Thesis supervisor: Antal Örkény
co-supervisor: György Csepeli
Location of studies (in Hungarian): ELTE Társadalomtudományi Kar Abbreviation of location of studies: ELTE
Description of the research topic:
Demographic and technological change, changes in the division of labor and in the patterns of labor force participation and the current economic and financial crisis have reshaped the way economies and their labor markets, welfare states and societies operate. Together with trade liberalization, labor market reforms and reductions in barriers to labor mobility, these socio-economic developments have not only raised international labor flows in recent decades, but have substantially changed the patterns of labor migration. While labor migration to and within Europe has already been a significant social phenomenon in the past, it arguably can be regarded as one of the central societal challenges of our time. It is widely conceived that the permanent or at least temporary movement of people between countries has lasting effects on labor markets, welfare systems, and societies as a whole in both sending and receiving countries. However, many commentators perceive the socio-economic effects of labor migration as ambivalent. On the one hand, high rates of labor mobility are assumed to create economic, social and political tensions, in particular if mobility is triggered by an enormous gap between sending and receiving countries in terms of income, demographic and welfare state differences. On the other hand, given that industrialized countries in general and some European countries in particular, suffer from the political, social and economic consequences of aging societies, attracting and successfully integrating migrants into the host labor market and society is widely perceived as a prompt solution to these challenges. Thus, in face of severe current and future socio-economic problems, triggered by various economic, political and social changes, labor migration is supposed to bear substantial chances to improve the economic and social situation of people in Europe, but at the same time we can assume that labor migration involves considerable socio-economic risks by creating new inequalities and amplifying those that already exist.
Required language skills: angol Recommended language skills (in Hungarian): magyar
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