Article Green Open Access 2024

Is labour migration disrupting dual vocational education and training systems? Empirical evidence from the Danish and Norwegian construction sectors

European Journal of Industrial Relations
Journal · Vol. 30 · Issue 3 · pp. 245-263
Abstract

This article studies how labour migration affects dual vocational education and training (VET) systems. We argue that because dual VET systems rely on employers engaging in training, an alternative source of labour – such as labour migrants – may make employers less likely to train, especially when pressure on industrial relations institutions makes it possible for employers to use migrant labour as low-wage labour. Drawing on linked employer-employee register data from Denmark and Norway, we us logistic and Poisson regression to analyse whether changes in the level of labour migration in regional subsectors of the construction sector in these two countries affects firms’ hiring of apprentices. We find that despite dissimilar developments in the labour migration level, these levels nonetheless correlate with the intake of apprentices in both countries. The results suggest that labour migration into countries with dual VET systems may have long-term effects on their skill formation systems. © The Author(s) 2024.

Keywords

Author Keywords

vocational education and training skill formation construction sector EU enlargement Labour migration

Index Keywords

Author Affiliations
Københavns Universitet, Copenhagen, Hovedstaden, Denmark
Fafo Institute of Labour and Social Research, Oslo, Norway
Funding & Acknowledgements
Norges Forskningsråd
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the project is funded by the Norwegian Research Council, FINNUT programme, research grant # 255001.
Grant: 255001
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the project is funded by the Norwegian Research Council, FINNUT programme, research grant # 255001.
References 10 References
1 Aerne, Annatina, Including migrant skills in a knowledge economy: The politics of recognition of foreign qualifications, work experience and industry courses, Social Policy and Administration, 57, 1, pp. 16-33, (2023)
2 Afonso, Alexandre, Comparative political economy and international migration, Socio-Economic Review, 14, 3, pp. 591-613, (2016)
3 Arnholtz, Jens, Posted work, enforcement capacity and firm variation: Evidence from the Danish construction sector, Economic and Industrial Democracy, 42, 4, pp. 1149-1164, (2021)
4 Arnholtz, Jens, Sustaining 'High Road' employment relations in the Swedish and Danish construction industries, Work and Labor Relations in the Construction Industry: An International Perspective, pp. 183-204, (2021)
5 Arnholtz, Jens, Labor Migration as a Source of Institutional Change: Danish and Australian Construction Sectors Compared, ILR Review, 76, 3, pp. 532-555, (2023)
6 Arnholtz, Jens, Collective wage bargaining under strain in northern European construction: Resisting institutional drift?, European Journal of Industrial Relations, 24, 4, pp. 341-356, (2018)
7 Industrial Relations Journal, (2013)
8 Effect of Economic Downturns on Apprenticeships and Initial Workplace Training A Review of the Evidence, (2009)
9 Political Economy of Collective Skill Formation, (2011)
10 Busemeyer, Marius Raphael, The Political Economy of Collective Skill Formation, The Political Economy of Collective Skill Formation, pp. 1-392, (2012)
Quick Actions
Full Text via DOI
Citation Metrics
2
Times Cited (Scopus)

References 10
Document Identifiers