Circular Temporary Labour Migration: Reassessing Established Public Policies

Table 1

Phases of temporary worker migration.

	PHASE 1 1980s and 1990s∗	PHASE 2 End of the 1990s—First decade of 2000	PHASE 3 2011 onwards?
Phase	Deregulation.	Deregulated liberalization.	Institutional recognition in the form of public policy.
Principal traits of migration	Irregular and temporary migration managed by labour market. Context encourages irregular immigration.	Regular migration. Move from guest worker to temporary and circular labour migration managed by the labour market.	Regular migration. Temporary labour migration characterized by circularity and managed by public sector.
Type of intervention	Little public policy intervention in the irregular labour market.	Management of flows. Protection of some rights (contracts, housing, education, healthcare, etc). Emergence of programmes, subsidies and grants.	Public or mixed management of temporary work and recruitment. Improved regulation of private activity. Protection of wider labour, union, and social rights.
Recognition of circular temporary labour status	No recognition.	Partial recognition as worker.	Recognition of circular migrant worker with rights under public policy.

Source: own research.
∗This study had an actor-network approach, and was carried out using qualitative techniques; namely, 20 interviews and 5 focus groups with workers, employers, local authorities, civil society organizations, and other business associations in the region. For more information on the methodology, see Zapata et al. 2009.