Publication

Migrant Workers or Working Women? Comparing Labour Supply Policies in Post-War Europe

This paper written by Alexandre Afonso, Assistant Professor and Researcher at Leiden University, argues that gender norms and the political strength of the left were important structuring factors regarding why European countries choose migrant labour to expand their labour force in the decades that followed World War II, while others opted for measures to expand female employment via welfarse expansion.

Author

Alexandre Alfonso

Date

16 September 2018

According to Afonso, female employment required a substantial expansion of state intervention (e.g. childcare; paid maternity leave.). Meanwhile, migrant recruitment required minimal public investments, at least in the short term, and preserved traditional gender roles.

Using the contrasting cases of Sweden and Switzerland, Alexandre argues that the combination of a weak left (labour unions and social democratic parties) and conservative gender norms fostered the massive expansion of foreign labour and a late development of female labour force participation in Switzerland. In contrast, more progressive gender norms and a strong labour movement put an early end to guest worker programmes in Sweden, and paved the way for policies to promote female labour force participation.

To read the full article, click here