@article{Kolbe:297394,
      recid = {297394},
      author = {Kolbe, Melanie and Kayran, Elif Naz},
      title = {The limits of skill-selective immigration policies welfare  states and the commodification of labour immigrants},
      address = {2019},
      number = {ARTICLE},
      abstract = {Why do some countries have more skill-selective labour  immigration policies than others? Despite general agreement  that high-skilled immigrants are economically and socially  desirable, some countries extensively select high-skilled  from low-skilled labour immigrants, while others do not.  While most political economy accounts indicate an explicit  connection between relative skill selectivity and welfare  states, two different hypotheses emerge regarding the  direction of this relationship. The fiscal cost hypothesis  puts forward that the tension between welfare state  generosity and immigration motivates greater selectivity as  states try to reconcile fiscal pressures for closure with  continuing needs for immigration. The decommodification  hypothesis, in contrast, holds that the capabilities of  generous welfare states to decommodify their citizens also  decrease rationales to be more skill-selective towards  labour immigrants. Developing an original measure of skill  selectivity in labour immigration policies for 20 developed  democracies from 2000 to 2010, we test these two  hypotheses. Our results indicate that differences in  decommodification levels appear to be substantively and  negatively associated with differences in skill selectivity  levels, while changes in welfare spending over time,  particularly among high-spending countries, rather than  differences in spending levels, seem to be positively  associated with increasing skill selectivity. This suggests  potential tensions between the political responses to  economic and demographic changes in the form of immigration  policy adjustments and the underlying social logic of  modern welfare states. The findings contribute not only to  the study of high-skilled immigration, but also advance the  current research on the tension between immigration and the  welfare state.},
      url = {http://repository.graduateinstitute.ch/record/297394},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.1177/0958928718819609},
}