EU should do more to attract skilled migrants

The EU will this year continue to battle against more waves of illegal migrants. At the same time a battle is expected within the Union itself as the European Commission plans to roll out its programme for legal migration, much to the annoyance of some member states, which see this area of policy as belonging to their realm of sovereignty.

According to the Commission, there are two main reasons why it should take a leading role on legal migration.

First, the Commission has the task of reaching agreements with third countries to take back illegal immigrants who set out from their territory or passed through on their way to Europe. The Commission needs some sweeteners to encourage poor states to sign on the dotted lines.

The Commission’s plan for ‘circular migration’, to be unveiled in May, which would see skilled workers coming into the EU for temporary periods organised through ‘reception centres’ in African states, would be one kind of incentive. The Commission also believes that the EU should not simply be seen to be setting up barriers to Europe but should approach illegal migration more constructively, as part of its development policies, helping workers to go to Europe legally.

Second, the Commiss-ion is warning that a new scramble for Africa is on and that the EU is being left behind. While the US, Canada and Australia are busy off-setting their declining populations by attracting highly-skilled labour from Africa, Europe is lagging behind, yet proving a magnet for unskilled, illegal migrants.

Statistics show that by 2050 there will be a 20 million drop in the EU population of working age. The Commission believes Europe needs to appear more attractive to skilled workers so that they find it easier to enter the bloc, bring their families with them and move around. Starting in September the Commission will publish a series of proposals for directives to simplify procedures for the admission of different categories of workers into the EU with a European ‘green card’ planned.

The response from member states to circular migration and the setting up of reception centres in Africa to process and advise skilled workers who want to come to Europe has been mixed. Three states - France, Spain and Italy - are keen to ensure that the drive for an EU-wide response to illegal immigration is supported. "We are quite supportive of the idea to rationalise and co-ordinate at European level legal and illegal migration. But we don’t want to raise expectations that can’t be fulfilled…we would like to see some careful wording by the Commission on this," said one French diplomat.

But from other states the Commission might encounter some of the entrenched opposition it faced in 2000 when it had to drop a proposal for a directive on the conditions of entry and residence of workers. "The time is not right yet to give the Commission some mandate [in the area of legal migration]," said Sweden’s Minister for Migration and Asylum Tobias Billström. Stockholm is processing thousands of asylum application from Iraq every year and wants to see the EU focus on this issue instead.

The UK, which has recently adopted a points-based system for labour migrants, is opposed to handing over competence to the Commission in this area, as is Ireland.

While Germany has said it is in favour of allowing African workers to come to the EU for fixed periods of time, there appears to be confusion as to what the Commission’s reception centres - one of which will open in Mali this year - will involve. Recent comments by German officials appear to show they believe the reception centres will only act as information centres and not as contact points for people wanting to work in Europe.

Commission officials say they have time to work on member states which oppose taking an EU-level approach to labour migration. If member states do not change their attitude to legal migration, Europe’s competitiveness is likely to decline and EU citizens will not be able to maintain the same standards of living as they have today.

The EU will this year continue to battle against more waves of illegal migrants. At the same time a battle is expected within the Union itself as the European Commission plans to roll out its programme for legal migration, much to the annoyance of some member states, which see this area of policy as belonging to their realm of sovereignty.

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