Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (JEMS)
ISSN 1369-183X print / 1469-9451 online

Bill Jordan, Bo Stråth and Anna Triandafyllidou
Contextualising immigration policy implementation in Europe [Abstract]

Norbert Cyrus and Dita Vogel
Work-permit decisions in the German labour administration: an exploration of the implementation process  [Abstract]

Anna Triandafyllidou
Immigration policy implementation in Italy: organisational culture, identity processes and labour market control  [Abstract]

Franck Düvell and Bill Jordan
Immigration control and the management of economic migration in the United Kingdom: organisational culture, implementation, enforcement and identity process in public services  [Abstract]

Iordanis Psimmenos and Koula Kassimati
Immigration control pathways: organisational culture and work values of Greek welfare officers  [Abstract]

Bill Jordan, Bo Stråth and Anna Triandafyllidou
Comparing cultures of discretion  [Abstract]

Bill Jordan, Bo Stråth and Anna Triandafyllidou
Contextualising immigration policy implementation in Europe
Abstract  The end of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty-first century in Europe are marked by processes of social and economic change that seriously affect immigration policy design and implementation. Borders have become more permeable, partly because of the emergence of the European Union as a transnational entity without internal frontiers, but also because business has become transnational, transport has become cheaper and faster, and media communication has increased exponentially, embracing distant peoples into a global flow of information. Labour mobility has intensified and some segments of the industrialised countries’ labour markets have become accessible to foreign workers. Southern European countries, traditionally sources of immigrant labour force, have suddenly become host countries despite high rates of unemployment among native workers. The flexibility required by post-industrial forms of labour and the permeability of borders have transformed border controls. These are no longer carried out by guardians at the borders. They instead take place within national territories by administrative employees and welfare officers. Large corporations compete for the best-qualified workers while small firms and households take advantage of undocumented immigrant labour. Daily implementation routines of national administrations further complicate matters, while the pressure mounts for conformity with European directives concerning both immigration control and immigrant integration. This paper discusses the above issues, highlighting the context within which immigration policy implementation in Europe operates today. It points to the complexities of the overall picture as well as of individual country realities which are further analysed in the case studies presented in this special issue of JEMS.
Keywords: Immigration; Policy; Implementation; European Union; Labour markets; Globalisation
(Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies Vol. 29 No. 2: 195-224, © 2003 Taylor and Francis Ltd)

Norbert Cyrus and Dita Vogel
Work-permit decisions in the German labour administration: an exploration of the implementation process
Abstract  Third-country nationals generally may not work in Germany, but there are exceptions. In this paper we look at the decision process on these exceptions. We investigate which categories of third-country nationals may work legally in Germany and – concentrating on first-time employment – how they get work permits. Different departments in the FLO are involved in work-permit decisions. Based on qualitative interviews with these ‘street-level bureaucrats’ in one Berlin labour office, we reconstruct the scope of discretion within decision-making procedures and explore how interviewees see their work and their own role in it. Although our results are by no means representative, they give an insight into principal patterns of work-permit administration in Germany. We argue that employees have a legalistic and professional attitude, following regulations from higher hierarchical levels closely. In Berlin, they limit formal discretion considerably and the internal division of labour generally contributes to restrictive interpretations. The friendliness and comprehensiveness of consultation and the intensity of investigations are identified as fields for informal discretion.
Keywords: Work-permit decisions; Organisational culture of labour offices; Implementation of law; Labour migration; Migration control
(Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies Vol. 29 No. 2: 225-255, © 2003 Taylor and Francis Ltd)

Anna Triandafyllidou
Immigration policy implementation in Italy: organisational culture, identity processes and labour market control
Abstract  This article investigates the micro level of immigration policy implementation, with particular reference to the management of immigrant participation in the Italian labour market. More specifically, the study analyses the organisational culture and identity processes that guide the daily routines of police agents in the Foreigners’ Office (FO) of the Florence police headquarters. Foreigners’ Offices are the main agencies responsible for issuing and renewing stay permits for work purposes in Italy. The research design is ethnographic and incorporates a wide range of materials including qualitative interviews, participant observation, policy documents, grey literature and newspaper articles. Interviews and participant observation were conducted in several statutory agencies and non-governmental organisations in the Florence metropolitan area with the aim of triangulating the data and achieving a better understanding of the implementation process. The findings suggest that the FO uses a high level of discretion in processing immigrant applications for permits. The discretionary practices adopted reflect the combination of a formal hierarchical and clientelistic culture with new demands for efficiency and a user-friendly service. In the end, the FO manages to show high levels of output but in reality a rather poor outcome as real efficiency is not achieved and clientelistic relations or common-sense ideologies of organised philanthropy towards ‘needy foreigners’ prevail over a rational organisation of the work.
Keywords: Immigration policy; Implementation; Organisational culture; National identity; Professional Identity; Labour market
(Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies Vol. 29 No. 2: 257-297, © 2003 Taylor and Francis Ltd)

