Labour market performance and migration flows - European ...

European CommissionOccasional Paper 60, Volume Iintegration.115 Thus, the North had the need to revise its immigration policy. New evidence related tothe negative effect of permanent migration in the sending countries offered the opportunity to revisemigration policies to give more legitimacy to an approach whose pillars rest on satisfying thedestination countries’ labour demands whilst solving the permanent migration dilemma.The “Global Approach to Migration”,116 promoted by the European Union (EU), could, in ouropinion, match this new spirit of cooperation provided it develops and follows up with concreteinstruments to enhance a three-way approach redefining the movement of people in origin and hostcountries, and hence providing a better response to pending challenges and bringing benefits to allparticipants in the migration process: the non-migrants in the origin and host countries, and themigrants themselves.Still, the underlying proviso is that migration has to be a positive sum game and that some of theprevious habits have to be altered. The fact that the European Council declares that “both challengesand opportunities of migration for the benefit of all is one of the major priorities for the EU at the startof the 21st century” (European Council Conclusion December 2006) shows that changes are indeedtaking place in the way that migration policy is shaped. So the 2006 European Council stresses theneed to give “consideration to how legal migration opportunities can be incorporated into the Union’sexternal policies in order to develop a balanced partnership with third countries adapted to specific EUMember States’ labour market needs”, and to explore “ways and means to facilitate circular andtemporary migration…”.These preliminary statements notwithstanding, it is important now to better understand how currentpolitical, institutional and legal elements in the Euro-Arab Mediterranean context could converge so asto define the premises and applicability of the Global Approach Paradigm. It is worth noting here thatmobility trends induced by legislation, which previously constrained the migrant’s natural propensityto circulate freely, need to be revised in the light of new incentives. Hence, an assumption that has tobe verified is whether promoting temporary migration could mitigate spontaneous illegal migration,reduce brain drain and contribute to eliminating the subsidized economy effect. Furthermore, moreefforts should be invested in assessing whether international cooperation – in this case, EC/EUrelations with the southern shore of the Mediterranean – might not foster a more positive climate forsuch a change.In the light of these observations, this paper proposes to analyse to what extent the new orientationguidelines in the EU immigration and labour policy can match Arab Mediterranean countries’ (AMC)labour markets and, more generally, their development needs. To this end, the paper will outline andassess, in the first section, the gradual emergence of a harmonised EU framework on economicmigration. It will describe the general context of EU migration policy, dwell on the development of acommon labour migration strategy, and then analyse the nexus between the Global Approach toMigration and economic immigration policy since 2005. This section will also analyse if and to whatextent the new Global Approach is – at least in theory – an integrative process that could adequatelymeet the needs and demands of the Euro-Arab Mediterranean zone while providing a viable ground fora comprehensive dialogue on economic migration.In the second section, the paper will reassess the current tools and instruments aimed at implementingthe new “Global Approach to Migration” and will ask whether they are applicable to ArabMediterranean countries. It will particularly discuss the pertinence, implementation and “addedvalue” of highly-skilled migration and the Blue Card Directive, temporary migration and integrationpolicies as viable instruments to embody the Global Approach in the Euro-Arab Mediterraneancontext.115 See the OXREP 2008 monographic number vol 24, 3 or Venturini A., 2008, ILO116 On the necessity of developing a real “Global Approach to Migration” see the European Council Conclusions of December 2005 and the appendix “Global approach to migration andPriority Actions focusing on Africa and the Mediterranean”. But the content of the conclusions are quite weak with regard to the Global Approach concept. For a more developed approachsee: European Council Conclusions, December 2006 and the Commission Communication, “The Global Approach to Migration one year on: Towards a comprehensive European migrationpolicy”, COM (2006)735164