Conference Agenda

In recent decades, workers’ bargaining power has been declining worldwide, and immigrant-native wage inequalities, as well as ethnic gaps in wages, have been widening in many countries. Previous scholarship has shown that first-generation immigrant-native wage inequalities are smaller in firms with collective agreements and works councils using cross-sectional data, indicating an association between workers’ bargaining power in firms and immigrant-native wage inequalities. Yet, whether this correlation shows under a more rigorous approach remains unclear. We provide novel evidence using longitudinal linked employer–employee data covering 542 firms and 878,403 employee observations in Germany between 1996 and 2018. We investigate whether changes in collective agreements and works councils in firms narrow within-firm immigrant-native wage gaps, especially for disadvantaged immigrants, i.e., immigrants from non-Western countries. We contribute to at least three strands of literature. First, we contribute to the literature on growing inequalities worldwide by testing whether the decline in collective agreements and works councils in German firms contributed to growing wage inequalities between immigrants and natives in Germany. Second, we contribute to the importance of organizational context for between-group inequalities by providing first evidence on collective agreements and works councils on the immigrant-native wage gap using longitudinal data. Third, we contribute to the literature on growing between-firm inequalities by using an interaction effect relying solely on within variance, i.e., the double-demeaned interaction effect, to identify the effect of within-firm changes in the organizational context on within-firm wage gaps. Using firm-fixed effects with double-demeaned interaction effects, our results show that collective agreements narrow within-firm immigrant-native wage gaps for immigrants from non-Western countries, but we find no effect for immigrant-native wage gaps within firms for immigrants from Western countries. For works councils, our results provide no empirical support for a narrowing effect on immigrant-native wage gaps within firms for immigrants from non-Western and Western countries. Furthermore, we show that our findings are not driven by potential sources of bias, such as reverse causality or institutional changes in Germany, i.e., the introduction of a nationwide minimum wage. In summary, our results indicate that immigrant-native wage inequalities for disadvantaged immigrant groups, i.e., non-Western immigrants, would be 42 percent narrower if the prevalence of collective agreements stayed constant since 1996 in Germany. Thus, fostering the introduction of collective agreements is a promising approach to narrow immigrant-native wage gaps, especially for disadvantaged immigrant groups.

In recent decades, the intricate interplay between labour mobility, migration governance, and the pursuit of migrant workers' rights has garnered considerable scholarly attention. This study presents an in-depth single-case analysis, delving into the place-based and transnational strategies deployed by Syrians under Temporary Protection (SuTPs) in Turkey. These strategies are employed to navigate challenges, resist adverse conditions, and advance their rights within the broader contexts of labour mobility and migration governance. This study aims to illuminate the nuanced strategies SuTPs develop to manoeuvre their precarious circumstances by integrating theoretical insights, fresh empirical findings and cross-regional perspectives. Anchoring these strategies within the theoretical framework of labour control regimes and resistance, the research uncovers the multifaceted intersections of migration governance with SuTPs' daily lives encompassing various domains, including welfare access, housing conditions, legal processes, and healthcare provisions encompassing diverse urban and rural contexts intertwined with a complex interplay of state and non-state interventions. This study unearths the localized tactics migrants employ to navigate their situation, including forming community networks, participating in informal economies, and accessing social services. Additionally, the research identifies transnational strategies that connect migrants to diaspora networks and international advocacy platforms, amplifying collective agency and voicing concerns about labour rights and social integration. By situating the SuTP case within the broader framework of migrant labour experiences, this study contributes directly to the conference's themes of regulation, resistance, and the advancement of migrant workers' rights. The findings underscore migrants' agency in shaping labour markets while highlighting structural barriers and power dynamics they confront. This research deepens our comprehension of the intricate dynamics within labour mobility and migration governance, offering insights into pathways toward just and equitable labour regimes for vulnerable migrant populations. The study's exploration of the Syrian SuTP case imparts valuable lessons to policymakers, advocates, and researchers keen on promoting migrant workers' rights and enhancing the efficacy of migration governance strategies. It underscores the necessity for comprehensive approaches that encompass both localized and transnational strategies to foster meaningful transformations within labour markets and society at large.

The linkages between the labour and the European border regime have become tighter in recent decades. One aspect of this is that the requirement to work has been expanding toward those who are not migrating in the legal framework of labour migration, most notably for refugees and EU migrants. Thus, the tighter labour-border nexus is exemplary of internal bordering within the territory of the state, specifically visible in big cities and global metropolises. Thereby the linkages between work, that is paid employment, and (legal) residence is becoming closer, yet this linking also greatly varies across EUrope. Increasingly, losing ones’ job quickly results in losing ones’ papers, and not having a job hampers application or renewal of residence permits, and access to social rights. Yet, while the tightening of restrictive interconnections between legal stay, deportability, municipal registration, access to health care and social services can be observed as a general trend, this is true in largely different ways across Europe.
This contribution aims to shed light on the labour-border nexus through a comparative perspective using data from documentary analysis of legal frameworks and narrative interviews with labour market counselling and training agents and administration in two European global cities, Frankfurt am Main and Madrid. Among other aspects, the analysis shows the different roles played by concepts of formal work, informal work, any work, and good work in narratives and law. At the same times, the analysis reveals that different pathways seem to channel migrants into the same path characterized by low-waged, precarious work. Thus, while international migration is a classical instrument to regulate and control labour, recent dynamics turn labour into an instrument for the control of migration and most notably the migrants.