61 2 0 2 5 D V E D O M O V I N I • T W O H O M E L A N D S 6 1 • 2 0 2 5 Glavni urednici / Editors-in-Chief Kristina Toplak, Marijanca Ajša Vižintin Odgovorna urednica / Editor-in-Charge Marina Lukšič Hacin Tehnični urednik / Technical Editor Tadej Turnšek Mednarodni uredniški odbor / International Editorial Board Synnove Bendixsen, Ulf Brunnbauer, Aleš Bučar Ručman, Martin Butler, Daniela l. Caglioti, Jasna Čapo, Donna Gabaccia, Jure Gombač, Ketil Fred Hansen, Damir Josipovič, Aleksej Kalc, Jernej Mlekuž, Claudia Morsut, Ikhlas Nouh Osman, Nils Olav Østrem, Lydia Potts, Maya Povrzanović Frykman, Francesco Della Puppa, Jaka Repič, Rudi Rizman, Matteo Sanfilippo, Annemarie Steidl, Urška Strle, Adam Walaszek, Rolf Wörsdörfer, Simona Zavratnik, Janja Žitnik Serafin Lektoriranje in korektura / Copyediting and proofreading Jana Renée Wilcoxen (angleški jezik / English) Tadej Turnšek (slovenski jezik / Slovenian) Oblikovanje / Design Anja Žabkar Prelom / Typesetting Inadvertising d. o. o. Založila / Published by ZRC SAZU, Založba ZRC Izdal / Issued by ZRC SAZU, Inštitut za slovensko izseljenstvo in migracije / ZRC SAZU, Slovenian Migration Institute, Založba ZRC Tisk / Printed by Birografika Bori, Ljubljana Naklada / Printum 150 Naslov uredništva / Editorial Office Address INŠTITUT ZA SLOVENSKO IZSELJENSTVO IN MIGRACIJE ZRC SAZU p. p. 306, SI-1001 Ljubljana, Slovenija Tel.: +386 (0)1 4706 485; Fax +386 (0)1 4257 802 E-naslov / E-mail: dd-th@zrc-sazu.si Spletna stran / Website: https://ojs.zrc-sazu.si/twohomelands Revija izhaja s pomočjo Javne agencije za znanstvenoraziskovalno in inovacijsko dejavnost Republike Slovenije in Urada Vlade Republike Slovenije za Slovence v zamejstvu in po svetu / Financial support: Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency and Government Office for Slovenians Abroad ISSN 0353-6777 ISSN 1581-1212 7 D V E D O M O V I N I • T W O H O M E L A N D S • 6 1 • 2 0 2 5 h t t p s : / / d o i . o r g / 1 0 . 3 9 8 6 / 2 0 2 5 . 1 . 1 I PhD candidate in sociology; European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research, Employ- ment and Labour Mobility Research Team, Vienna; danaj@euro.centre.org; ORCID https:// orcid.org/0000-0002-0582-7125 @language: sl, en @trans-language: sl, en @publisher-id: id @doi: 10.3986/2025.1.1 @article-type: 1.20 @article-category: S 180 @pages: 7–10 @history-received: dd. mm. yyyy @history-accepted: 13. 11. 2024 * * * Ž u r n a l m e t a * * * @issue: 61 @volume: 2025 @pub-year: 2025 @pub-date: 15. 02. 2025 * * * O p r e m a * * * @avtorji: Sonila Danaj @running-header: Introduction: Posting of Workers INTRODUCTION: POSTING OF WORKERS – COMPANY PROFILES, ACCESS TO INFORMATION, AND RULE COMPLIANCE Sonila DanajI COBISS LL1.20 The posting of workers in the frame of the provision of services within the European Union (EU) is currently one of the most important forms of temporary cross-border labor mobility. The more recent data indicate that approximately 4.6 million porta- ble documents A11 were granted by all reporting EU/EFTA countries and the UK in 2022, a number that has been growing, although not linearly, in the past 15 years (De Wispelaere et al. 2023). The growth in the use of posting across EU Member States reflects the freedom of movement of people and services in the larger European market, which, while it allows for greater flexibility in transnational labor mobility and use, its temporary, often project-based nature, also leads to vulnerabilities and inequalities for the workers involved. The growth has also revealed challenges in the enforcement of EU and national regulations and labor standards and multi- ple violations, such as underpayment, fraudulent posting, and irregularities with social security contributions (Bottero, 2020; Čaněk et al., 2018; Danaj et al., 2021; De Wispelaere et al., 2022). Under these circumstances, posted workers, especially third-country nationals, are quite vulnerable (Cillo, 2021). The extant literature indicates that rule compliance is variously affected by the cross-border nature of the provision of services via posting. Firstly, the complexity of the overlapping national and EU rules is not easy to navigate and understand, especially for foreign companies with no or little experience in the receiving country (Cremers, 2019; Houwerzijl & Berntsen, 2019). The position of the firms in the supply chains, along with their connection to the receiving country, both play a role in these companies’ efforts to comply with the rules, with smaller foreign companies at the end of the chain being the most likely to circumvent or evade the rules (Arnholtz, 2021; Berntsen & Lillie, 2015). 