The Governance of Global Labor Migration: Literature Review

Abstract

This paper focuses on the past 10 years of major scholarship on the governance of external labor migration. It also centers on migration that is voluntary and regular, recognizing that rules governing lowskilled migration are often formed to control irregular migration [5]. Scholars of migrant labor identify four major categories: low-skilled temporary (e. g. seasonal workers, service workers), low-skilled permanent (e. g. industrial workers), high-skilled temporary (e. g. student workers, corporate assignees, “expats”), and high-skilled permanent (e. g. medical personnel, technology specialists).
 Discussion on the layers of labor migration governance may give the impression that all initiatives are government-based. However, as some authors mention [12; 30; 17], non-state entities play key governance roles. Multinational corporations (MNCs) are the most influential non-state actors.
 In light of the incoherence of governance in the area of regular labor migration, there is no shortage of knowledge gaps. A preliminary review of contemporary scholarly literature, suggests that case studies to identify best practices in multilateral schemes and public-private partnerships within the regional “layer” of governance, may be a particularly fruitful focus for scholarly research. This conclusion is based on sources that describe immigration politics and policy at the national level as inherently unstable and less likely to yield insights into balancing short vs. long-term economic interests or into the protection of migrant’s rights [24; 29]. The slow pace and relative ineffectiveness of efforts at the global level suggests that scholars may find targeting this “layer” of limited value, particularly if they wish to form actionable, forward-looking policy recommendations.