ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the extent to which the EU is creating a supranational framework for the access by third country nationals to its labour market and the circumstances under which this is taking place. Immigration policies, because they imply confronting and reconciling different sovereign interests, are complex issues to be addressed among States. A new actor, the European Union (EU), has nonetheless gained over time both in influence and competence in the area of migration for the purpose of labour. Migration became an EU competence with the adoption of the Amsterdam Treaty in 1999. This traditionally national prerogative was gradually affected and shaped by the Europeanization of the movement of persons, and particularly the 'freedom of movement' principle applied to an expanding EU. The most salient feature of national regulations on labour migration is the fact that a person wishing to migrate from abroad on professional grounds can do so only with the assistance of the future employer.