Low-skilled migration

This study explores factors that initiate and perpetuate low skill labour migration from India to the EU, examines the migration processes and evaluates the policy prescriptions available to manage such migration flows. Based on a survey of the available quantitative and qualitative evidence, our study points to the existence of a fairly stable and persistent demand for low skilled labour in the EU, at least in the medium term. As this demand cannot be fully met from within the EU, there is and will remain a strong demand for low skilled migrant workers from non-EU countries. This offers immense scope for traditional labour sending countries like India as well as destination countries in the EU to strengthen the migration–development nexus. Unfortunately, on both sides, there seems to be an absence of a coherent and focused policy for governing migration of low skilled workers. Considering that migration of low skilled workers from India is mainly directed to the Persian Gulf, the study also makes a comparison between the existing immigration policies in EU countries and the Persian Gulf in order to draw relevant policy perspectives. Evolving appropriate policy response in relation to low skilled migration to Europe is also necessary given that a significant share of such workers end up as irregular migrants in transit or at the destination.

The majority of the Skill Matching mechanisms relating to India EU migration do not provide the full functions that the commercial Skill Matching model seeks to offer. Only commercial Skill Matching can really be regarded as a model that is intentional, sophisticated and leading best practice in the field and that is aiding the matching of skills and jobs from India to the EU. The commercial Skill Matching predominately serves, however, the high skilled and professional migrant. Whilst leading global recruitment companies practice the model worldwide, the size of practice relative to the size of the market is small and only begins to scratch the surface in comparison to the force and size of the market driving mechanism influencing Indian labour migration to the EU. Consequently, both semi-skilled and un/low-skilled migrants generally fail to benefit from such mechanisms of leading Skill Matching. They therefore rely on Skill Matching practices that are indirect or unintentional in their nature. However, even where perfectly organized Skill Matching channels are not in place, market mechanisms and immigration selection systems have had a tendency to create some of the same dimensions that an intentional Skill Matching model comprises. There is a demand particularly for medium skills in Europe and governments globally are beginning to recognize the gap of a Skill Matching mechanism for this skill category of migrants by taking action through the creation of mechanisms with partners such as the private sector to facilitate intentional Skill Matching, however, this work is just beginning to take momentum and substantial work remains.

Today more than ever, the European Union needs a comprehensive albeit differentiated approach towards legal labour migration, which responds to the varied needs of domestic labour markets and at the same time discourages effectively irregular migration. The segmented structure of domestic labour markets and the demographic deficit of Europe lead to increasing demand for a migrant labour force. This labour force is concentrated in specific sectors, such as cleaning, catering and care jobs for women; and construction, agricultural and semi-skilled manufacturing jobs for men. Such labour shortages are better catered to by a demand-led approach that takes into account the different economic cycles of Member States, their different economies and labour markets, while at the same time responds to long-term sociodemographic processes, including: a. The ageing of European societies; b. The configuration of nuclear families without extended support networks to cover needs for care of children or elderly/disabled people; c. The participation of women in paid work outside the home; d. These trends are irreversible and persist even in periods of economic downturn or weak growth. A flexible albeit proactive regulatory framework that would allow for demand and shortages to drive recruitment of migrant workers, while also being adaptable to territorial and sectorial variations, would be optimal. Of course, the thorny issue also needs to be addressed of how to match flexibility with worker protection from exploitation, setting up a clear and realistic set of rights and duties for both employer and employee. A framework sectorial approach can be tested in niche sectors such as domestic work or agriculture, complementing existing directives regulating training, research, students, intracompany transferees, highskill migrants and seasonal employment.

Mid-2013, estimates of Bahrain s population stood at 1,253,191 persons, of whom 638,361 (51 per cent) were foreign nationals. Most were from Asia (85 per cent) and especially from India (half of all foreign residents). Eighty per cent of expatriates are employed. They account for 77 per cent of the employed population and 81 per cent of the private sector s workforce. Asians are overwhelmingly involved in services and blue collar occupations, while Arabs more often fill managerial posts. Immigration flows to the Kingdom increased significantly over the 2000s, fuelled by high oil prices and the ensuing boom in the construction and services sectors. This demonstrates the difficulty to reconcile labour reforms, and especially, the Bahrainisation of the work force, with the maximisation of economic productivity.

