Integration of migrants, its effects on the labour market and the external dimension of social security coordination

PURPOSE: to propose a global approach to migration and mobility.

BACKGROUND: according to United Nations assessments, there are 214 million international migrants worldwide and another 740 million internal migrants. There are 44 million forcibly displaced people. An estimated 50 million people are living and working abroad with irregular status.

Migration is now firmly at the top of the European Union’s political agenda. The Arab spring and events in the Southern Mediterranean in 2011 further highlighted the need for a coherent and comprehensive migration policy for the EU. The Commission has already presented a Communication with a range of policy proposals and operational measures on migration, mobility, integration and international protection. The EU has taken immediate action by launching dialogues with Tunisia and Morocco and making preparations to start the dialogue with Egypt. Similar dialogues will follow with other countries in the Southern Mediterranean region, notably with Libya, as soon as the political situation permits. The dialogues allow the EU and the partner countries to discuss in a comprehensive manner all aspects of their possible cooperation in managing migration flows and circulation of persons with a view to establishing Mobility Partnerships.

The Commission has highlighted the need for the EU to strengthen its external migration policy by setting up partnerships with non-EU countries that address issues related to migration and mobility in a way that makes cooperation mutually beneficial.

At the same time, and despite the current economic crisis and unemployment rates, European countries are facing labour market shortages due to long-term population ageing in Europe, which is expected to halve the ratio between persons of working age (20-64) and persons aged 65 and above in the next fifty years. All indicators show that some of the additional and specific skills needed in the future could be found only outside the EU.

The EU’s Global Approach to Migration was adopted in 2005, addressing all relevant aspects of migration in a balanced and comprehensive way, in partnership with non-EU countries. Consultations have confirmed the added value of the Global Approach and the valuable results it has delivered. 

In order to reap the benefits that well-managed migration can bring and to respond to the challenges of changing migration trends, the EU will need to adapt its policy framework. This Communication puts forward a renewed Global Approach to Migration and Mobility (GAMM) designed to meet that objective.

CONTENT: the Communication presents a framework on migration and mobility, the main points of which are as follows:

Key objectives:

• the GAMM should be considered and promoted as the overarching framework of the EU External Migration Policy, based on genuine partnership with non-EU countries and addressing migration and mobility issues within their appropriate regional context and framework;
• the GAMM should establish a comprehensive framework to manage migration and mobility with partner countries in a coherent and mutually beneficial way through policy dialogue and close practical cooperation. It should be firmly embedded in the EU’s overall foreign policy framework, including development cooperation;
• Migration and Mobility Dialogues must aim to exchange information, identify shared interests and build trust and commitment as a basis for operational cooperation for the mutual benefit of the EU and its partner(s);
• the GAMM should be jointly implemented by the European Commission, the European External Action Service (EEAS), including the EU Delegations, and the EU Member States, in accordance with the respective institutional competences.

Thematic priorities: the GAMM should be based on four equally important pillars:

For each of these thematic priorities, the Communication sets out the type of actions envisaged as well as operational priorities.

The GAMM should be (i) migrant-centred, based on the principle of safe mobility; (ii) strengthen respect for the human rights of migrants in source, transit and destination countries alike.

Geographical priorities: the Global Approach should not be restricted geographically. It is a general approach and a method. Dialogue and cooperation on matters related to migration and mobility must take place with all partner countries whilst focusing on certain priorities:

• while the EU Neighbourhood remains a main and broader priority (particularly the countries in the southern Mediterranean – Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt) – and the Eastern Partnership –Ukraine, Belorussia, Moldavia, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaidjan), the overarching regional framework towards the south should be the Africa-EU partnership (53 countries). Towards the east the main priority should be the Prague process (covering the EU and 19 countries in the east (Western Balkans, Eastern Europe, Russia, Central Asia, Southern Caucasus and Turkey). Other sub-regional processes should be aligned and streamlined accordingly:
• at bilateral level, the GAMM should focus on a relatively limited number of key partners;
• the GAMM is also open to addressing intra-regional migration and mobility in other parts of the world when identified in the dialogue as relevant for obtaining the set objectives.

Implementation mechanisms: the GAMM should be supported by an extensive set of tools and two partnership frameworks, applied in a flexible and tailor-made manner, depending on the EU’s interests and the interests and needs of its partner. The Mobility Partnership (MP) is to be built in a balanced way around all four pillars of the GAMM, notably with commitments on mobility, visa facilitation and readmission agreements. It may, where appropriate, also include linkages to broader security concerns.

The other tools proposed are as follows:

• the Common Agenda on Migration and Mobility (CAMM) should be introduced as an alternative framework to agree common recommendations, targets and commitments within each of the four thematic pillars of the GAMM. The fundamental difference from the MP is that this framework would not necessarily require negotiating visa facilitation and readmission agreements;
• knowledge tools, including migration profiles, mapping instruments, studies, statistical reports, impact assessments and fact-finding missions;
• dialogue tools, including migration missions, seminars and conferences;
• cooperation tools, including capacity-building, cooperation platforms, exchanges of experts, twinning, operational cooperation and targeted projects and programmes.

Funding and monitoring: successful implementation of the Global Approach depends on adequate funding. Geographical and thematic financial instruments remain of key importance for external cooperation and will have to be used in a comprehensive and coherent way, building on lessons learned from, for example, the Thematic Programme on Migration and Asylum (2007-2013). Future programming and allocation modalities of EU external instruments should continue to contribute to the goals of the Global Approach. In addition to these external instruments, the future EU Asylum and Migration Fund and the Internal Security Fund to cater to financing the GAMM. 

Lastly, in order to ensure transparency and improve implementation, the results of the GAMM should be presented in a biennial progress report, and further communicated through a dedicated website.