Why the EU Needs Migrant Workers Now
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ส.ค. 2024
- It’s one of the wealthiest economies in the world, but the European Union isn’t attracting as much talent from abroad as it would like to-even as it is in the midst of a migration crisis.
If you’re looking to live and work in Europe, you might be in luck: the European Union is on the hunt for foreign labor-and not just highly skilled professionals. Throughout the union’s 27 countries, national governments are facing shortages of workers at all levels and in all types of employment-from waiters to data scientists-and are making efforts to bring in newcomers.
It’s not just immigrant-friendly states such as Germany behind this push; even notoriously hardline governments in Hungary and Poland have started to integrate “guest workers” from nations outside the EU, which are often referred to as “third countries.”
Yet it’s not as if no one wants to work in the EU. European countries are known for their affordable healthcare, exciting food, and the ongoing migration crisis. It isn’t just an attractive place to live; it’s viewed as a safe haven by the thousands who risk their lives to land on its soil. With so many people flocking to its shores, why is the EU claiming it needs more foreign workers?
What’s driving Europe’s push to bring in workers?
In her latest State of the Union speech, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, cited “labor and skills shortages” as one of Europe’s three major economic hurdles. Here are just some of the figures that have had politicians fretting:
Almost three-quarters (74%) of small to medium-sized EU businesses report “concretely” facing a skills shortage for at least one job role in their company.
More than 90% of professional roles in the EU require “a basic level of digital knowledge,” but only about 54% of the EU population have basic digital skills.
The average job vacancy rate in green industries, which are crucial to Europe’s financial future, doubled between 2015 and 2021.
The job vacancy rate in the EU peaked at 3% in 2022. “This means that nearly 3% of jobs across the EU are sitting vacant, even after efforts to upskill, reskill, and activate the domestic workforce,” a spokesperson from the European Commission told Welcome To The Jungle. “To address the shortages the Member States are facing, the EU will also need to attract [people with] skills and talent from all around the world.”
Where most migrants choose to go
To add insult to injury, the EU isn’t attracting as much international brain power as other big economies. Last August, Indeed reported that searches from abroad for jobs in Australia, Canada, and the UK had surpassed pre-pandemic levels by 141%, 74%, and 69%, respectively. At the same time, searches from abroad for jobs in the EU had risen by just 5%.
This problem isn’t new: in 2015 and 2016, only a quarter of highly educated immigrants residing in OECD countries had chosen to live in the EU, while nearly two-thirds preferred countries in North America or Oceania, which includes Australia and New Zealand. Many migrants of all education levels go to the United States-an economic powerhouse capitalizing on almost 20% of the world’s immigrant population.
Yet the EU isn’t exactly an underdog in the competition for talent. It has achieved the highest rankings in social progress and life expectancy, according to a report from McKinsey Global Institute, and many EU nations boast a weighty GDP and the world’s best quality of life for foreigners. The EU can also snag citizens from countries sanctioned by the United States. In 2022, some of the largest shares of Blue Cards, the EU’s work permit for highly skilled migrants, went to people from Russia, Belarus, and Iraq.
Actually they are financing human traffic to sustain the pension pyramid system.
Good observation!