1 PDs A1 are issued to persons posted from one EU country to another to certify that they remain affiliated with the social security system of their EU country of residence and have no obligation to pay social security contributions during the period when they are providing services in another Member State. 8 D V E D O M O V I N I • T W O H O M E L A N D S • 6 1 • 2 0 2 5Sonila Danaj While some companies intentionally go regime shopping among the rules of the sending and the receiving country and use cross-border mobility to evade some of their obligations, others are struggling (Houwerzijl & Berntsen, 2019). That is why among the factors that have been identified as influencing the irregularities and rule violations in the posting of workers has been access to reliable information. While multiple sources of information are made available by various actors, both public and private, extant research has shown that information in the posting of workers remains fragmented and inaccessible to part of the target audiences, especially those with fewer resources at their disposal (Danaj et al., 2021; Kayran et al. 2024; Moran & Mýtna Kureková, 2024; Vah Jevšnik & Toplak, 2023). Not only is information not easily accessible, but it can also be difficult to understand due to the complexity of inter- secting rules on posting and other regulatory domains (De Smedt et al., 2023). This special thematic section explores and provides new evidence at the nexus between company profiles, access to information, and rule compliance. The three articles of the special thematic section are based on research conducted in the frame of the transnational research project titled “Assessment of the channels of information and their use in the posting of workers” (INFO-POW), co-funded by the European Commission and implemented in Austria, Belgium, Italy, Slovakia, and Slovenia during 2022–2024. Each article has a specific focus. The first article, titled “Unraveling the Profile of Posting Companies: A Case Study for Slovenia” by Frederic De Wispelaere and Lynn De Smedt, provides the characteristics of companies that post workers from Slovenia to other EU Member States. They find that most posting companies oper- ate in construction and manufacturing and have made posting a business model they depend on economically. The second article, titled “Access to Information on Labor and Social Regulations and Compliance in the Posting of Foreign Workers in Construction in Austria” by Sonila Danaj, Elif Naz Kayran, and Eszter Zólyomi, uses a mixed-method approach to study the role of access to information in the rule compliance in the posting of workers in Austria and discuss company-level factors that mitigate this relationship. They find that both information providers and the companies that use such information acknowledge the connection between infor- mation availability and accessibility and posting rule compliance and enforcement. The third article, titled “Access to information on the posting of third-country nation- als: the case of Slovenia” by Mojca Vah Jevšnik, zooms into the particularly vulnerable posted third-country national workers (TCNs) and posting companies owned by TCNs in Slovenia. In this country, TCN posting has reached 43% of all postings. The article gives an overview of the challenges TCN employers and TCN posted workers face regarding their access and use of information on the posting of workers, focus- ing particularly on the impediments due to language barriers. While results in the three articles are country-specific and therefore cannot be generalized, they nevertheless shed light on understanding the link between the characteristics of posting companies, access to information on posting rules, and 9 6 1 • 2 0 2 5 Introduction: Posting of Workers rule compliance. Future research could expand the scope of countries and build a typology of posting companies, assess posting companies’ access to information across all EU Member States, and further explore the risk factors to rule compliance in the posting of workers. REFERENCES Arnholtz, J. (2021). Posted work, enforcement capacity and firm variation: Evidence from the Danish construction sector. Economic and Industrial Democracy, 42(4), 1149–1164. Berntsen, L., & Lillie, N. (2015). Breaking the law? Varieties of social dumping in a pan-European labour market. In M. Bernaciak (ed.), Market expansion and social dumping in Europe (pp. 43–60). Routledge. Bottero, M. (2020). Posting of Workers in EU Law: Challenges