Political, Social and Legal Obstacles to Labor Immigration from Developing Countries: The Case of Austria.

The article begins with a concise introduction to the nexus between labor migration and development, referring to the literature that emphasizes the potential dividends for developing countries from greater international liberalization of the movement of people. After a brief discussion of GATS Mode 4 in the context of labor migration, the article continues with a focused theoretical discussion of the international political economy of labor migration, identifying a convergence of interests between developing and developed countries in the area of temporary, low-skilled labor migration, that would predict the emergence of liberalization in this field, absent domestic policy-making obstacles and international cooperation problems to the contrary. On this background the article then presents basic elements of contemporary Austrian immigration policy and GATS Mode 4 commitments as contradictory to this prediction and surveys the national and regional political economy factors that produce this result. In conclusion, the article briefly outlines the structure of the collective action problem underlying international labor migration with reference to the domestic obstacles analyzed in the case of Austria, and draws attention to some reasons for the disutility of the GATS model in providing a solution to this problem. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]