Institutional contexts of political conflicts around free movement in the European Union: a theoretical analysis

The Member States of the European Union (EU) have been engaged in highly divisive debates about whether and how to reform the rules for the ‘free movement’ of EU workers and their access to national welfare states. While some countries have argued for new restrictions on EU workers’ access to welfar...

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Main Authors: Ruhs, M, Palme, J
Format: Journal article
Published: Routledge 2018
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author Ruhs, M
Palme, J
author_facet Ruhs, M
Palme, J
author_sort Ruhs, M
collection OXFORD
description The Member States of the European Union (EU) have been engaged in highly divisive debates about whether and how to reform the rules for the ‘free movement’ of EU workers and their access to national welfare states. While some countries have argued for new restrictions on EU workers’ access to welfare benefits, many others have opposed policy change. What explains EU Member States’ different policy positions on this issue? Existing accounts have focused on populist political parties and the media. In contrast, this article provides a theoretical institutional analysis of how cross-country differences in the regulation of national labour markets and welfare states can contribute to divergent national policy responses to free movement. We argue and explain how labour market and welfare state institutions can affect national policy actors’ positions on free movement directly, and/or indirectly via inter-actions with normative attitudes and the characteristics of EU labour immigration.
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spelling oxford-uuid:b784c32e-86c9-4067-a371-dbee2fc0f7802022-03-27T04:49:12ZInstitutional contexts of political conflicts around free movement in the European Union: a theoretical analysisJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:b784c32e-86c9-4067-a371-dbee2fc0f780Symplectic Elements at OxfordRoutledge2018Ruhs, MPalme, JThe Member States of the European Union (EU) have been engaged in highly divisive debates about whether and how to reform the rules for the ‘free movement’ of EU workers and their access to national welfare states. While some countries have argued for new restrictions on EU workers’ access to welfare benefits, many others have opposed policy change. What explains EU Member States’ different policy positions on this issue? Existing accounts have focused on populist political parties and the media. In contrast, this article provides a theoretical institutional analysis of how cross-country differences in the regulation of national labour markets and welfare states can contribute to divergent national policy responses to free movement. We argue and explain how labour market and welfare state institutions can affect national policy actors’ positions on free movement directly, and/or indirectly via inter-actions with normative attitudes and the characteristics of EU labour immigration.
spellingShingle Ruhs, M
Palme, J
Institutional contexts of political conflicts around free movement in the European Union: a theoretical analysis
title Institutional contexts of political conflicts around free movement in the European Union: a theoretical analysis
title_full Institutional contexts of political conflicts around free movement in the European Union: a theoretical analysis
title_fullStr Institutional contexts of political conflicts around free movement in the European Union: a theoretical analysis
title_full_unstemmed Institutional contexts of political conflicts around free movement in the European Union: a theoretical analysis
title_short Institutional contexts of political conflicts around free movement in the European Union: a theoretical analysis
title_sort institutional contexts of political conflicts around free movement in the european union a theoretical analysis
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