Research Areas

Seasonal work

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Leader Ana López-Sala (CSIC)

TEMPER will examine drivers (including policies) and impacts of seasonal migration to the EU, with especial attention to seasonal workers employed in the agriculture sector. Main objectives in this area are:

(1) To compare the profile and mobility patterns of migrants who engage in seasonal work flows, in and out of targeted programs, with focus on return and repeated participation.

(2) To assess the impact that the institutional design and enforcement of targeted programs and immigration policies at large have on this type of mobility, with a focus on the elements aimed at promoting return and repeated participation and protection of workers’ rights

(3) To examine the impact of this type of mobility for the involved parties, with a focus on satisfaction of migrant workers, employers and local communities.

Past and current programs for recruiting seasonal workers to the EU will be examined, with special attention to the design and implementation of recruitment procedures and how they influence the profile of seasonal workers in our selected destinations. This institutional information will be systematized and codified into the ImPol dataset.

In-depth interviews with both past and current seasonal workers in the agriculture will be taken with Romanians and Moroccans in different locations, in order to understand the main reasons driving their return and circulation patterns before and after the crisis, as well as protection of workers’ rights.

Key actors participating in the design and implementation of seasonal work programs for migrants will be interviewed about their views on strengths, weakness and potential of these initiatives.

Low-mid skilled work

Leader Michael Collyer (UoS)

TEMPER will examine drivers (including policies) and impacts of temporary mid-low skilled migration to the EU, with especial attention to. Main objectives in this area are:

(1) To compare the profile and mobility patterns of migrants who engage in temporary work, in and out of targeted programs, with focus on return and repeated participation.

(2) To assess the impact that the institutional design and enforcement of targeted programs and immigration policies at large have on this type of mobility, with a focus on the elements aimed at promoting return and repeated.

(3) To examine the impact of this type of mobility for the involved parties, with a focus on satisfaction of migrant workers and their families, employers and local communities.

Past and current programs for recruiting low and mid-skilled temporary workers in each of our EU destination countries will be examined, with especial attention to how the recruitment procedure may influence the profile of migrant workers.

Semi-structured interviews will be carried out with participants in some of these programs, particularly in the UK, which is the country of our four selected destinations that more actively have engaged in this type of state-managed program, even during the crisis. In our other three EU destinations, information gathered in the pre-existent immigrants surveys in the EU and collected among returnees in their countries of origin will be exploited.

Key actors participating in the design and implementation of temporary work programs for migrants will be interviewed about their views on strengths, weakness and potential of these initiatives..

Students and Academics

Leader Lama Kabbanji (CEPED)

TEMPER will examine drivers (including policies) and impacts of migration of international students, researchers and academics to the EU. Main objectives in this area are:

(1) Analyze selectivity in migration for study and academic reasons between our selected destination countries (comparison migrants of different nationalities in Spain, France and the UK).

(2) Examine the link between migration and return intentions of international students and academics (how initial preferences and intentions regarding return affect stay at destination and circulation behaviours).

(3) Explain how immigration and education and research policies affect migration and return intentions?

(4) Analyze the main impacts this type of mobility has for the migrants themselves but also for sending and receiving areas, with particular attention to the issue of brain drain/gain/circulation

Past and current programs and policies aimed at attracting and regulating this type of migration will be examined, and systematically summarized and codified into the ImPol dataset.

The profile, mobility patterns and socioeconomic contributions of study and scientific related migration in each of our EU destinations will be described using the information already available information in both administrative datasets and pre-existent immigrant surveys. Further, these preliminary analyses will inspire the sampling and questionnaires’ design of the (web) surveys to be taken both in three European destination countries (France, Spain and the United Kingdom) with current international students and academics.

High Skilled Work

Leader Héctor Cebolla (UNED)

TEMPER will examine drivers (including policies) and impacts of high-skilled migration to the EU, with especial attention to the IT sector. Main objectives in this area are:

(1) Broad comparison of the mobility patterns of high-skilled and low-mid skilled migrants with respect to out-migration, return and circulation between our selected areas of origin and destination, with especial attention to the reasons why migrants change their mind regarding their initial plans.

(2) To assess the importance of market versus policy determinants of high skilled migration, taking into account the role played by cultural links (language and colonial background), similarities between the educational systems and the role of diasporas.

(3) To evaluate the importance of policies and explicit programs to attract high-skilled migrants to the EU and back to their countries of origin, as well as to promote their circulation, and differentials in countries’ capacity to attract and manage flows of skilled migrants.

Information on programs and immigration legislation aimed at regulating this type of migration to our EU destination countries will be collected, systematically summarized and codified into the ImPol dataset.

In order to analyze the main characteristics of high-skilled migration flows to the EU, two types of pre-existent datasets will be analyzed: a) existent aggregated datasets on bilateral flows that include information on flows’ skill level and, b) the pre-existent immigrants’ surveys already available for each of these destinations.
The role played by immigration policies and (expected) working conditions in different locations in shaping migration decisions of high-skilled workers to the EU will be examined with a twofold experimental design: a) survey experiment integrated into the (web) survey for students and academics, and b) face to face experiment with IT workers.

