The international recruitment chain: Experiences and policy recommendations

This article analyses the problematic aspects of the pathways used to recruit mobile migrant labour. The author reflects on characteristics of intra-EU mobility and of third-country nationals’ recruitment and discusses similarities and differences between the two types of recruitment. Drawing on recent research evidence from several EU countries, it focuses on issues such as recruitment costs and depth bondage to address the question of how free the choice to migrate is. Transnational recruitment of labour emerges as demand-driven and externalised to a booming industry of private agencies. Labour migration outcomes are shaped by hiring practices by this recruitment industry. There is evidence of the use of go-betweens undermining compliance with, and enforcement of, labour standards. The article draws policy recommendations for the re-regulation of migrant labour recruitment, by making the most powerful actors on the labour demand side, that is, the user undertakings in destination countries, accountable.