| Description |
1. Effective labour market policies and
measures are important tools for Member States
to address increasing migration flows and persistent
employment gaps between migrant and national populations. According to the ad-hoc module on migration of
the Labour Market Survey in 2014, roughly two thirds
of third-country nationals who migrated for work to the
EU had no job at the time of migrating. While unemployment rates have decreased steadily since 2014, the
gap in the unemployment rate between third-country
nationals and native- and EU-born remains.
2. Most Member States have dedicated labour
market integration policies in place, targeting multiple migrant groups, including newly arrived, first
generation third-country nationals who were the
focus of this study. These policies are usually integral
to Member States’ more general integration policies.
3. The driving forces behind current labour market
integration policies tend to be labour shortages
and the need to help newcomers into employment
quickly so they become self-sufficient. The 2014-
2016 influx of migrants has encouraged many Member
States to update existing policies or develop new ones.
4. Member States combine mainstream and tailored labour market integration measures. While
mainstream integration measures help to ensure equal
access to general (public employment) services, tailored
measures can specifically address some of the disadvantages facing newly arrived third-country nationals
compared to other groups, including lack of language
proficiency and unfamiliarity with the new society.
5. The most common obstacles encountered by
Member States in supporting third-country nationals relate to the accreditation of job qualifications/assessment of skills of those arriving from outside the EU,
tackling discrimination within recruitment processes and
managing varying levels of language skills in integration
measures. These difficulties are more pronounced when
dealing with migrant women or vulnerable groups.
6. Public sector integration measures focus
primarily on the phase prior to accessing employment, including preparing for and finding a job.
Based on examples provided by Member States, these
relate most often to the development of (soft) skills, vocational training and qualification and career counselling.
7. The best innovative measures connected
migrant and host communities or developed
inter-generational bonds by bringing together
people of different ages or ethnic groups, not only
to ease migrants’ integration into society but also to
create social cohesion.
8. Employment centres and non-governmental
organisations emerge as key partners in the implementation of labour market integration measures. Most
of the measures are financed through national and/or EU
funds, but examples exist of privately funded measures,
including new tools such as social impact bonds and
sponsorship.
9. Private sector measures aim more specifically
at integrating (migrant) workers into the workplace. Examples reported were mostly implemented
by large companies. They focussed predominantly on
training and qualification, counselling and enhancing
intercultural relations in the workplace, for example
through ‘buddy’ programmes, on-boarding programmes
or internal company workshops on intercultural relations.
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