Labour market performance and migration flows - European ...

Chapter IFinal Reportin skill development and legal recruiting and migration schemes for AMC labour force has thecharacteristics of a public good for Europe.Now, whereas the AMC supply of labour seems to match the European demand, a major problemis the question of whether the quality of the human capital and skilled labour produced in AMCs is thetype of quality demanded in Europe. One of the standard elements of all diagnosis of AMC labourmarkets relates precisely to the mismatch between skills endowed through the education system andthose demanded by the labour markets, be it national or international (see Section 1.2 on lowqualification of the labour force) 50 . One of the main weaknesses of the educational systems in theMENA region is the type of specialization among the highly-skilled which is overly concentrated inthe humanities and social sciences (76.2% of the university students are in the humanities and socialsciences in Egypt, 75% in Morocco, 60% in Lebanon, 57.4% in Syria, 56% in Algeria, 50% inTunisia 51 ) with too few students in the scientific or technical disciplines or in vocational trainingprogrammes. According to Corm (2009, p. 29) in the MENA region the total share of students whowent through vocational training in 1999 was only 20%, while for instance in Turkey thecorresponding number was 47%. This is an important question mark to recall in matching supply onone side of the Mediterranean and demand on the other.Another relevant factor has to do with the different response of immigration policies to the globaleconomic crisis. Indeed, if we look into national immigration policies, we see how many Europeancountries have reduced migration quotas or made more difficult the granting of a work permit as aresponse to the crisis (see, for instance, the examples of Italy and the UK), whereas Anglo-Saxoncountries such as Canada or Australia or even the United States have not introduced any singnificantchange in their migration policies.In this context, the question is whether the new Blue Card established by the EU to attract skilledmigrants in appropriate to achieve that goal, in particular as regards AMCs. So far, the EU has notfared well in the global competition for skilled labour, and a look at the factors attracting high-skilledmigration will help to explain why.6.3.2. General Factors Attracting Highly-Skilled MigrantsWhereas on average 25.3% of the immigrants in the OECD countries hold tertiaryeducation, in Europe only the United Kingdom (35%) and more recently Ireland (41%) standhigh in this respect (OECD 2008, p.58). With these two exceptions, all other Europeancountries range in between 24% (Sweden) and 11% (Austria) and this consequently implies anegative immigrants’ qualification effect, namely a downgrading of total skill composition(see Table 1 of Thematic Background Paper, Venturini, Fakhoury and Jouant 2009).As for AMC migrants in particular, as indicated above (Section 4.2) the main destinationcountries for skilled migrants from the AMC countries are the US, Canada and the Gulfcountries. Europe has failed to attract them and in order to explain this it is worth exploringthe main factors attracting highly-skilled migrants.Skilled migrant location is decided by the different job opportunities (and other “socialamenities”) available to migrants in various labour markets and by the different channels ofaccess to these opportunities. The first factor in attracting foreign skilled migrants islanguage, which gives easier access to information, better selection and makes theimmigrants’ quality of life less strenuous. The United Kingdom and Ireland in Europe and theUS, Canada and Australia hold an advantage here because skilled migrants – even if educated50 For a thorough analysis of this question, see World Bank 2009.51 World Bank 2009, p.44.89