Third-Country National Students and Trainees in the EU: Caught between Learning and Work

Foreign students and trainees are welcomed by the EU for study purposes. Member States must ensure that during their studies third-country national (TCN) students can legally work for at least ten hours a week, whereas trainees may not. This article deals with these often overlooked TCN students and trainees as migrant workers. It presents an extensive analysis of EU labour migration Directives on the level of protection of TCN students and trainees in comparison to illegally staying TCNs, with a case-study based on Dutch employer sanctions case law. The aim of the article is to map this reclassification of students and trainees as workers. One conclusion is that legally staying migrants may be more vulnerable and receive less protection under EU law than irregular migrant workers.