Calendar of ICES

As part of the ICES Research School, Hanna Kieschnik (Politikwissenschaft und Politikdidaktik) will give a presentation with the title, "EU Freedom of Movement between Normative Claims and Labour Market Imperatives".

Abstract: The Covid-19 pandemic confronted policy-makers in both sending and receiving countries of intra-EU labour with the conflicting requirements of accommodating labour market needs (i.e. exempt mobile workers in "crucial industries" from restrictions of intra-EU Freedom of Movement) and the protection of mobile workers with regard to health and safety at work. I argue that the subsequent discussions around Freedom of Movement restrictions and exemptions, as well as working conditions of cheap labourers from peripheral EU member states during the Covid-19 pandemic have brought to the fore a more fundamental conflict of policy imperatives with regard to FoM: A normative imperative, that relates to FoM’s promise of equality and prosperity for all, and rejects exploitative structures in the EU’s Single Market; and the imperative of satisfying domestic labour market needs. In my presentation I will sketch out a research design that is interested in how these tensions are accommodated by policy-makers in both sending and receiving countries, with particular focus on Germany and Romania during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Event location: In RIG 601 and hybrid: Cisco Webex Meetings - Meeting-Details