Migration as a tool for addressing labour shortages

 

According to Eurostat, the share of people aged 80 years or more should more than double by 2100 to reach 14.6% of the whole population. Specifically, people over 65 years or over will account for 31.3 % of the EU-28’s population by 2100, compared with 19.8 % in 2018. 

The ageing of the population in the EU will most-likely result in shortages in the labour market; the Synthesis Report on “Determining labour shortages and the need for labour migration from third countries in the EU” states that the shortage of workers with relevant qualifications constitutes a major challenge for European competitiveness and is only expected to increase in the future. 

In the above-mentioned report, two different approaches are mentioned to linking economic migration to labour market shortages. The first-one is a ‘demand-driven’ approach that grants admission to migrants seeking employment in occupations with a previously identified shortage. This approach normally requires third-country nationals to have a specific job offer by a national employer before their application for a residence permit will be considered. 

For the second approach, the admission frameworks are adjusted to attract migrants with characteristics that will place them in a favourable position for the labour market and policy tools are required to attract migrants with transferable skills or other qualities (e.g. investment potential) deemed desirable for the economy without making special efforts to link these migrants to pre-defined shortage occupations. 

While some Member States have adopted one of the aforementioned approaches or a combination of the two, other EU countries do not have a strategic vision of labour migration as a tool for addressing labour shortages (CY, CZ, HU, LT, LU, NL, SK) as they consider the link between economic migration and addressing labour shortages to be indirect, leaving the admission of third-country nationals for employment to individual employers who can choose to employ TCNs often after looking for national or EU candidates first.

The MiCare project aims to develop an intensive training program for migrants wishing to work as caregivers for elder people and people with special needs to facilitate the TCNs integration in the EU labour market of host countries and help cover labour shortages now and in the future.

Learn more about the MiCare project: https://www.facebook.com/MiCareProject https://twitter.com/micareproject 

Read the Synthesis Report Synthesis Report on Determining labour shortages and the need for labour migration from third countries in the EU: https://bit.ly/2Etca2r