This Chapter introduces the study’s central concern: understanding the governance of labor immigration to low‑skilled occupations (LILSO) in democratic, high‑income destination countries. Recent events, including the COVID‑19 pandemic and Brexit, exposed the dependence of European economies on migrant workers in agriculture, food processing, logistics, and care—sectors often overlooked in public debate. Despite widespread skepticism toward low‑skilled immigration, states repeatedly rely on temporary migrant labor to fill essential yet unattractive jobs. This contradiction illustrates the need to look beyond conventional economic explanations of labor migration policy. The chapter embeds this puzzle in a longer history of state‑managed labor mobility, from early recruitment schemes and post‑war guest worker programs to the resurgence of temporary migration since the 1990s. Although contemporary programs remain politically popular, they typically offer limited rights, short stays, and limited prospects for long‑term integration, reinforcing migrants’ structural vulnerability. While the EU has attempted to harmonize aspects of labor migration policy, notably through the Seasonal Workers Directive, member states maintain broad discretion over admission volumes and conditions. Thus, national governments remain the primary locus of decision‑making. The chapter then outlines the study’s two main aims: to identify non‑economic institutional, political, and historical determinants shaping LILSO governance, and to illuminate the broader complexity of migration policy-making, which interacts with welfare state models, democratic institutions, public attitudes, and global inequalities. Employing a configurational approach (fuzzy-set QCA), the study analyzes both long-term governance structures and drivers of policy change from 1990 to 2019. The chapter concludes by defining key concepts and critically reflecting on the ideological nature of migration terminology.