As per a new report published by the OECD, a revamping of legal labour migration
policies is on the cards if it wants to get a fair share of the global talent
pool.
The
EU has overtaken the United States as a destination for international students,
but most of them don't stay after they graduate. Depending on the method used
for calculating, between 16% and 30% stay on in Europe, which is lower than what
is observed in non-EU OECD countries where more than a third of students usually
stay.
Europe finds that migrants to the EU are younger and less well educated
than those in other OECD destinations. Of the total pool of highly-educated
third-country migrants residing in EU and OECD countries, the EU hosts less than
one-third (31%), while more than half (57%) are in North America. Some progress
has been made in the past decade, with a sizeable increase in the share of
highly educated among recent migrants -- from 21% of the total in 2000 to 36% in
2011. But this is still less than received by North America (41%) or Australia
and New Zealand (52%).
In
the aftershocks of the global economic crisis EU is experiencing a decline in
the overall number of labour migrants from more than a half-million in 2008, to
less than 250 thousand annually since 2012. This contrasts with stable flows to
other OECD destinations. But most importantly, many labour migrants are not
coming to the EU under programmes for skilled workers. Among those who do, most
come under national schemes, since the EU permit for highly-qualified migrants,
the EU Blue Card, is hard to obtain. Only about 10 000 new arrivals would have
qualified for the EU Blue Card in 2014, and of these, just 5 000 received it. In
total, EU Member States covered by EU legal migration policies received annually
less than 80 thousand highly qualified third country labour migrants. By
comparison, Canada and Australia have annual admissions under their selective
economic migration programmes for highly-qualified workers of 60 thousand
each.
The
report identifies three main channels through which EU instruments can help make
Europe more attractive for global talent.
·
First, the EU should adapt its labour migration channels to ensure that talented
foreigners can choose Europe over other destinations. As is being proposed today
by the European Commission, the EU Blue Card should be expanded by lowering the
wage threshold, notably for youth.
·
Second, the EU should simplify procedures and processes which are currently an
obstacle to attracting and recruiting talents. Recognition of foreign
qualifications should be simplified.
·
Third, the EU should reinforce and promote the single labour market for highly
qualified third country nationals.
The
report is part of a joint research project by the OECD and the European
Commission in response to objectives set by the Juncker Commission in 2014,
which called for “a new European policy on legal migration [to] address
shortages of specific skills and attract talent to better cope with the
demographic challenges of the European Union [and] the legal immigration that
Europe will sorely need”. The report examines the shortcomings which limited the
uptake of the EU Blue Card scheme and identifies limits over existing EU
instruments to manage labour migration. This report was one of the inputs ahead
of the Blue Card reform presented today on 7 June 2016 by the European
Commission.
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