A European labour immigration policy: the Community door ajar.

Immigration policies have been for long developed at the national level by sovereign States, seeking to determine under what conditions they allowed the entry of foreigners into their territories and their stay. European integration has allowed other actors than national governments to intervene in the control of immigration particularly since the signature of the Amsterdam Treaty. The Europeanization of migration policies is highly relevant topic (Geddes, 2001, Guiraudon, 2000) but research often focused on immigration control and securitization (Guild, 2001). The aim of this research is to examine new discourse that has progressively emerged since the end of the 1990s and that promotes a relative openness to labour immigration (Boswell, 2003). I examine the development of this discourse at the European level and its consequences in terms of policy change in order to answer the following question: why and how the European Commission has endorsed a discourse favourable to new immigration of workers in Europe after decades of doctrine of zero immigration and in despite of restrictive positions of the Member States? For this, I scrutinize the policy-making of a European labour immigration policy from the entry into force of the Amsterdam Treaty (1st May 1999) until the adoption of the Council Directive on the conditions of entry and residence of third country nationals for the purposes of highly qualified employment also called Blue Card Directive (29th May 2009). Methodologically, the research is based on the analysis of more than 400 documents from EU institutions mainly and on 37 semi-structured interviews with stakeholders involved in the European policy-making and finally on several hours of observatory participation. Based on the theoretical framework of discursive institutionalism (Schmidt, 2008), the dissertation explains the policy process carried out by European actors, particularly the European Commission and Direction General Justice and Home Affairs. Using the concept of discourse defined as ideas and interactions, it examines the ideas about new labour migration in Europe. It highlights the European policy-making on labour migration and how European actors reached step by step an agreement on the so-called Blue Card Directive. The dissertation shows that the European Commission - whatever the ideas it promotes - seeks primarily to legitimize its activities and position itself as a supranational actor and strengthen the competencies under the Treaties. Migrant workers categories emerging from the policy process range from the new economic migrant to the emblematic highly skilled worker who is seen as the ideal migrant. The common labour migration policy that was finally adopted leaves the Community door ajar. It is characterized by a differentiated approach and a preference for temporary immigration