Mobility Pathways and Horizons in the Gulf–CEE Corridor: Third Country Nationals’ Onward Migration via the UAE to Slovakia and Beyond

Project description:  

MOBI-HORIZON examines how Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) is being repositioned as an emerging destination and regional opportunity structure in international labour migration. It analyses Slovakia as an emerging node where third country nationals’ (TCNs) mobility is shaped by recruitment infrastructures and policy differences across neighbouring CEE countries, within an evolving EU framework for governing legal labour migration and labour market matching. Moving beyond linear origin-destination models, the project analyses stepwise labour mobility by linking reconstructed mobility pathways (multi-stage migration and employment histories) with mobility horizons (future-oriented plans and contingency strategies). Focusing on TCNs in Slovakia’s shortage sectors (especially manufacturing and logistics/transport), the project assesses what these dynamics imply for workforce retention versus onward mobility, and how these outcomes are shaped at key “interface points” such as recruitment channels, contract transitions, permit renewal, and employer change.  

It treats the United Arab Emirates as a strategic intermediary node to capture staging dynamics in selected trajectories and to understand how prior Gulf employment and recruitment architectures can condition options and constraints upon arrival in CEE. Using a corridor-tracing qualitative design (worker trajectory interviews, stakeholder interviews, and a bounded comparison of policy interfaces), the project will produce a typology of pathways and horizons, an infrastructure map of key actors and decision points, and evidence to inform labour market planning and governance interventions in Slovakia and the region. Scientifically, it contributes an empirically grounded framework for analysing stepwise labour mobility in emerging European destinations. Practically, it identifies where transparency, information provision, and accountability measures could improve recruitment and retention outcomes of foreign workers. 

Project aims:  

Building on the project’s focus on mobility pathways and mobility horizons in the Gulf-CEE corridor (with Slovakia as the main empirical anchor), the project pursues the following objectives: 

1. Reconstruct mobility pathways into Slovakia (manufacturing and logistics/transport): Document and analyse TCN workers’ multi-stage migration and employment histories, including prior stays in intermediary labour markets (including the United Arab Emirates where relevant), to identify typical route configurations, turning points, and decision constraints. 
2. Analyse mobility horizons and retention intentions in Slovakia and the region: Examine migrants’ future-oriented plans and contingency strategies – staying, circulating within CEE (including possible Slovakia–other CEE countries movement), moving westward, or returning (including to the Gulf or back home) – and explain how these horizons are shaped by perceived opportunity structures and practical constraints. 
3. Map recruitment infrastructures and intermediary interface points shaping mobility outcomes: Identify the key intermediary actors (recruitment agencies, brokers, employers, subcontractors, documentation/service providers) and the interface points where mobility is enabled, priced, and redirected (g., recruitment channels, contract transitions, permit renewal points, job change procedures), and assess how these influence both pathways and horizons. 
4. Assess policy and regulatory differentials across Slovakia and selected neighbouring CEE countries: Conduct a focused comparative analysis of how differences in admission, renewal, sectoral rules, and enforcement regimes shape mobility options and realised/anticipated movements, with particular attention to how policy differentials interact with intermediated recruitment.
5. Produce integrative outputs that explain retention versus onward mobility in a stepwise mobility field: Synthesise findings into (i) a typology of pathways and horizons, (ii) an infrastructure map of corridor mechanisms and interface points, and (iii) evidence-based implications for workforce retention and governance interventions relevant to Slovakia and the region.