Economic migration will challenge all of Europe: ThePost.ie


TCH Archives > Sunday Business Post > 2005/06/19 > Economic migration will challenge all of Europe

Economic migration will challenge all of Europe
Sunday, June 19, 2005 - By Franco Frattini
Until recently, Ireland has been like Italy, my own country: virtually a mono-ethnic culture, predominantly white, 98 per cent Catholic and with little exposure to other cultures and religions. All of that has changed, particularly over the past decade as the Irish economy boomed.

First there was an influx of young people from European Union countries who supported the growth of the software industry with language capability for software localisation, as well as working in other high-tech industries.

Now the economy has large numbers of diverse nationalities, both from the 15 EU pre-enlargement states and the 10 new members (89,000 immigrants since May 1 last year).

There are many non-EU immigrants too, many seeking asylum.

These changes have dramatically altered the population profile in Ireland, raising issues that have never had to be confronted before.

And the changes are set to continue - the economy will need immigration for the foreseeable future, raising challenging issues about integration and equality.

The same applies today for the whole European Union.

The European Commission and the European Council recognise the challenges and opportunities ahead in this whole area of immigration. This is confirmed by the Hague Programme, the EU's new multi-annual work programme in the area of freedom, security and justice, adopted by the council. The programme says: “Legal migration will play an important role in enhancing the knowledge-based economy in Europe, in advancing economic development.”

In January the commission presented a consultation document on an EU approach to managing economic migration. The aim was to launch a debate across the EU on the most appropriate rules for admitting economic migrants, and on the value of adopting such a common framework.

We are not advocating that the EU should open its doors to unrestricted economic migration. Volumes of admissions of third-country nationals seeking work in the EU will remain the responsibility of the member states, as we make clear in the programme.

The document posed concrete questions on the main issues at stake:

the degree of harmonisation the EU should aim at

admission procedures for paid and self-employment

applications for work or residence permits

possibility of changing employer or sector

migrant workers' rights

accompanying measures, such as integration, return and cooperation with third countries.

Based on our consultations with stakeholders, including employer organisations and trade unions, I propose to present a concrete policy plan on legal migration. Issues under discussion include admission procedures and the level of harmonisation the EU should aim for, and whether we should have a common fast-track procedure that states could apply in case of an urgent need for certain categories of migrant. This would be in line with the Hague Programme when it asks for “admission procedures capable of responding promptly to fluctuating demands for migrant labour in the labour market'‘.

The concept, which some persist in calling ‘European green cards', could be made available to member states provided that they inform each other through a mutual information system soon to be proposed by the commission.

As regards third-country migrants, from January next year the so-called ‘long-term residents' will be able to move between countries for work, study and other reasons. Now the question is whether limited mobility should be granted to other migrants who are not long-term residents.

While aware of the difficulties that can be linked to such a scheme, we could reflect on whether it might be possible to improve our capacity to attract the migrants we need by developing a system that is open and quick and gives advantages in terms of admission and residence conditions.

For example, if a multinational employs a migrant, say an engineer, in Athens, it may well be that after two years the same person could be extremely useful to them at another of their branches in Dublin.

The company should be able to transfer staff between member states without any hassle. Work and residence permits should be intrinsically linked to allow firms to better allocate the human resources that are already within the European single market.

Europe needs to put together high quality packages to persuade the top end of migrants, such as engineers and biologists, to choose Europe as their destination.

I see Ireland benefiting from common approaches in the EU to migration questions.

The commission is interested in hearing Ireland's views.

I look forward to constructive discussions with Rory Brady, the Attorney General, and Michael McDowell, the Minister for Justice, when I visit Dublin tomorrow.

Franco Frattini is a vice-president for justice, freedom and security at the European Commission.