There and gone again? Migration to and posting of third-country nationals from Slovenia and Poland

Abstract

Drawing on research conducted in the framework of the POSTING.STAT project for Slovenia and Poland, this article contributes to the literature on the posting of third-country nationals (TCNs) within the European Union from the perspective of the sending countries. Our research questions are: What are the current posting trends and patterns of mobility of TCNs from Poland and Slovenia? How do national legal and policy instruments in Poland and Slovenia shape the recruitment of TCNs and facilitate the posting of these TCNs to other Member States? We find that the recent growth in posting from both countries is driven by the substantial increase in the number of posted TCNs, which might signal at least their complementary role, if not the replacement, of posted nationals with TCNs to sustain the established business models of posting from Slovenia and Poland. We observe two trends. Firstly, national legal and policy instruments encourage labour migration from certain third countries with which Slovenia and Poland have historical ties and geographical proximity, which are then embedded in their national labour markets. Secondly, both countries remain source countries for the posting of workers, a pattern they have been able to sustain by increasing the use of TCNs for posting. Hence, despite a growing share of TCNs involved in posting, most TCNs continue to be based in Slovenia and Poland, suggesting posting or onward migration are not necessarily the main reason these workers go to Slovenia and Poland in the first place. Yet, the increase in numbers of posted TCNs observed in both countries, regardless of stricter regulations and the Covid-19 pandemic, suggests that posting in labour-intensive sectors such as road freight transport and construction is increasingly becoming a segmented labour market. We argue that the posting of TCNs might grow into an important intra-EU mobility channel, with the caveat that while certain EU countries will insist on restricting direct access to their national labour market for TCNs, other EU countries, especially those that so far have acted as labour or services suppliers, will lend themselves as gate-openers for the intra-EU mobility of TCNs.

Weathering intermediated temporary labour mobility: social partners in Central and Eastern Europe after EU enlargement

“…The 2008 crisis transformed the sector into a much more fragmented one, with smaller companies, increased unemployment and transient employment, and stagnating wages. Transnational posting became a solution to national market problems that eventually transformed Slovenia into a main supplier (Danaj et al, 2023a). To sustain this model, migrant workers from neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina have become a significant part of the posted workforce (Vah Jevšnik et al, 2022b).…”

“…Our analysis relies on EU and national statistical data, secondary literature, social partner documents, observations and empirical data obtained from several research projects on temporary agency work and posting that the authors have conducted in the past 10 years (Danaj and Zólyomi, 2018; Danaj et al, 2020, 2021, 2023a, 2023b; Meszmann, 2016, 2018; Meszmann and Fedyuk, 2019, 2020; Meszmann et al, 2022).…”

“…This has allowed Slovenian sectoral social partners to be more active transnationally, for example, in information sessions, awareness campaigns, training and knowledge exchange activities (ITPIO, 2021). Given the significant number of posted third-country nationals, Slovenian unions' posting projects have consistently targeted migrant workers, regardless of their union membership status, providing information and counselling in various languages, and even conducting awareness campaigns in home countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovina through different mediums, including distributing flyers in front of the Slovenian embassy in Sarajevo (Danaj et al, 2020). Trade unions also supported the creation of the Workers' Counselling Office (Delavska Svetovalnica, initially called the Migrant Counselling Office), a non-governmental organisation that provides advocacy, protection, promotion and development of workers' labour, social and status rights with extensive experience of posted workers, including third-country national workers.…”

“…The overall number of third-country-national workers posted from Slovenia also increased, from 45.7 per cent in 2018 to 62 per cent in 2021. In construction, they constitute 74.5 per cent of all workers posted from Slovenia, indicating a double-segmented labour market (Danaj et al, 2023a).…”

“…The measures contributed to the further flexibilisation and transnationalisation of the Slovenian labour market via posting. As a result of the growth of this business model in recent years, trade unions and researchers have uncovered precarious working conditions and shady social dumping practices in a segment of posting companies, mainly those established with the sole purpose of posting workers, that exploit posted workers from Slovenia, especially third-country nationals (Danaj et al, 2020; Lukič, 2017). After describing the context, we can now discuss Slovenian social partners’ responses to domestic changes to posting and related regulations.…”