All Contents

Takeaways from Vienna Migration Conference 2024, ICMPD’s annual flagship event, held 22-23 October 2024.

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.

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.

Takeaways from Vienna Migration Conference 2025, ICMPD’s annual flagship event, held 21-22 October 2025.

Policymakers in the EU are quick to assert that migrant return rates are too low, calling for new measures to return those with no right to stay. However, this sole focus on the return rate is counterproductive because it can overlook important operational and procedural realities that shape return outcomes. This calls for a broader set of policy responses, including the better tracking of departures, closer monitoring of post-return outcomes, and greater attention to national practices in issuing return decisions. 

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. 

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.

Migration governance is largely designed at national and regional levels—but it is cities, particularly secondary cities, that manage the consequences of displacement. In municipalities across the Greater Horn of Africa, local governments are increasingly responding to migratory flows and climate pressures. However, the systems meant to support them are not yet fit for purpose.

ICMPD has a long-standing cooperation with Ukraine dating back to 1995. Numerous joint projects were implemented, cooperation is ongoing on multilateral and bilateral levels and in 2021 the ICMPD Kyiv Office was established. ICMPD is thus closely monitoring the developments in Ukraine. Due to the security situation, the ICMPD office has been temporarily closed. The project teams continue their work from other duty stations whenever possible. Below, we are gathering our policy, research, and capacity-building activities to reflect ICMPD's ongoing engagement in Ukraine.

Europe needs more workers. But as the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia dominate the global labour market¹, the European Union is caught in a ‘bruising worldwide battle’ to attract and keep workers in the region². Even as some Member States remain in strong positions, the EU collectively falls behind in recruiting and retaining international talent.