Fresh Talent or Cheap Labour? Accession State Migrant Labour in the Scottish Economy

Abstract

The attraction of human capital in the form of migrant labour is now a central feature of many national, sub-national and city administrations across developed economies (Peck 2005). The intellectual stimulus behind this recent policy interest has undoubtedly been the influential work of the US academic Richard Florida. He advocates that dynamic regions are those that can attract and retain the so-called 'creative classes9 (Florida 2005). According to him, the need for cities and regions to attract young, vibrant, creative and skilled people is now creating a 'war for talent9. Along with the other key economic fundamentals of technology and social tolerance, the creative classes are felt to be the key to stimulating economic dynamism within modern-day knowledgebased economies (Florida 2005). Consequently, people attraction has become a burgeoning part of the economic development policymaking machinery across the world (see Lowell 2007; Diez Guardia and Pichelmann 2006; OECD 2006). Although Harrison et al (2003) point out that Florida's thesis was developed in the context of city regions in North America and it is questionable whether these ideas readily transfer to a European context and to