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Within the EU, there are growing concerns about the ever-increasing numbers of displaced persons globally on the one hand, and the ever-increasing need for workers in all sectors on the other. While displacement and labour shortages are treated as separate policy areas, their potential solutions might be well connected. Complementary labour pathways are a promising solution for both challenges, and the EU Talent Pool could support their expansion in Europe if accompanying measures help it to meaningfully include displaced persons and support employers.

Debate on the interplay between climate change and mobility has occupied an increasingly prominent place on the international agenda over the past decade – and we now have solid understanding of the climate-mobility linkage. However, a plethora of persisting misconceptions continue to mar a meaningful, solution-oriented conversation on the topic. This commentary addresses some of the more enduring of these misconceptions.

The EU Temporary Protection Directive (TPD) has now been activated for 18 months, providing immediate assistance to millions who fled the war in Ukraine. While it has been praised for its success, uncertainty remains about what will happen once it ends. Discussions have put forth ideas ranging from EU-wide approaches to individual national solutions. The urgency of this matter, however, has yet to fully resonate with policymakers and commentators, even as we reach the halfway point of the directive’s maximum duration. Just 18 months remain to forge a plan for what will come after. 

Though Europe has come a long way, it is not yet ready to be the leading talent destination of the world. Despite progress, there are obstacles that leaders and practitioners across Europe must still overcome before the region can call itself the place where the global labour market comes to live, study, and work. An emphasis on ‘living’ is more important than ever in this equation.

Immigrant integration remains a pressing issue for policymakers in Europe and beyond, and monitoring reports offer a useful resource for collecting evidence and assessing integration outcomes and policies. This commentary highlights how integration monitoring can be a beneficial policy tool and provides insight on how to address potential challenges when developing and conducting integration monitoring.    

Conventional wisdom holds that Europe should use tools from all policy fields, especially the holy trinity of visa, trade, and aid incentives, to reach its migration goals. But what if the prescribed medicine only works for a few patients? New research spells out three uncomfortable truths that should guide Europe’s use of carrots and sticks in migration cooperation in the future.  

Africa-to-Europe value chains in manufacturing and agri-food production can mitigate factors driving current migration patterns by employing Africans in local value-added production and boosting African GDP growth, reorienting Africa-Europe relations towards mutual economic benefit and dignity.

While the Temporary Protection Directive has been praised for its success in providing immediate assistance to millions, uncertainty remains about what will happen once it ends. One option that has recently gained attention is to further prolong temporary protection beyond March 2025. It may seem straightforward to simply extend temporary protection by another year, yet this may create some important challenges beyond deferring longer term decisions.

National policies of dispersal, which seek to distribute asylum seekers across different parts of the country, typically give only limited consideration to newcomers’ professional profiles and personal preferences and to characteristics of receiving communities. If they are willing to look at the fuller picture, and facilitate a better match, dispersal policies can become more effective in supporting integration and fostering local development.

Takeaways from Vienna Migration Conference 2023, ICMPD’s annual flagship event, held 10-11 October 2023.

This commentary reflects on the major migration-related policy developments over the past four years that influenced or culminated in the EU’s new Pact on Migration and Asylum. It describes a radically changed landscape since 2020, when governments — principally out of realpolitik — broke taboos, one by one, right across the migration policy spectrum, a trend which looks set to continue after the European elections on 6-9 June.   

This timeline charts the key EU migration policy developments and events influencing the discourse on migration during the 2019-2024 European Commission. 

This infographic provides an introduction to working holidays and other youth mobility schemes, explaining their potential benefits and how they can be expanded in EU Member States.

Development actors are well suited to play a meaningful role in scaling up complementary labour pathways for refugees, yet their current contribution falls far below its potential. Exploring how development actors can engage to support refugee labour mobility is a worthwhile endeavour that can help increase the size, scope, and sustainability of these pathways.

Access to legal identity in the Horn of Africa remains a critical barrier to effective migration governance, limiting individuals’ access to essential services and protection as well as constraining governments’ ability to plan and advance regional integration. A recent Khartoum Process meeting underscored the crucial need for reform and cooperation to build inclusive identity systems across the region, while pinpointing promising practices already underway.

Extreme weather, dwindling resources, and violent conflict are forcing millions in the Horn of Africa from their homes. This commentary delves into migration governance challenges, good practices, and gaps, providing recommendations for scalable solutions in the region and beyond, as highlighted during a recent Khartoum Process workshop on “Navigating the Nexus: Climate Change and Displacement in Conflict-Affected Settings.”

With another academic year underway, talent stakeholders should already be thinking about how they can convince this year’s graduates, and international students more broadly, to stay and take up in-demand jobs. Universities, employers, local economic development actors, and governments all have a role to play in facilitating the move from the classroom to the workplace – and they should engage, together, sooner rather than later.  

The extension of temporary protection until March 2026 has given the EU and its Member States additional time to monitor the development of the war in Ukraine and to identify possible exit strategies from temporary protection. However, recent diplomatic tensions between the United States and Ukraine have made predicting the war’s trajectory even more difficult. To ensure that Ukrainians under temporary protection do not remain in indefinite uncertainty, efforts to develop EU wide structured exit strategies from temporary protection must continue. An examination of the corresponding policies of individual European states can provide valuable insight in this regard.

Skills-based mobility remains the cornerstone of attracting third-country nationals and unlocking Europe’s growth and innovation potential. Incorporating algorithmic matching to account for a wider range of considerations—beyond just skills—can enhance international talent retention, reduce barriers for employers, and broaden destination options throughout Europe.

The EU has promoted the creation of the Talent Pool as a key tool for addressing skill shortages across the Union. With its adoption expected soon, the question remains: Will Member States, employers, and jobseekers actively engage with it? This commentary outlines five concrete ways to increase the Talent Pool’s added value and, by extension, the likelihood that it will meet its talent attraction and retention objectives. 

The rapid expansion of internet services and social media in Pakistan has allowed millions of jobseekers to search directly for opportunities abroad. However, it has also fuelled the spread of fake job advertisements, leading to online fraud, exploitation, and even human trafficking. Tackling online recruitment scams requires not only proactive monitoring of recruitment practices, but also strong international collaboration between countries of origin, transit, and destination.