The Political Acceptability of Time-Limited Labor Mobility: Five Levers Opening the Overton Window

Abstract

Abstract A substantial expansion of migration and labor mobility in the rich industrial countries currently seems outside the Overton window, the range of acceptable political discourse. If anything, the general political mood seems to favor even greater restrictiveness of immigration. I argue that five trends that are already well underway could, within a decade or less, bring much larger flows of migrants and labor mobility—including a major expansion of time-limited labor mobility—squarely onto the domestic political agenda in rich industrial countries.