network Embeddedness of Migrants: Exploring Variations across Three Neighbourhoods in Vienna

In recent years, social network theory has become a well-established field in migration research (Scott and Carrington, 2011) and a substantial number of recent studies have focused on the functionality of social networks in migration flows or their role in the process of integration for migrants into the receiving society (Gurak and Caces, 1992; Haug, 2008; Poros, 2011). The concept of social networks is based on relationships between individuals and refers to an individual’s social contacts, made through various personal relationships, including kinship, friendship and community (Boyd, 1989). Social networks typically involve issues of trust and norms or acceptable forms of activity and behaviour for how that network is organised (see chapter by Molina et al. in this volume). Social networks have a social and productive value, even for highly skilled migrants (see Ryan and Mulholland in this volume) and particularly for female migrants (Ryan and Mulholland, 2014b). Interest in social networks is further fuelled by the fact that migrants with larger networks have been shown to have greater socio-economic success, better access to economic resources and increased ability to deal with everyday tasks. Their life outcomes in general seem to be positively shaped by access to social networks (Hagan, 1998; Eisner et al., 2014). Access to social networks and how their characteristics vary between the majority population and migrants might therefore be an important factor in ethnic inequalities.