Mandatory mobility? The case of immigrant posted workers sent from Italy to Belgium in the construction sector

Abstract

AbstractThe impact of the economic crisis on the Italian economy has stimulated onward migration towards Central and Northern Europe and forms of temporary labour migration, such as the posting of workers, which involves Italian workers and EU and non‐EU workers immigrated to Italy. Based on 18 semi‐structured interviews with trade unionists, labour inspectors and experts, this paper studies the posting of immigrant workers from Italy to the Belgian construction sector by analysing the case of the Rive Gauche building site, where some Italian companies employed posted workers immigrated from Albania, Egypt, India, Kosovo and Romania. The findings show how economic reasons and restrictive migration policies force immigrants to accept exploitative working conditions and how the labour market and work organization transformations in the construction sector are expanding this phenomenon. The spread of TCNs’ postings and the intersection of multiple discriminations pose new challenges to trade unions and labour and migration policies.