Franck Düvell and Bill Jordan
Immigration control and the management of economic migration in the United Kingdom: organisational culture, implementation, enforcement and identity process in public services.
Abstract In the United Kingdom, immigration control in the 1990s shifted its focus from restricted entry for immigrants from New Commonwealth countries to limiting asylum-seeking from all over the world. The rationales driving organisational change in the Home Office Immigration and Nationality Directorate were ‘good race relations’ and the New Labour government’s programme for modernising the public services. However, during the period of the research, a new approach to migration management, focused on international labour flows under conditions of globalisation, increasingly influenced policy changes. This article therefore provides a study of a system in transition. We present qualitative evidence of the impact of this shift on organisational cultures, practices and identities of the staff in two different services charged with tasks of management, control and enforcement. At the cutting edge of new thinking and practice was Work Permits (UK), a small, dynamic agency that served as a model for New Labour’s principles of user-friendliness, efficiency and adaptability. Significantly, its customers were businesses, not migrants. Struggling to keep up with new priorities and methods was the Home Office Immigration Service Enforcement Directorate (ISED), still trying to deal with the backlog of asylum overstayers and the aftermath of administrative chaos over computerisation.
Keywords: Labour migration management; Recruitment; Immigration control; Labour market control; Implementation; Enforcement
(Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies Vol. 29 No. 2: 299-336, © 2003 Taylor and Francis Ltd)

Iordanis Psimmenos and Koula Kassimati
Immigration control pathways: organisational culture and work values of Greek welfare officers
Abstract  Against the background of globalisation and labour-market restructuring, a new mode of implementing immigration control in Greece is emerging. Based upon a changing economy and society, welfare organisations and staff members rearrange, negotiate and construct new controls for welfare services and for the distribution of social rights to immigrants. These new ways define anew the economic and cultural boundaries for the immigrant population in Greece, as well as establish new values concerning the work and values of civil servants. Within this general context, the article confronts the issue of welfare management of labour migration into Greece. It investigates the role organisational culture and work values play for the management of immigrants’ status, and in particular how both act as mediators between the state and the market. In light of global economic restructuring and the Greek government’s policies on flexibility, the study asks the important question of how and in what direction current changes affect welfare employees’ immigration control practices, ideas and professional alignments. In turn, the Greek case study asks how they affect the implementation of state immigration policies and benefits given to the immigrant population in the country. Through the presentation of the cases of the Social Insurance Institution (IKA) and the Manpower Organisation (OAED), the paper offers a reflexive cultural account of how officials construct an organisational culture and work values in order to regulate immigrants and the Greek labour market.
Keywords: Flexibility; Welfare; Immigration control
(Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies Vol. 29 No. 2: 337-371, © 2003 Taylor and Francis Ltd)

Bill Jordan, Bo Stråth and Anna Triandafyllidou
Comparing cultures of discretion
Abstract  Our aim in this concluding paper is to provide a synthetic comparative approach to the four country studies included in this special issue. We therefore outline the main values and ideologies guiding the implementation practices of each service within each country; and where relevant we identify the internal differentiation of such ideologies, in relation to different administrative services. We also highlight how these ideologies underpin and justify specific types of discretionary practices in each country. We thus identify the nationally specific ways of combining national preference with market ideologies at the micro level of immigration policy implementation. In this paper, we revise critically our initial comparative dimensions. These were based on the ‘old’ versus ‘new’ host countries; rational and efficient versus clientelistic and inefficient administration systems; and ethnic versus civic views of the nation. We propose an alternative set of dimensions paying attention, on the one hand, to the different interpretations of how immigration management can give national advantage in economic competition under conditions of globalisation; and on the other hand, to the prevalence of a market-driven ideology that puts emphasis on values such as efficiency, flexibility and user-friendly public service.
Keywords: Migration policy; Implementation; Europe; Discretionary practice; National preference
(Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies Vol. 29 No. 2: 373-395, © 2003 Taylor and Francis Ltd)