Legal Framework of Labor Migration Governance in the Eurasian Economic Union and the European Communities: Comparative Analysis
https://doi.org/10.17803/2313-5395.2021.4.18.573-601
Abstract
This article provides a comparative analysis of the legal regulation of labor migration in regional integration organizations: the European Communities (ECs) and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). Methodologically, we argue that a synchronous comparison of the European Union (EU) in its current shape and the EAEU is rather inadequate and draw on a diachronic comparison of labor migration regulation in the EAEU and the ECs. On the one hand, we identify a number of important differences. We show, in particular, that while regulatory mechanisms in the EEC aimed at stimulating new migration flows, in the post-Soviet space mechanisms of regional migration governance provide the existing migration flows with an appropriate normative framework. We also show that in the case of the EAEU, the founding Treaty provided for a number of essential social rights for workers from EAEU Member States, whereas in the EEC these rights appeared at a much later stage. Regulation of labor migration in the EEC and the EAEU also differs in terms of distribution of competencies in this area between national and Community / Union levels. On the other hand, we also find a number of similarities, which hint at dynamics of policy learning. This is, in particular, evident in the development of mechanisms aimed at protection of migrants’ rights. This is also the case of the Agreement on pensions for workers of the EAEU member states, which seems to borrow from the EU experience opting for coordination of Member States’ retirement systems instead of their unification. Overall, some of EEC/EU ‘best practices’ have contributed to important positive developments in the regulation of intra-Union labor migration in the EAEU.
Keywords
Regional migration governance,
Eurasia,
post-Soviet space,
labor migration,
free movement,
Eurasian Economic Union,
Russia,
European communities,
European Union,
migrant rights
Supporting agencies: Research for this paper was supported by the European Union through its Erasmus + Jean Monnet Programme (Jean Monnet Module “Shifts in the EU Area of Freedom, Security and Justice: Multi-Dimensional Analysis” (EUSHIFT) (2020–2023), grant number 621131-EPP-1-2020-1-RU-EPPJMO-MODULE). Andrey Leonov is also grateful to the Jean Monnet Foundation for Europe (Lausanne) for support of his stay at their archive in 2016 and to the Grenoble Alpes University for hosting him as a visiting researcher in 2021.
About the Authors
A. S. Leonov
Lobachevsky University
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Andrey S. Leonov, Assistant Professor, Department of European and International Law, Director of Centre of European and Eurasian Legal Studies (CEEALS), Faculty of Law, Academic Coordinator of the Jean Monnet Module EUSHIFT (2020–2023)
4 off. 9 Ashkhabadskaya ulitsa, Nizhny Novgorod 603115
I. E. Lisinskaya
Lobachevsky University
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Irina E. Lisinskaya, Research Fellow, Centre of European and Eurasian Legal Studies (CEEALS), Faculty of law
4 off. 9 Ashkhabadskaya ulitsa, Nizhny Novgorod 603115
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For citations:
Leonov A.S., Lisinskaya I.E. Legal Framework of Labor Migration Governance in the Eurasian Economic Union and the European Communities: Comparative Analysis. Kutafin Law Review. 2021;8(4):573-601. https://doi.org/10.17803/2313-5395.2021.4.18.573-601
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