Inclusion and democracy in trade unions: comparing migrant and ethnic minority sections in Italy and the Netherlands

Although an increasing number of studies have paid attention to the relationship between trade unions and the immigration phenomenon in recent times, little attention has been paid to trade unions organizational inclusion of migrants, here defined as the incorporation of migrant voice within general union policies and strategies and as promotion of migrant presence at all union levels. The main argument of this paper is that trade union inclusion of migrant workers requires not only a trade unions’ focus on solidarity but also, and especially, on internal democracy.

On these bases, this paper presents a “contextualized comparison” (Locke and Thelen, 1995) of two different types of migrant bodies established within two trade unions in the Netherlands and Italy. The analysis looks at the role of special structures in the promotion of migrant workers participation and organizational inclusion. It highlights the factors and the internal mechanisms accounting for observed differences in the two countries, and the variables explaining different organizational choices within trade unions.

As we shall see, the union structure and tradition, including union identity and internal processes of decision making, are relevant in the two study cases to explain different degrees of autonomy and integrations of migrant and ethnic minority sections. However, research findings suggest that the efficacy of migrant sections’ action also depends on the degree of legitimacy that results from the activism of the (migrant) rank and file.