This chapter synthesises the key argument of this book: that a narrow interpretation of the Westminster model – of an overarching executive – is out of date and that migration policy change since 1997 has taken place in a more plural, fragmented environment. External actors, rather than an overarching executive, have had significant impact on certain dimensions of policy.

Such an argument is illustrated by adopting a specific model of interest group/government relations referred to as ‘policy networks’. Policy networks are ‘a means of categorising the relationships that exist between groups and the government’ (Smith, 1993, p 56). This is different to the interest-group model, where the development of policy is seen in the context of competing interest groups. Instead, policy networks operate in a fragmented policy environment and are characterised by interdependence and constant ‘manoeuvres’ to gain resources (Evans, 1999). They are involved in a power relationship that may be a positive-sum gain, rather than the zero-sum gain of classic interest-group analysis.

Different types of policy network lie along a continuum (Marsh and Rhodes, 1992). Smith (1993), following Marsh and Rhodes, categorises the two extremes of the continuum as a ‘policy community’ and an ‘issue network’, which will be the terminology used in the analysis of two migration policy networks below. The literature on policy networks is significant and a certain familiarity with the conceptual model is assumed (Marsh et al, 2001; Marsh and Smith, 2000; for the model's most significant critique, see Dowding, 1995).

Economic migration: A policy community

The analysis of the economic migration network, with characteristics that correlate to a policy community, rests on five ‘nodes’ or groups of actors. Inevitably, in categorising any network, some voices are considered less important. For example, trade unions are not included, even though the TUC, UNISON and the TGWU (in particular) have participated in the economic migration network, because the trade unions were not core members of the policy network.

Employers

The first node is made up of employers who have pushed the government for a more liberal position on economic migration. Spencer (2002, 2003) confirms their importance in the development of Labour's migration policy, describing employers as forthright in pushing for policies to attract the ‘brightest and best’.