Labour mobility and Local and Regional Authorities: benefits, challenges and solutions

Labour mobility represents an important challenge not only for EU countries but also for Local and Regional Authorities (LRAs), which are called upon not only to best exploit, on the local level, the benefits of free movement of workers, but also to mitigate its potential risks. Intra-EU migration can in fact act as an important driver for local economic growth (both for sending and receiving regions) and, if directed with proper and efficient policy solutions, can lead to social cohesion with consequent additional spill-overs for the economic progress.

But workers’ migration can also produce negative effects on local economies, especially when bureaucratic, institutional and cultural barriers are not effectively alleviated.

Therefore, the objective of the present study is first to provide the CoR with an updated overview of the current situation of the EU workers flows by providing an intensive analysis of the available data. The absence of an accurate and exhaustive database at EU level on the inter-regional flows of EU workers requires in fact a more in-depth overview of the key characteristics of the mobile workers - such as information on the education level, the key reasons to move, the acquisition of citizenship, the duration of the migration period, the obstacles to getting a job - in order to provide LRAs with rich information at state level, which is necessary to understand the size of the phenomenon.

Secondly, this study aims to investigate the key labour mobility benefits, challenges and risks for the regions as a basis on which to formulate advanced policy solutions at the local and regional level. In this regard, the study is also enriched by examples and case studies of regional good practices in dealing with EU mobility.

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