Paper selected at the Migration Law Network 2014 Conference, «A Sea of Troubles? Problematising Migration Law», Birkbeck College School of Law, London, March 28, 2014. This paper reproduces the essay I confini sociali dell'immigration policy dell'Unione europea, published in Rivista giuridica del lavoro 2013, with some amendments and updates.

The EU social model must include an essay focussing on its «double», that is to say the others, those left out, the non-EU citizens who seek work in the context of processes of economic migration, or who already have a job even if not always declared. This analysis stems from the first social programmes of 1974 (the Council Resolution concerning a social action programme and the Action Programme in Favour of Migrant Workers and their families) in order to strengthen the idea behind the following reflection: the roots of the social model are binary and include within the legal discourse both EU and non-EU workers, initially associated in the processes of free movement. After a preliminary reconstruction of the EU policies on the topic (from Tampere to Europe 2020), the A. focuses on the most recent regulatory results, paying particular attention to Dir 2011/98 concerning permits and equal treatment of workers legally resident in a Member State. The conclusions focus on the Italian situation where the first, real phase of the impact of EU law on national law (labour law included) seems capable of significantly affecting the regulatory standards in respect of the employment of foreigners.