(Re)scaling Governance of Skilled Migration in Europe: Divergence, Harmonisation, and Contestation

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe European Commission has attempted to create a common European migration policy since the mid‐1980s. It has made progress in the harmonisation of asylum and family law, and the Schengen agreement has opened internal borders within the European Union (EU). But the commission's attempts to establish common admission standards for non‐EU labour migrants met with considerable opposition from member states. This paper investigates the construction, negotiations, and contestations of scales of decision‐making power in Europe, especially regarding skilled migrants. The paper first provides a short historical overview of initiatives of the European Commission to streamline migration policies across the EU, followed by a case study of the (re)scaling of the European Blue Card. The European Commission designed this initiative to attract more skilled workers to the EU. Several EU member states rejected the initial proposal to safeguard their sovereign decision‐making power. The findings of this case study indicate that the scale of the nation state remains powerful in the admission of non‐EU workers and that institutions at higher geographical scales do not necessarily dominate lower scales. The findings also show that overlapping and intertwining scales of decision‐making power hamper efforts to create a common European skilled migration policy. The newly adopted Lisbon Treaty may supersede these scales and facilitate more far‐reaching skilled migration policies. The findings of this paper contribute to debates about the rescaling of decision‐making power in the EU and the changing roles of nation states, institutions, and supranational organisations in the governance of skilled migration. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.