Europe’s Policy Options for Fighting the Illegal Employment of Migrant Workers

Kyrieri, Katerina-Marina. (2008) Europe’s Policy Options for Fighting the Illegal Employment of Migrant Workers. EIPAScope, 2008 (3). pp. 1-9.

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Abstract

The issue of labour migration is becoming more prominent in policy debates as employers are gradually more reliant on migrant workers from non-EU countries. The Commission's legislative proposal for a directive providing for sanctions against employers of illegally staying third-country nationals forms an integral part of the EU's comprehensive and structural approach towards effective migration management. Although the phenomenon of undeclared work is not limited to migrants, the new legislation on sanctions against employers of such persons presupposes that the chance to obtain work in the EU without the required legal status is a key inducement to illegal immigration. Based on the premise that employer sanctions set the moral tone for immigration policy at the workplace, this article intends to address one of the main causes of illegal migration: the black labour market. The article highlights the importance of having a harmonized EU framework for imposing sanctions against employers of irregular migrants. It examines the scope of the draft directive and its features and evaluates national legislation by means of the following considerations: 1) What is the national legislation as far as sanctions of employers of illegal workers are concerned? 2) What kind of sanctions do they provide? 3) Are these sanctions effective and efficient? 4) How the Commission proposal can become successful in helping to remedy enforcement difficulties? 5) Which additional to preventive measures can be taken to achieve the above policy objective? 6) What consequences would the draft directive have on national legislation?

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