Luxembourg is characterized by a very specific demographic situation with 47,9% of its resident population being non-Luxembourgish nationals as of 1 January 2018. This particular circumstance makes Luxembourg the EU Member State with the highest share of non-citizens residing on its territory. At the same time, around 85% of the foreign population are citizens of another EU Member State, leading to the fact that third-country nationals constitute only 7,3% of the total resident population of Luxembourg, the lowest share of foreigners coming from a third-country in the European Union. Integration is defined in national legislation as a ‘two-way process by which the foreigners shows their will to participate on a long-term basis to the host society, which, in turn, takes all the necessary measures at the social, economic, political, and cultural levels, to encourage and facilitate this approach. Integration is a task that the State, municipalities and civil society achieve together’. In addition to this legal provision, several strategic documents, most notably the multi-annual national action plan on integration 2018, or PAN integration, published in July 2018, make reference to integration and its definition. The PAN integration provides the framework for the programs and tools favouring the social cohesion of Luxembourgish and non-Luxembourgish nationals and the overall national integration policy by identifying five priority domains, one of which explicitly relates to the reinforcement of employability of non-Luxembourgish nationals. Generally speaking, employment is viewed as a core element of the overall integration process, making both the access to as well as the integration into the Luxembourgish labour market a key element in becoming a part of society. At the same time, this access to and integration into the labour market pose a challenge, particularly to third-country nationals, as the statistics show that their employment rate is lower than that of Luxembourgish nationals or citizens of another EU Member State. Third-country nationals are predominantly occupied in the accommodation and food service activities sector, followed by the administrative and support service activities sector and the wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles sector. A closer look at the evolution of the sectors employing third-country nationals over the last years, however, indicates that in particular the information and communication technologies sector, the professional, scientific and technical activities sector and the financial and insurance activities sector register the most significant growth rates, leading to a development that seem to indicate a ‘double immigration’ of (highly) skilled migrants on the one hand and less or low skilled migrants in the more traditional economic sectors on the other hand. In regard to the general integration approach as well as the labour market integration policy, this study shows that Luxembourg does have not have a specific policy/strategic document/model in place that only focusses on third-country nationals. All political documents (laws and strategic documents such as the PAN 2010-2014 and the new PAN integration of 2018) and public measures (Welcome and Integration Contract (CAI), linguistic leave, support measures provided by the National Employment Agency (ADEM), measures facilitating school integration, electoral registration campaigns, etc.) are aimed at all foreign nationals without distinguishing between EU nationals and third-country nationals. It is the Immigration Law that provides the legal framework regarding the various grounds of migration for economic purposes. Additionally, the legislator aims to be attractive for certain categories of migrants coming to Luxembourg for economic purposes in order to meet the needs of the country’s economic development (via legislative measures such as the European Blue Card, the ‘investor’ residence permit or the agreement between Luxembourg and Cape Verde). This being said, this study will present examples of practices that have been identified as good practices in the context of the topic of labour market integration of third-country nationals, despite the fact that they, for the most part, do not fit 100% into the pre-set structure of the study template at hand. In section 2.2, three Member State measure are presented, the first of which is the linguistic leave, a specific form of additional special leave that is accessible for salaried and independent workers of all nationalities, resident or non-resident, to learn or perfect the command of the Luxembourgish language. This legislative measure was introduced by law in 2009 with the intention to facilitate the integration of the beneficiaries into society through the labour market. The second measure is the AMIF-project ‘InSitu JOBS’ by the non-governmental organisation CLAE asbl (with co-financing from the Luxembourgish State). This project, which ended in April 2018 was targeted at third-country nationals within the scope of this study as well as at beneficiaries of international protection by providing them information and counselling in the context of access and integration into the Luxembourgish labour market. The third measure was also an AMIF-project and consists of a practical guide that was developed and drafted by IMS Luxembourg, a network of Luxembourgish companies, in order to provide information on how to hire and integrate third-country nationals. As for the private sector measures in section 2.3. of this study, research of secondary resources as well as consultations with various relevant stakeholders proved to be rather difficult in terms of finding private sector initiatives that specifically target at supporting or facilitating the labour market integration of third-country nationals within the scope of this study. Two measures were selected in this context, the first consisting of a specific recruitment method (simulation-based recruitment method) by a large international company which allows them to evaluate various different profiles of people that are not necessarily detectable through the classic CV-based recruitment methods. The second measure is a business guide developed by the American Chamber of Commerce Luxembourg and aims to promote and facilitate the establishment of new business in Luxembourg by providing information on everything that entrepreneurs and international companies need to know in this context.