of Equality, Solidarity and Fair Competition. Kluwer Law International BV. Cillo, R. (2021). Mandatory mobility? The case of immigrant posted workers sent from Italy to Belgium in the construction sector. International Migration, 59(6), 156–171. Cremers, J. (2019). Market Integration, Cross-Border Recruitment, and Enforcement of Labour Standards – A Dutch Case. In J. Arnholtz & N. Lillie (Eds.), Posted Work in the European Union: The Political Economy of Free Movement (pp. 147–166). Routledge. Čaněk, M., Kall, K., Lillie, N., Wallace, A., & Haidinger, B. (2018). Transnational Cooperation among Labour Regulation Enforcement Agencies in Europe: Challenges and Opportunities Related to the Posting of Workers. Solidar. http:// dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.25125.19687 Danaj, S., Zólyomi, E., Kahlert, R., Prinz, N., & Sandu, V. (2021). The gap between legal procedures and practices in posting rule enactment: a comparative working paper. Vienna: European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research. https://www. euro.centre.org/publications/detail/4215 De Smedt, L., Zólyomi, E., Kayran, E.N., De Wispelaere, F., & Danaj, S. (2023). Comparative report of the survey on posting and receiving companies in the construction sector. INFO-POW project. European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research. De Wispelaere F., De Smedt L., & Pacolet, J. (2022). Posted workers in the European Union. Facts and figures. POSTING.STAT project VS/2020/0499. De Wispelaere, F., De Smedt, L., & Pacolet, J. (2023). Posting of Workers: Report on A1 Portable Documents Issued in 2022. Publication Office of the European Union. Houwerzijl, M., & Berntsen, L. (2019). Posting of Workers: From a Blurred Notion Associated with ‘Cheap Labour’ to a Tool for ‘Fair Labour Mobility’? In J. Arnholtz & N. Lillie (Eds.), Posted Work in the European Union: The Political Economy of Free Movement (pp. 147–166). Routledge. 10 D V E D O M O V I N I • T W O H O M E L A N D S • 6 1 • 2 0 2 5Sonila Danaj Kayran, E. N., Danaj, S., & Zólyomi, E. (2024). Cross-national gaps in information provision for companies in posting. Policy Brief 2024/3. European Centre. Moran, A. & Mýtna Kureková, L. (2024). Fragmentation of information on the posting of workers in Slovakia. Policy Brief 2024/1. European Centre. Vah Jevšnik, M., & Toplak, K. (2023). Company size and resources as determinants of access and use of information on the posting of workers – Evidence from Slovenia. Policy Brief 2023/6. European Centre. D V E D O M O V I N I • T W O H O M E L A N D S 6 1 • 2 0 2 5 TEMATSKI SKLOP / THEMATIC SEC TION NAPOTIT VE DELAVCEV: PROFILI PODJETIJ, DOSTOP DO INFORMACIJ IN SPOŠTOVANJE PRAVIL / POSTING OF WORKERS: COMPANY PROFILES, ACCESS TO INFORMATION, AND RULE COMPLIANCE S o n i l a D a n a j I ntroduc t ion: Post ing of Workers – Company Prof i les, Access to I nformation, and Rule Compl iance Fr e d e r i c D e Wi s p e l a e r e, Ly n n D e S m e d t Unravel ing the Prof i le of Post ing Companies : A Case Study for S lovenia S o n i l a D a n a j, E l i f N a z Ka y ra n , E s z t e r Zó l yo m i Access to I nformation on Labor and Socia l Regulat ions and Compl iance in the Post ing of Foreign Workers in Construc t ion in Austr ia M oj ca Va h J e v š n i k Access to I nformation on the Post ing of Third- Countr y Nat ionals : The Case of S lovenia ČL ANKI / ARTICLES D e j a n Va l e n t i n č i č Stanje in spremembe v s lovensk i skupnost i v Clevelandu med letoma 1950 in 2015 ter obet i za pr ihodnost skupnost i : Pr imerjava pogledov Tonyja Petkovšk a in Vink a L ipovca Ra d o s l a v S t a m e n kov, G e o r g i Pe t r u n ov The Vulnerabi l i t y of M igrants From Bulgar ia to Human Traf f ick ing for Labor Exploitat ion J a v i e r G a r c í a Ca s t a ñ o, C r i s t i n a G o e n e c h e a Pe r m i s á n , M a r í a R u b i o G ó m e z Ev idence of the Dispropor t ionate Representat ion of Foreign Populat ions in Specia l Educat ion in Spain : An Approach to Stat ist ica l Data S o f i a L a i z M o r e i ra The Role of Ethnic, Family, and S ocia l Capita l in I ntergenerat ional S ocia l M obi l i t y Among the Argent ines and Moroccans in G al ic ia , Spain KNJIŽNE OCENE / BOOK REVIEWS Aleksej K alc, M i r jam M i lharč ič H ladnik , Janja Ži tnik Seraf in , D a r i n g D r e a m s o f t h e Fu t u r e : S l o v e n i a n M a s s M i g ra t i o n s 1 8 7 0 – 1 9 4 5 (Benedetta Fabrucci ) 612 0 2 5 9 7 7 0 3 5 3 6 7 7 0 1 3 ISSN 0353-6777 ISSN 1581-1212 D V E D O M O V I N I • T W O H O M E L A N D S 6 1 • 2 0 2 5