The Price of Rights: Regulating International Labor Migration

Hania Zlotnik of the Wilson Center reviews The Price of Rights: Regulating International Labor Migration by Martin Ruhs.  Martin Ruhs examinea labor immigration policies in over forty countries, as well as policy drivers in major migrant-receiving and migrant-sending states, finding that there are trade-offs in the policies of high-income countries between openness to admitting migrant workers and some of the rights granted to migrants after admission. Insisting on greater equality of rights for migrant workers can come at the price of more restrictive admission policies, especially for lower-skilled workers. Ruhs advocates the liberalization of international labor migration through temporary migration programs that protect a universal set of core rights and account for the interests of nation-states by restricting a few specific rights that create net costs for receiving countries.

Read the book review at https://doi.org/10.1111/imre.12234.