The social borders of EU Immigration Policy (in the Italian perspective). WP CSDLE “Massimo D’Antona”.INT – 105/2014

In the bibliographic archives of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) of one can locate a reassuring typed letter dated 1975 by the then Commission of the EEC, hand-annotated by an unknown clerk. In the correspondence with ILO in the context of a comparison regarding the protection of migrant workers, the sender emphasizes that the attention concerning extra-EU workers is not of less importance than that of intra- EU migrants1. In support of the good intentions the letter mentions the presentation to the Council of a specific Action Programme in Favour of Migrant Workers and their families only a few months after the approval of the Resolution by the Council regarding the then first programme of social action. Dated 21st January 1974, the former; 18th December the latter also sealing a temporal continuity not only axiological of the appreciation of the shared roots of the free circulation of workers. Some forty years later, these documents deserve careful attention rather than a superficial glance. Above all, they raise questions about the real impact of EU immigration policy especially after the Treaty of Lisbon. The document originating in the early seventies was supposed to give political rigour to the undertaking in the first document with a view to “bringing about equality between EU and non-EU workers and their families in all respects, social and economic, taking into account current EU regulations” and “harmonizing immigration policy in respect of non EU countries”