Immigration has turned into a politically sensitive issue in almost all of the economically developed receiving states. Particularly in Europe, this situation has led to the replacement of post-war laissez-faire approaches to labour migration with tighter policies in a number of countries, influencing also the entry conditions of high-skilled migrants from the third countries in a restrictive manner despite existing labour market demands in these high-income countries for employing high-skilled workers (Abella and Ducanes 2009; Cerna and Hynes 2009; Mittal 2008). This paper analyses how general debates on immigration inform policy-making in the specific area concerning the management of high-skilled immigrant entries. Building on the literature which underline the role of ideas and discourse while offering an explanation of policies and policy changes (Blyth 1997; Geddes and Guiraudon 2004; Hay 2004; Schmidt and Radaelli 2004; Cairney 2009), the paper examines how immigration is dominantly addressed in elite political debates in Europe, and assesses how these different rhetorical categories are accommodated within policies concerning high-skilled immigration. The UK and Italy are compared, during 1997-2010 by drawing on qualitative data. It addresses the following questions: - What are the dominant rhetorical categories of immigration created within elite political debates in Britain and Italy? – How do these debates inform the design of immigration policies towards the high-skilled? - What does such an evaluation of policy debates and outcomes reveal about shifting policies in the domain of skilled economic migration?
