The Role of Civil Society in the Labour Market Integration of Migrants in Europe

A blog post by Francesca Calo 

In Europe, over recent decades, civil society’s efforts to save migrants’ lives at sea or to help them escape war and violence have become a news headline and a polarising political issue.

However, less media attention is given to the vibrant civil society and its action that extends beyond providing shelter, food or clothes, or health care (Ambrosini, 2021; de Jong, 2019; Shutes, 2011). For example, a large number of civil society organisations (CSOs) offer support to newcomers who hope to be included in what is, for many of them, an unfamiliar and sometimes hostile labour market. In a recent special issue published Open Access on Voluntas, with colleagues involved researching about migrants’ inclusion in the European labour markets of six different countries, we have reflected upon the role that civil society organisations play in supporting newcomers, aiming at inspiring scholars, practitioners and policymakers.

While there has been a growing scholarly interest in the role CSOs play in integration and inclusion activities, relatively few studies have been conducted on migrants’ experiences of labour market integration (Garkisch et al., 2017; Mayblin & James, 2019). More specifically, there is little evidence and awareness of the capacity of CSOs to support the employability of migrants with different needs and characteristics (Garkisch et al., 2017; Ruiz Sportmann & Greenspan, 2019; Strokosch & Osborne, 2016).

The papers collected in the special issue aim to address this gap.

Starting with the Czech case, Čada et al. (2021) argue that the government shows a limited interest in migrants’ integration issues. Migration is primarily understood instrumentally as a tool for supporting the country’s economic development while also serving as an issue to promote a securitisation agenda. In such a context, civil society organisations play a substantial role in integration services, although they play only a marginal role in policymaking. Czech migration non profit organisations are typically highly dependent on funding provided by the state or transnational funding. In such a context of political constraints and fund dependency, civil society meta-organisations (i.e. federations or umbrella organisations) become crucial actors in promoting civil society activities to influence the policymaking process and to protect its members from the risk of political retaliation.

Moving to the Finnish context, Bontenbal and Lillie (2021) demonstrate how CSOs operate alongside official integration services. In other words, non profit organisations can extend rather than undermine the strong roots of the Finnish welfare universalism and also act as proper co-producers of services in the field of migrant labour market integration. Such a role of welfare state ‘extension’ relies on the capacity of the third sector to provide flexible and innovative solutions, thereby reflecting the specific and differentiated demands of newcomers. The operational capacity of civil society organisations enables the provision of services to those actors who are not entitled to publicly provided support.

In Switzerland, Fernández Guzmán Grassi and Nicole-Berva (2022) focus on the resilience of non profit organisations amidst economic and political changes in the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. They argue that political and economic changes in the migration field provoke organisational vulnerability, manifesting as internal challenges to organisations' sense-making, identification of beneficiaries and service provision. They also illustrate how these organisations negotiate diverse roles in the labour integration of migrants embedded in a dynamic system of interdependence with state institutions and labour market actors. Hence, civil society organisations can adapt and respond to challenges, showing resilience and success as drivers of migrants’ labour market integration.

The case of Greece is discussed in Bagavos and Kourachanis' (2021) paper, which explores the pivotal role that voluntary sector organisations play in terms of humanitarian aid and provision of essential services in a context of increasing public service retrenchment. In the Greek context, public authorities are responsible for monitoring and allocating European Union funds, but third sector organisations are the actors required to think, design and implement integration services. However, the overall political framework and the public purpose that should underpin any integration policies are absent, leaving CSOs to provide services with scarce policy recognition and support.

In the UK context, Calò et al. (2021) show that austerity measures have particularly affected CSOs working in the migration field, leading to a reduction of services (specifically those in the field of employability) at a time of increasing migration and therefore increasing needs. The paper argues that CSOs are collaborators of public authorities in integration services, aiming to improve the system without taking any political stance, thereby becoming more partners in the design of policy and new services than proper vectors of policy change.

To conclude, Collini (2022) discusses the Italian case, where third sector organisations navigate difficult waters amidst a residual, if not obstructive, the role of the state in migrants’ labour market integration. The state provides funds for limited provisions but simultaneously promotes a restrictive and punitive migration legal framework. Funding is addressed primarily to support broader integration programmes targeting humanitarian migrants, which exclude most of the other categories of migrants who would still benefit from them. Hence, while sometimes non profit organisations succeed in creating effective labour market programmes and activities, especially when they partner with local authorities, their action suffers from the lack of a nationwide strategy or an overall supportive policy framework. Hence, their impact is limited regarding the number of beneficiaries and geo-spatial scope, as they are neither homogeneously diffused nor evenly capable across the country’s regions.

For more information and access to the special issue, visit here

References

Ambrosini, M. (2021). The battleground of asylum and immigration policies: A conceptual inquiry. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 44, 374–395. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2020.1836380

de Jong, S. (2019). A window of opportunity? Refugee staff’s employment in migrant support and advocacy organizations. Identities, 26, 321–338. https://doi.org/10.1080/1070289X.2018.1533192

Garkisch, M., Heidingsfelder, J., & Beckmann, M. (2017). Third sector organizations and migration: A systematic literature review on the contribution of third sector organizations in view of flight, migration and refugee crises. Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 28, 1839–1880. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-017-9895-4

Mayblin, L., & James, P. (2019). Asylum and refugee support in the UK: Civil society filling the gaps? Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 45, 375–394. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2018.1466695

Ruiz Sportmann, A. S., & Greenspan, I. (2019). Relational interactions between immigrant and native-born volunteers: Trust-building and integration or suspicion and conflict? Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 30, 932–946. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-019-00108-5

Shutes, I. (2011). Welfare-to-work and the responsiveness of employment providers to the needs of refugees. Journal of Social Policy, 40, 557–574. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047279410000711

Strokosch, K., & Osborne, S. P. (2016). Asylum Seekers and the co-production of public services: Understanding the implications for social inclusion and citizenship. Journal of Social Policy, 45, 673–690. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047279416000258

29th November 2022