Recruitment processes and labour mobility: the construction industry in Europe

Abstract

Migration studies analysing firms' recruitment behaviour are quite limited.This article, built around and examining a demand-driven labour migration hypothesis, explores how recruitment decisions by companies can affect international migratory flows. The study focuses on the construction industry, where a foreign (nondomestic, or expatriate) labour force forms a major component. Through a cross-country comparison, we highlight the impact of the characteristics of the sector and of labour market conditions on recruitment decisions impinging on foreign (non-domestic, or expatriate) labour.The article finally suggests a typology of strategies that construction companies may adopt in order to recruit foreign workers, and it analyses those factors that influence the different decisions in each national context. By considering in depth the relationship between recruitment strategies and patterns of international labour mobility, it is then explained why a company's behaviour can either produce immobility or mobility of foreign workers.