Building Pathways for the Highly Skilled: Adopting a Comparative Political Economy Approach to the Study of German, Austrian, and Swedish Labour Migration Policies

Recent years have witnessed major changes to German migration policy, including most notably policy concerning labour migration. The restrictive approach associated with the end of active recruitment in 1973 has been gradually abandoned. Since 2000, a variety of liberalisation measures have been pursued, facilitating legal labour migration and making German skilled migration provisions fairly liberal by international comparison. Though this would appear to mark a radical departure from the past, unlike the post-war era, the focus rests firmly on the recruitment of skilled immigrants. This article adopts a comparative political economy (CPE) angle in analysing recent policy developments, arguing that employer preferences typical of a coordinated market economy (CME) are being articulated and help shape the policy agenda. A brief comparison of the CMEs in Austria and Sweden is pursued to explore the promise of a CPE approach. In empirical terms, the article seeks to address the question in what fashion organised business manages to shape the agenda. In theoretical terms, the article seeks to assess the utility of a CPE-inspired approach for the study of migration policy making.