Actors of Transnational Labour Mobility in Europe

Abstract

In order to enhance free movement and mobility of individuals across borders, the European Commission has established several agencies and programmes aimed at informing and assisting individuals and organizations on mobility matters. The European Employment Service is one of these organisations at the center of an extensive network of diverse actors involved in labour mobility at the European and cross-border level. However, there is still little transnational mobility and Labour mobility in Europe has not only strongly declined since the 1970’s, but it has at the same time considerably increased in complexity. The aim of this Thesis is to offer a better understanding of transnational labour mobility, i.e. the migrations of European-national workers from/to another European country. It will focus on the actors of this mobility, who they are and how they interact and match each other. The European healthcare sector provides a good case to investigate this issue. The sector is large and is one of the most affected by the European directives and measures to promote labour mobility. The Skaraborg Recruitment Project provides the case of a Swedish organisation considering the recruitment of healthcare personnel in another European country with the assistance of the EURES agency as an intermediary. The Project shows concretely the obstacles, complexity but also opportunities of labour mobility from the perspectives of its different actors: Individuals, employers and eventual intermediaries.