Justyna Segeš Frelak

With irregular migration high on the EU agenda, governments have increasingly recognized the potential of intervening before and while migrants embark on an irregular journey and providing them with information through awareness-raising activities. Information campaigns thus represent a significant field of investment and action: Individual EU Member States and the European Commission commissioned over 100 migration information campaigns in countries of origin and transit during the 2014-2019 period alone. This policy brief explores how information campaigns can be implemented and further studied to improve their efficacy.

The recent European Commission Communication Attracting Skills and Talent to the EU outlined an ambitious agenda of steps to strengthen the Union’s ability to attract and retain international workers, including a proposed EU Youth Mobility Scheme. With the Commission set to explore the feasibility of developing such a scheme, this policy brief contains some initial thoughts on the potential of an interim scheme to support an enabling environment for the bigger policy framework being worked on by the European Commission. A more incremental, low-risk pilot Student Working Holiday Visa scheme would allow for a “proof of concept” that international students want to travel and work in Europe, that they will take up jobs in sectors with seasonal labour shortages and that they will thereafter return to their home country to complete their studies.