Economic and Social Perspectives on European Migration

Francesca Fauri, Debora Mantovani, Donatella Strangio, Francesca Fauri, Debora Mantovani, Donatella Strangio

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000317879
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Economia
• Subtopic: Condizioni economiche

This book addresses a wide range of migration-related issues in the European context and examines the socioeconomic consequences of migratory flows throughout Europe, focusing on a number of emblematic European countries. The book is divided into three parts. The first part deals with the tension between migrants and their integration processes in the receiving country, which is deeply influenced by the attitude of the local population and the different approach to highly and less skilled immigrants. The second part analyses the impact of migration on the economic structure of the receiving country, while the third part explores the varying degree of immigrants' socioeconomic integration in the country of destination.

The book offers an essential interdisciplinary contribution to the issue of migration and provides readers with a better understanding of the effects that different forms of migration have had and will continue to exert on economic and social change in host countries. It also examines migration policy issues and builds on historical and empirical case studies with policy recommendations on labour market, integration and welfare policy issues. The book is addressed to a wide audience, including researchers, academics and students of economics, sociology, politics and history, as well as government/EU officials working on migration topics.

1European Agenda on Migration between progress and challenges

Situational overview

Helena Winiarska

“Migration is here to stay”; the President of the European Commission Ursula Von der Leyen said at the beginning of her new mandate in 2019. This is why the European Union (EU) proposes to implement a common, sustainable and effective approach to migration. Migration management is among the Union’s top political priorities and the European Commission has developed a number of concrete initiatives to address the challenges of this large and complex phenomenon. At the same time, migration remains among the most sensitive areas of all EU policies. Migration management requires continuous striking of careful balances between humanitarian principles and respect for human rights, which constitute core European principles, the economic and demographic interests of European societies, and respect for the rule of law and the protection of external borders.

Before addressing these elements, it is important to clarify the legal context, namely the EU competence in the area of migration based on articles 79 and 80 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).

On regular migration, the EU is competent to lay down the conditions governing entry into and legal residence in a Member State, including for the purposes of family reunification, for third-country nationals. Member States retain the right to determine volumes of admission for people coming from third countries to seek work.

On integration, the EU may provide incentives and support for measures taken by Member States to promote the integration of legally resident third-country nationals; EU law makes no provision for the harmonization of national laws and regulations, however.

When it comes to combating irregular immigration, the European Union is required to prevent and reduce irregular immigration, in particular by means of an effective return policy, in a manner consistent with fundamental rights.

And, finally, on readmission agreements, the European Union is competent to conclude agreements with third countries for the readmission to their country of origin or provenance of third-country nationals who do not fulfil or no longer fulfil the conditions for entry into, or presence or residence in, a Member State.

This contribution aims to address the main challenges and the key milestones achieved by the 2015 European Agenda on Migration and to detail the main axes of support the European Union and its Member States provided to Italy in the face of the 2015–2016 migration crisis. Furthermore, it will touch upon the challenges that the outbreak of the COVID-19 posed to EU Member States and migrants, and, finally, try to outline the main policy areas of the upcoming Migration Pact.

European Agenda of Migration: a four pillar based approach to migration

In 2015, the European Union faced an exceptional challenge when around two million people arrived on its shores in the space of two years, in search of refuge or a new life, often risking their lives to escape war, political oppression or poverty. Faced with the human tragedy unfolding in the Mediterranean, the EU took swift and determined action to avert the loss of life at sea. However, at the time, the EU Member States also lacked a collective take on migration management and border security. It quickly became clear that Member States could not address the challenge of migration alone and only a common European approach could address the issues collectively. In response, in May 2015, the Juncker Commission presented a European Agenda on Migration (European Commission 2015) intended to address immediate challenges and equip the EU with the tools to manage migration in the medium to long term in the areas of irregular migration, borders, asylum and legal migration.

The Agenda was built on four comprehensive policy pillars: i) reducing incentives for irregular immigration; ii) border management – saving lives and securing external borders; iii) developing a stronger common asylum policy; iv) establishing a new policy on regular migration, modernizing and revising the “Blue Card” system, setting fresh priorities for integration policies, and optimizing the benefits of migration policy for the individuals concerned and for countries of origin.

The Agenda also launched the idea of setting up EU-wide relocation and resettlement schemes, announced the “Hotspot” approach where relevant EU agencies work on the ground with frontline Member States to swiftly identify, register and fingerprint incoming migrants, and a possible common security and defence policy (CSDP) operation in the Mediterranean to dismantle smuggling networks and combat trafficking in persons. The latter was launched soon afterwards as EUNAVFOR MED “Operation Sophia”.