Repository of migration surveys

Leader Amparo González-Ferrer (CSIC)

In order to adequately prepare our survey fieldwork in sending areas, TEMPER will prepare an exhaustive repository of pre-existent migration surveys in selected countries of origin and destination, but also elsewhere. The main objective of this Repository is to provide a complete and updated overview of the survey information available on profiles, mobility patters (return and circulation included), legal trajectories, contacts with sending areas, etc. for different types of migration.

In addition, the Repository of Migration Surveys will provide a first basis for descriptive analyses of the different types of temporary and permanent migration in the EU.

Origin Surveys

Leader Amparo González-Ferrer (CSIC)

To analyze return and circulation dynamics among the ‘average migrant’ (temporary or not), TEMPER will combine information in pre-existent immigrant surveys with new survey data collected in sending areas (Origin Surveys).

Surveys in our sending areas will not focus on particular types of pre-defined temporary migrants but aim at obtaining a representative sample of returnees in each of our four countries of origin, and a control group of non-migrants.

By systematically comparing both actual decisions and intentions of current and past temporary and permanent migrants, the TEMPER project will be in a privileged position to assess the extent to which these new policy initiatives are able to respond to the aspirations and problems of the people concerned.

ImPol Database

Leader James Hampshire (UoS)

This area is devoted to carefully identify, summarize and explain the main programs and policies designed to manage different forms of migration -both temporary and permanent- and to stimulate return and circulation. To do so, TEMPER will accomplish:

(1) An exhaustive exam of migration policies aimed at regulating different forms of temporary and permanent migration to selected EU destinations, with analyses of variations over time, across countries and across mobility types.

(2) A comparison of the institutional characteristics of seasonal and temporary targeted programs over time and across-countries.

(3) Comparison of programs and policies to assist and promote return and circulation across types of mobility, over time and across countries.

(4) Critical and empirically-based assessment on the role of migration policies and management of targeted programs in promoting temporary and circular migration to the EU, in comparison to permanent one.

TEMPER’s main instrument to systematically analyze migration policies and programs and their (un)intended outcomes are:

-ImPol dataset, which will be extended in terms of geographical areas included, and substantive policy indicators related to specific forms of temporary migration (seasonal, studies, research, high-skilled, etc.). Pieces of the ImPol dataset will be accessible to researchers outside TEMPER along the project and completely after its finalisation.

-Inventory of Temporary Programs, which will identify and describe past and current routes for different types of seasonal and temporary work migration to our selected destinations in the EU. Each of the inventories will pay special attention to the institutional elements aimed at promoting both return and repeated participation in the program, will contain information on the number of participants and their main characteristics, as well as a critical assessment of the major obstacles to their implementation.

Legal Trajectories

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Leader Joaquín Arango (UCM)

This area is devoted to identify the most common legal trajectories of migrants from our selected origins in our selected destinations, and to disentangle how and why some/many of them end up in migration categories different from the ones they initially utilized to get access to the EU labour markets. Special attention will be devoted to transitions from our temporary statuses (seasonal workers and international students, in particular) to other migration categories, including irregular status and permanent residence. The main objectives to be achieved in this regard are:

(1) To identify the most common legal trajectories experienced by migrants who do not return at the expected time, including transitions into irregular residence, as well as the individual characteristics associated with different transitions.

(2) Identify and analyze individual and institutional factors that make irregular residence or legally unexpected transitions more likely and/or attractive than just leaving their immigration country.

(3) To analyze gaps in the enforcement of temporariness as a strategy to encourage regular migration.

In depth interviews will be conducted with more than 30 migrants who experienced legally unexpected transitions after having been admitted to one of our selected EU destinations as seasonal workers, international student or temporary worker.

Impacts

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Leader Cris Beauchemin (INED)

TEMPER will examine multiple socio-economic impacts of return and circularity for migrants and their families (i.e. at the micro level) across the four types of temporary mobility (seasonal, non-seasonal, high-skilled and international students), but also for non-temporary migration. Namely, in this area TEMPER project will:

(1) Identify direct and indirect economic contributions of migrants to their origin country while being abroad, with special attention to potential differences between circular and non-circular migrants. Economic contributions of interest will include remitting behaviour, changes in labour behaviour of household members, collective investments, etc.

(2) Analyze the economic reintegration of migrants in their countries of origin after return, with especial attention to potential differences between circular and non-circular migrants. Attention will be paid to qualifications and skills’ transfers, how skills are used (or not) in Europe (waste) and back in origin (circulation) and why.

(3) Examine the non-economic dimensions of reintegration (family arrangements and relationships, social networks, etc.), which still have important economic impacts in an indirect way for both migrants and their families, and the communities where migrants return to.