Organizer 1
Arno Tanner
PhD student
Finnish Directorate of Immigration, Helsinki
PB 92 00531 Helsinki
Siltasaarenkatu 12 00531 Helsinki
Tel: -358-9-47655 727, mobile -358-50-511 2225
Fax: -358-9-47655 719
Email:arno.tanner@uvi.fi







Workshop description:
(This workshop will base on my doctoral thesis for the University of Tampere.) The workshop will be based on a doctoral thesis, where the economy-oriented immigration policy of Canada, New Zealand and Switzerland is studied and compared, particularly in the past 30 years (basically since the oil crisis). Mainly through a political science -related framework and internal indicators (e.g. GDP, unemployment, racism), the changes in the immigration policy of these countries is surveyed. The thesis is that these countries have especially recently been willing to give out sovereignity for multiculturalism, in order to achieve long-standing economic success and well-being, through immigration in the future.The positive consequences of immigration are explicitly expressed as national interest. This change will not happen without hazards, though. There are both internal and global hazards in an active national or EU immigration policy. It seems, however, that a controlled selective policy with global responsibility is preferred to a reactive policy or no immigration policy at all.


Goals of the workshop:
The goal of the workshop is to chart up the optimal management of economy-oriented immigration policy both on EU and national level. Unknown internal, local and global risks are sought and possible frameworks for preventing and managing such risks will be charted.




Policy relevance and topic: In case of active participation, the workshop elaborates on the chances and challenges of a selective immigration policy in a small country, and at best, the workshop may head at a model of economy-oriented national and EU-level immigration management and policy that is not only internally but also globally sufficiently responsible.


How international comparisons are included: In the thesis, there are three small or middle-sized countries that are compared; Canada, Switzerland and New Zealand. Although they all have a relatively large number of foreigners in their labour market, and there is currently a common tendency for recruitive immigration policies with an increasing focus on multiculturalism, certain essential differences exist; Canada has for a long time given sovereignity for multiculturalism for the overall good of the country, whereas Switzerland has until quite recently persisted to high sovereignty and avoided the idea of having immigration as a tool for long-standing economic success. New Zealand is inbetween.


Reference to concerns with policy-making and best practice: The basic idea of the workshop is to compare sufficiently similar, small or middle-size countries, with a large proportion immigrants in the labour market, but simultaneously different policies and practises, and give recommendations of the most optimal policy or practise.


Presenters / participants /other information
Presenters:
Mr. Arno Tanner,
PhD student, researcher, Finnish Directorate of Immigration

Mr. Kristof Tamas
Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Sweden
kristof.tamas@foreign.ministry.se


There will be one or two papers, these will be delivered in the workshop.




Summary:
Key words:
labour immigration, immigration policies, politics, political
science, political realism, sovereignity, national interest, political liberalism, globalization, economy, GDP, unemployment, ethics, racism, New Zealand, Switzerland, Canada, Sweden, Finland



Date: 12 September


(1 session is 3 hours)
Number of sessions: 1 Workshop structure; i) A chronological political science -related typology on the long-term labour aspects of immigration policies of New Zealand, Switzerland and Canada 1970-2000. The policy changes are reflected against yearly total voluntary immigration figures, added by yearly GDP, unemployment and racism figures. ii) A comparative analysis of the immigration policy changes of these countries. Which trends are seen? iii) Policy implications on small and middle-size countries. iv) Discussion

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