Rijken and de Lange edit ground-breaking volume on Decent Labour Market for Low Waged Migrant Workers

Conny Rijken of Tilburg University Law School and Tesseltje de Lange of University of Amsterdam recently released their ground-breaking edited volume Towards a Decent Labour Market for Low-Waged Migrant Workers (2018).

Towards a Decent Labour Market for Low-Waged Migrant Workers asks the important question of whether the law and policy of the European Union and member states promote decent working standards for migrant workers both from EU member states and from outside the EU.

Excellent chapters by Mijke Houwerzijl and Annette Schrauwen, Jan Cremers and Ronald Dekker, Margarite Helena Zoeteweij, and Lisa Berntsen and Tesseltje de Lange assess whether EU laws such as the Posting Directive, Freedom of Movement, the Seasonal Workers Directive, and the Employer Sanctions Directive contribute to decent working conditions for migrant workers. A common theme in these chapters is the way the EU's common market roots frequently outweigh its social policy roots to the detriment of migrant workers.

In addition to analysis of EU and national law, the book contains fascinating original research on local and national initiatives and policy measures affecting migrant workers in (and near) the EU. Petra Herzfeld Olsson and Lucia della Torre explore local cases involving Thai berry pickers in Sweden and undocumented migrant workers in the canton of Geneva in non-EU Switzerland, showing how local initiatives can improve the working conditions of migrant workers. At the same time, Tesseltje de Lange explores the impact of limitations in Dutch law which prohibit asylum seekers from working for the first six months after they file their asylum application. In her discussion of the findings of research on the impact of the 6-month limitation, de Lange comments, "[H]anging around in an asylum seekers' residence centre can be detrimental to one's health."

Other chapters provide readers with the tools for understanding the migrant labor market, especially Conny Rijken's chapter on the continuum of exploitative labor conditions, differentiating between decent work, exploitative labor conditions, human trafficking, and forced labor.

As this book shows, the EU and Europeans have by no means developed a model for ensuring decent work for low-waged migrant workers. For those of us on the American side of the Atlantic, the book shows that Europeans have at least started asking the right questions.

A hardback copy of the book can be purchased from the University of Amsterdam Press for 95 Euros. For those of us on a budget, a PDF ebook can be downloaded for free.

Coming later in 2019! 2nd edition of NAFTA and the NAALC 25 Years of Trade-Labour Linkage

Look in this space later in 2019 for more information about the release of the Second edition of NAFTA and the NAALC Twenty(Five) Years of North American Trade-Labour Linkage!

The new edition will contain a new chapter comparing NAFTA's labor provisions in the NAALC with the labor chapter in the recently negotiated but not ratified United States Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA).

Other new information to be included:

• labor provisions in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and its post-US withdrawal successor agreement, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTTP);
• sustainable development and labor provisions in the Canada-European Union Trade Agreement (CETA); 
• The European Union's 2016 proposal for trade, sustainable development, and labor provisions in stalled FTA negotiations between the US and the European Union for a Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP);
• recent labor-related developments in the renegotiation of the EU-Mexico free trade agreement; and
• the latest on recent petitions filed under North American FTA labor provisions in Jordan, Guatemala, Honduras, and Colombia - 
• not to mention four new NAALC petitions related to Mexico's ongoing labor justice reform, freedom of association at a grocery chain in Mexico, and sexism in recruitment for agricultural labor visa programs in Canada and the United States.

Stay tuned!

Nuno Ferreira publishes nuanced and balanced analysis of EU Roma policy

Nuno Ferreira of Sussex University has published an excellent nuanced and balanced analysis of the EU's Roma policy.

Ferreira's 2019 contribution A Roma European crisis road-map: a holistic answer to a complex problem, a chapter in the book Constructing Roma Migrants European Narratives and Local Governance, dissects each element of the EU's law and policy designed to address discrimination, deprivation and inequality in the Roma community in Europe.

The chapter outlines each of the frameworks applied by EU law and policy - which cover anti-discrimination, integration, and human rights and minority protection laws and policies - cogently parsing the achievements and limits of each. The chapter also contrasts the EU's legal and policy framework with that of the Council of Europe (CoE), embedding a comparison of case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).

The author goes on to recommend a holistic approach that blends all of the approaches discussed, writing,

The complex and web-like vicious circles described here are extremely hard to address by isolated or sectoral policies, and thus require a holistic, complex and dynamic approach by the EU institutions (p. 40).

Of particular interest is the author's critique of the EU's integration policy toward the Roma. As an alternative, the author recommends that the EU and member states adopt a stance of convivencia, which would respect the dignity and culture of the Roma, and policy measures involving cultural mediators and intense consultation and dialogue to develop bottom-up solutions rather than top-down solutions.

A highly recommended read! Better yet, the entire Constructing Roma Migrants book is open access and can be downloaded in its entirety.