Introduction
Exclusion, marginalisation, and the contrasting concept, integration, are all metaphors subscribing to the underlying notion of a social space with a centre and a periphery. They denote the dynamic processes rendering movement of individuals and groups of individuals between these figurative poles. In relation to the labour market, however, these spatial metaphors are often anchored in temporal definitions. Thus, one is conventionally defined as being excluded from the labour market when one is of working age but out of the labour force for a certain longer period. Similarly, one is defined as being marginalised when one is in the labour force but occupying a position as long-term unemployed.
In discussing the social functioning of the labour market, a political concern has increasingly gone beyond the strictly temporal understanding of exclusion and marginalisation. There is growing awareness that even within the seemingly integrated position of employment, latent processes of marginalisation might be operating. Thus, the European Commission acknowledges that there is “a close linkage between job quality and social exclusion” (European Commission, 2001, p 66). “Those employed in jobs of poor quality are also at much higher risk of becoming unemployed or of dropping out of the labour force” (European Commission, 2001, p 66).
By the time of this survey, a little more than a third of the young people forming part of the present youth unemployment study had entered employment. During the six- to 12-month period that passed between the time the young people were sampled and the time the survey was conducted, this group had apparently succeeded in overcoming a position on the margin of the labour market. However, about a third of this group was employed on a temporary basis and another tenth reported doing occasional work (see Table 4.1).
The objective of this chapter is to evaluate on which terms the group in ‘Temporary’ and ‘Occasional’ employment can be regarded as being on an integrative track into the labour market in four strategically selected countries: Finland, Norway, Scotland and Spain.