On 6 April 2016, the European Commission published its guidelines on regular migration, as well as on asylum, in a communication. There are four main strands to the guidelines on legal migration policies: revising the Blue Card Directive; attracting innovative entrepreneurs to the EU; developing a more coherent and effective model for regular immigration to the EU by assessing the existing framework; and strengthening cooperation with the key countries of origin, with a view to ensuring legal pathways to the EU, while improving returns of those who have no right to stay.

In particular, solutions leading to a proper social and economic integration of migrants and refugees in European societies are an integral part of a successful migration management policy. This is why the European Commission adopted in 2016 an ambitious Action Plan on Integration with measures to support Member States in further developing and implementing effective actions across all relevant policy areas. Labour market integration and support in terms of education and training were key dimensions of this Action Plan.

All policy developments are closely monitored by the European Migration Network, established in 2008 as an EU network of migration and asylum experts from all Member States, who work together to provide objective, comparable and policy-relevant information.

What has the Agenda achieved?

Since 2016, the European Agenda on Migration has guided the work of the Commission, EU agencies and Member States. This led to the development of a new EU migration infrastructure, with new laws, new systems for coordination and cooperation, and direct operational and financial support from the EU. Although there is still ground to cover, the progress made over the past few years should not be underestimated.

Among others:

•irregular border crossings into the EU fell to 150,000 in 2018 – the lowest figure in five years. Key to this have been innovative approaches to partnership with third countries, such as the EU-Turkey Statement of March 2016 (European Council 2016);

•EU action has helped to save lives: almost 760,000 rescues at sea and the rescue of over 23,000 migrants in the Nigerian desert since 2015;

•the EU has shown tangible and rapid support to the Member States under most pressure: hotspots now serve as an operational model to quickly and efficiently bring support to key locations. Five hotspots are operational in Greece, and four in Italy; EU internal funding for migration and borders has more than doubled since the start of the crisis to over €10 billion; Member States relocated 34,700 people from Italy and Greece under the dedicated EU schemes. 1,103 people have also benefitted from relocation since summer 2018 under voluntary relocations, an exercise that the Commission continues to coordinate since January 2019;

•the new European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) has supported Member States to protect the EU external borders, with a second phase of reform under way to boost its capacity by a standing corps of 10,000 operational staff;

•the EU has stepped up the legal pathway of resettlement of persons in need of international protection to Member States, with almost 63,000 people resettled since 2015;

•the EU has provided protection and support for millions of refugees in third countries – the Facility for Refugees in Turkey is delivering on the ground with 90 projects currently up and running in Turkey, supporting almost 1.7 million refugees on a daily basis and building new schools and hospitals; the EU Regional Trust Fund in Response to the Syrian Crisis is delivering with more than 75 projects providing health, education, livelihoods and socio-economic support to Syrian refugees, internally displaced persons and hosting communities across the region; work to help those facing appalling conditions in Libya has included evacuating over 4,000 people, as well as the voluntary return of over 49,000 since 2017 – with the African Union–European Union–United Nations Taskforce as an innovative partnership model; 210 projects in 26 countries under the EU Trust Fund for Africa delivering concrete results, including basic support to over 5 million vulnerable people.

•action to disrupt smuggling networks on all routes, including work in the Niger leading to a major decrease in migrants entering Libya from the South.

•formal readmission agreements or practical arrangements on return and readmission are in place with 23 countries of origin and transit, with extra support from the EU to push for effective return.

The EU has stronger systems to control its borders and can now quickly bring the necessary financial and operational support to Member States under pressure. It has new channels to support the vulnerable and provide alternative, safe and legal pathways to Europe for those in need of protection. It is cooperating more closely on migration management than ever before with partner countries outside Europe.

It is on these building blocks that work now must continue to complete a sustainable system to ensure an efficient and humane migration management equal to the likely challenges of the future, not least in establishing the right framework for a Common European Asylum System that is managed responsibly and fairly. This will need further efforts across the board, and migration will remain high on the political agenda in the years to come.

European Agenda for Migration: what did it mean for Italy?

Since 2014, the EU has supported Italy with nearly €1 billion of funding for asylum, migration, security and border management. The EU allocated €0.7 million emergency assistance to the Italian Ministry of Interior and UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in July 2019 to support the humanitarian evacuation of approximately 450 persons from Libya and Niger to Italy. Another recent example is a €30 million project in five Italian regions to address the exploitation of migrant labour in agriculture and to help the integration of migrants into the regular labour market. