Labour Matching Study “Mechanisms for Labour and Skills Matching Across the Mediterranean

on the Basis of Existing Institutions and Labour Market Information Systems”

Legal Labour Migration in the Mediterranean: From Common Ground to Joint Action?

Iván MARTÍN

LABOUR MARKET NEEDS STUDY

The first Peer-to-Peer Meeting on Legal Migration (Paris, February 2013) proposed THREE OPTIONS for the Labour Market Needs Study planned in the framework of Euromed Migration III:

1) Labour Market and Demographic Scenarios for Europe and ENPI South countries

2) Inventory, typology and assessment of current legal migration schemes

3) Exploring and proposing mechanisms for skills- and job-matching across the Mediterranean

TRIPLE NEED FOR LABOUR MIGRATION MATCHING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN

EU labour markets

ENPI South partners potential

migrants

ENPI South partners

employment policies

Demand

LMISs Labour

Labour Matching Mechanisms

CURRENT LABOUR MATCHING MECHANISMS

• Shortcomings of current legal labour migration to identify job opportunities for workers in Southern Mediterranean countries

(either at national and regional level),

to actually facilitate job matching across the Mediterranean.

• The European Commission acknowledge this deficit: “more work needs to be done to make sure that the MPs are being

implemented in a balanced manner, i.e. better reflecting all four thematic priorities of the Global Approach to Migration and Mobility, including more actions with regard to legal migration”

“It should be considered how to make better use of the various instruments developed under the GAMM to take full advantage of the role that migration can play in addressing labour and skills shortages in Europe. Further efforts should be made to better organize labour migration to the EU”

OBJECTIVES OF LABOUR MATCHING STUDY

• To explore and propose mechanisms for skills and job-matching across the Mediterranean on the basis of existing institutions and labour market information systems

• In particular, to take stock of experiences and progress in these systems;

to explore potential for the development of job-matching information systems across the Mediterranean and institutional conditions responding to the needs of countries involved;

to review options for the development of a regional labour market information system (and as a first step, looking at the development of a common database for labour migration and how this could be realized).

CONSTRAINTS TO LABOUR MIGRATION INITIATIVES

• On the European side: Negative political context under current conditions of economic crisis and high

unemployment levels in Europe Caution to engage in any initiative promoting labour migration Whereas migration is a mixed EU/Member States competence, labour migration falls

clearly under the competences of Member States Added difficulty for regional initiatives

• On the ENPI South partners side, Inadequate skills and qualifications of their workers improve education systems and increase labour participation Shortcomings of Labour Market Information Systems and other institutional

constraints need for institutional strengthening and technical cooperation

Focus on improving existing mechanisms for legal labour migration and on technical aspects rather than new initiatives

OPTION I: DEVELOP BILATERAL LABOUR AGREEMENTS

• Current BLA (France-Tunisia, Italy-Tunisia, Italy-Egypt, Greece-Egypt and Spain-Morocco) involve low numbers of migrants and are are hampered by administrative and technical constraints

• Establish new Bilateral Labour Agreements? To which extent the Mobility Partnership are an enabling context?

• Develop and improve implementation of existing BLAs

OPTION II: Labour Market Information on Job Offers (Regional Approach)

• Extending EURES. Envisaging some form of access of ENPI South Partners (or some of them, for instance those having signed Mobility Partnerships with the EU) to the EURES European Job Mobility Portal or integration of job offers into the EU Immigration Portal

• Developing country-specific EU employment portals compiling information on job opportunities in the EU for nationals (like ULISSES in Armenia)

• Development of labour market intelligence and prospection systems by public employment services, labour market observatories or other institutions in ENPI-South Partners

OPTION III: Development/Strengthening of labour migration-compatible Labour Market Information Systems in ENPI South Partners

• Technical convergence of all EU-funded projects to develop/strengthen LMISs in ENPI South partners (TEAM project, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Argelia, Jordan, Lebanon)

• Towards an Euro-Mediterranean Labour Market Information System and/or a Euro-Mediterranean Job Portal

• Regional approach: The Union for the Mediterranean Med4Jobs Project has a job intermediation component

OPTION IV: Region-wide regulation of private international employment placement agencies

• Private agencies may sidestep the constraints imposed to public institutions

• They are emerging as a new actor in international labour migration in some ENPI South Partners (but they play a key role in other regions, such as Asia)

To regulate and orient their intermediation role (and why not at regional level?)

OPTION V: Regional Programme on Skills Enhancement

• Skills enhancement as pre-condition for labour matching

• GAMM commits to make efforts “to counteract brain drain and brain waste and promote brain gain”

• But so far there is no Euromed Regional Programme on Skills Enhancement (complementing bilateral VET projects and Erasmus Mundus). Ideas are welcome!

Skills-based approaches are a practical way of overcoming the above-mentioned political and institutional constraints!

ACTIVITIES OF THE LABOUR MATCHING STUDY

• Analysis of existing experiences in these fields and conditions for the development of new mechanisms for legal migration or the enhancement of existing ones.

• Identification of short term priorities for action given current circumstances both in Europe and in South Partner countries

• Identification of possible targeted pilot projects to test the long-term proposals made

• Assessment of existing schemes for international labour and skills matching in the EUROMED

• Understanding for the future: if and which type of initiatives could be (further) developed in order to strengthen international labour matching across the Mediterranean

• SOURCES: • Questionnaire • Peer-to-Peer Meeting • Missions (Brussels, France, Italy, Spain, Germany?, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt)

STARTING QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

• Which types of initiatives could your country develop or support?

• Which current schemes of legal labour migration could be made more effective, upscaled or transferred to other contexts in the Euro-Mediterranean region?

• What is the technical and political feasibility of the abovementioned?

• Are there other options to be explored to facilitate legal labour migration across the Mediterranean?

• What is currently the scope for Euro-Mediterranean regional initiatives in the field of labour?

• How can legal labour migration be enhanced in the framework of EU-ENPI South Partners’ Mobility Partnerships?

• What are the institutional strengthening processes to be implemented in ENPI South Partners in order for those options to be effective?