Political Representation of High-Skilled Workers

Abstract

This chapter considers the impact of political representation on high-skilled immigration policy outputs. It analyses the positions of political parties, as well as the links between labour market actors and political parties. The chapter provides a comparative analysis between the case studies in terms of political representation. The countries display different degrees of representation of (high-skilled) actors and hence high-skilled immigration policy outputs. The chapter also offers a discussion of the impact of the global economic crisis on high-skilled immigration and considers in particular changes in policies and the institutional representation of actors. In some countries, representatives of high-skilled labour became mobilised to push for more restrictions, whereas policy liberalisations have taken place in other countries.