REGINE Regularisations in Europe Final Report - European ...

Conclusion
The review of trade union positions suggests that in those countries with a history of (employmentbased)
regularisations, they are generally positive – in principle – towards regularisation, if managed
well and designed carefully. In several other countries that do not have a significant history of
employment-based regularisations such as Ireland (which has become a country of immigration only
recently), the UK and Germany (which both used regularisation mainly for long-term asylum seekers
(the UK) or rejected asylum seekers and other ‘tolerated persons’ (Germany)), unions have recently
become a significant part of broader alliances calling for implementation of regularisation
programmes and mechanisms. In most other countries, the main issue of concern for trade unions is
irregular work carried out by both citizens and legal immigrants as well as by irregular migrants.
However, the common element in all countries is that unions call for measures that help to combat
irregular work and the problems associated with it, including vulnerability to exploitation and adverse
working conditions on the level of the individual migrant and evasion of taxes and social security
payments and hence social dumping and unfair competition on the macro-economic level. In some
countries with particularly strong involvement of irregular migrants in undeclared work, such
measures may include regularisations. On the whole, however, a broader set of measures is desired,
including (as the Slovenian trade union respondent emphasises) the adoption of relevant legal
instruments that would help to strengthen protection standards across the European Union.
The sparse response to the ICMPD questionnaire – altogether only 11 trade unions, out of which two
are from non-EU countries, responded to the ICMPD questionnaires 189 – suggests, however, that
regularisation is not a very prominent concern for trade unions in Europe. To some extent, this reflects
the fact that only in a handful of countries, and in particular in the four southern European countries
(Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain), regularisation is directly linked to broader labour market issues,
whereas in the majority of Member States regularisation processes usually have been implemented for
humanitarian and other reasons. Although such regularisations ultimately also have effects on the
labour market, they are not seen as an issue of primary interest for trade unions. In a way, illegal
immigration in general is increasingly seen in humanitarian terms (and also in terms of border
management and migration control) rather than as an issue more directly linked to labour market
dynamics. Instead, the current focus is on irregular work – irrespective of whether it is performed by
illegal residents, legally staying third country nationals, EU citizens or nationals.
5.2.2 The European Level: Positions of the ETUC towards regularisation
On the European level, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) does not have an explicit
common position on regularisation policy. This reflects, on the one hand, divergent views of its
constituent organisations on regularisations and, on the other, the lack of common European policies
on regularisations. However, in an interview with members of the research team for this study, the
representative of ETUC’s Working Group on Migrants and Ethnic Minorities noted that overall the
ETUC has a pragmatic position and acknowledges that regularisation programmes may be necessary
189 8 responses to the ICMPD TU questionnaire (of which one summary response per e-mail) were received, of
which one came from a non-EU country (Norway); 3 NGO questionnaires from trade unions were received, of
which one came from a Spanish Trade Union which also completed the TU questionnaire. Another came from a
Swiss trade union.
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