Labour market performance and migration flows - European ...

European CommissionOccasional Paper 60, Volume Iskilled than Egyptian migrants to Europe, and 55% of highly-skilled Egyptians going to OCDEcountries migrate to North America. 165The difference is striking too in the case of Lebanon. Thus, 46% of total migrants are in the US,Canada and Australia; 19% in Europe; 9% in other southern countries and 27% in the Gulfcountries, and 45% of emigration from Lebanon is highly skilled.In short, the main destination countries for skilled migrants from the AMC countries are the US,Canada and the Gulf countries.2.1.3 Factors attracting foreign skilled migrantsSkilled migrant location is decided by the different job opportunities available to migrants in variouslabour markets and by the different channels of access to these opportunities.The first factor in attracting foreign skilled migrants is language, which gives easier access toinformation, better selection and makes the immigrants’ quality of life less strenuous. The UnitedKingdom and Ireland in Europe and the US, Canada and Australia hold an advantage here becauseskilled migrants – even if educated in the country of origin – are frequently fluent in English, which isthe most widely-spoken language. But this is not always the case in AMCs, where French is alsospoken.The second factor is the educational system, which attracts foreign students and thus potentialmigrants. The United Kingdom, the US and Canada have a long tradition in higher-educationaltraining, attracting not only third-country nationals, but also a large number of European students.France, similarly, attracts students from the former colonies.The third factor is the result of the special economic and political ties which derive from historicalrelations frequently connecting two countries, as for instance those ties between Germany andTurkey. Such connections make it easier to find a job and reduce the cost of migration.The aforementioned three ease the migration of educated labour, but the main driver of attraction isthe skill-wage premium offered in the destination country, which pushes skilled migrants from manycountries, including continental European ones, to choose the US, the UK etc, where wagedispersion is large and wage skill premium higher. Inside the OCDE countries skilled migrantsworkers tend to go where the higher and wider number of jobs are offered, where one of theirlanguages is spoken and, if possible, to a society where it is easier to settle thanks to a long traditionof international communities. This creates a large supply in the US and the UK, channeled byselective migration policy.A selective immigration policy is made by the quota system which selects migrants according toskill gaps and thus creates a process of virtuous immigration in the destination country. The lack ofa selective immigration policy in continental Europe is only one, but not the main cause, of theprevalence of low- and medium-skilled migration. When for instance, in the 1990s, the Germangovernment tried to attract Indian engineers, the wage premium was not rewarding in comparisonwith competing offers available in countries where the cost of migrating was, in any case, lowergiven the previous immigration tradition.So if the European Union want to attract more skilled migrants it has of course to start with aselective migration policy, a necessary though not a sufficient condition to bring about skilledinflows. Other instruments including student programmes, degree recognition and bilateralagreements will also have to be implemented if a higher-skill wage premium is impossible giventhe wage structure of the economy. 166165 Nassar ASN 2008/9, Table 6.166 All this section draws upon the CARIM database and in particular table 1 of the CARIM annual report 2006/7.176