EU initiatives for employment of third-country nationals

The migration of workers, particularly third-country nationals, poses challenges for the EU in terms of balancing requirements for labour with potential challenges to social cohesion. This article discusses important initiatives in this area, such as the proposed European Blue Card for skilled third-country migrants and the European Pact on Immigration and Asylum. It also refers to the forthcoming EU directive on sanctions against employers of illegal third-country nationals.

Support for free movement of workers

The free movement of workers is a fundamental principle of the European Union. A European Commission Communication of 18 November 2008 on the impact of the free movement of workers in the context of EU enlargement has found that mobile workers who joined the EU in 2004 and 2007 have had a positive impact on Member States’ economies and that they have not led to disturbances in their respective labour markets. In a press release issued on the same date, the Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, Vladimír Špidla, welcomed the report and called for the remaining restrictions on the free movement of labour to be lifted. He believes that this would ‘not only make economic sense, but would also help reduce problems such as undeclared work and bogus self-employment’.

However, while the free movement of EU citizens is supported, the migration of third-country nationals into the EU has generated more divided opinions, owing to attempts to balance requirements for labour with potential challenges to social cohesion. While Europe needs to encourage legal migration – in particular the migration of highly skilled workers in areas where the EU competes for workers with Australia, Canada and the United States (US) – its policies are directed at reducing low-skilled migration and eliminating undocumented migrants.

European Blue Card

At present, EU Member States have different policies on managing migration; as a result, EU policies have first sought to ensure greater compatibility as a way of supporting migration into Europe. A proposed European Blue Card has this aim, with the card acting as a work and residency permit for skilled third-country migrant workers filling labour shortages – somewhat similar to the US ‘green card’ system. This would initially give such workers a right to two years’ residency and work, which could also be renewed. The initiative received significant support when, on 4 November 2008, members of the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties Committee supported the measure as a way to address Europe’s skill shortages (European Parliament Press Release, 5 November 2008). The Blue Card will create a more transparent route to migration for work purposes for third-country nationals and is modelled on schemes such as those adopted in Australia and Canada, which are seen as having successfully managed migration in recent years.

European Pact on Immigration and Asylum

Third-country migration was also at the core of the European Pact on Immigration and Asylum – an initiative of the French EU Presidency, unveiled at a meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Council (JHA) in July 2008 and adopted by the EU heads of state and government at a European summit in October 2008. This pact acknowledges that global migration is a result of human and economic exchange and that, while it can be a stimulus and support for growth, it may also pose a challenge to social cohesion. It supports Member State policies that both encourage migration of highly skilled workers and that seek to combat illegal migration and to make border controls more effective. Most importantly, the pact recognises that Europe’s policies on migration must also support the integration of migration and development policies, recognising that the sending countries need to be supported to prevent their infrastructures from collapsing as highly skilled migrants seek more attractive jobs in Europe.

Efforts to combat illegal migration

The European Commission estimates that between four and eight million illegal migrants are currently working in the EU, mainly in low-skilled and low-paid jobs. Moreover, it forecasts that this number could grow by about half a million each year, with increasing numbers of female migrants working in the informal sector, particularly in domestic and care work (JHA news release, 5 November 2008).

Against this background, the European Commission presented a proposal (74Kb PDF) for a directive providing for sanctions against employers of illegally staying third-country nationals on 16 May 2007. The directive would require all employers to make checks that their workers have the required residency and work rights. Employers that fail to do this would be liable to fines, including the costs of returning the illegal workers to their home country, as well as any outstanding wages, taxes and social security contributions. Such employers may also face the risk of loss of subsidies, including EU funding, for up to five years and disqualification from public contracts for the same period. The directive would also cover all undertakings in a subcontracting chain. Therefore, as well as supporting measures for highly skilled migration, the Civil Liberties Committee has given its support to sanctions, both administrative and penal, against employers that hire illegal third-country migrants.

Sonia McKay, Working Lives Research Institute