Migration, whether regular or irregular, is on the increase, despite the general spread of restrictive immigration policies at both national and EU level and the intensification of national border controls. However, its features and the ways in which actors deal with it differ by country, depending on national circumstances. In this article we examine the strategies and actions of Dutch and Italian trade unions towards both regular and irregular migration. The main aim is to underline the influence of both external (context embedded) and internal (union embedded) factors on trade unions' attitudes and responses.