Social partnership and 'foreigners policy': on special features of Austria's guest-worker system

Abstract. In most Western European countries, market forces have dominated the specific institutional regulations and administrative procedures concerned with labour migration and employment of foreigners during both the period of recruitment until 1973, and the subsequent period of massive reduction. But politics obviously does matter, especially in the area of foreigners policy. Internationally, Austria represents the corporatist case, and it is interesting to analyse which aspects of its foreigners policy can be ascribed to elements of the political system. One of the most conspicuous is that the 'foreigners problem' has not been in the forefront of political discourse. A second feature is that the trade unions, which have strongly influenced decisions concerning employment and the legal status of foreign workers, have made little effort to represent the specific interests of their foreign members. In Austria, as in other countries of immigration, former guest-workers have been permanent residents for many years, but the relevant legislation has been virtually unchanged since 1975 and is still based on a guest-worker system. However, increasing unemployment and significant changes in the party system could result in foreigners policy playing a more important political role in the near future.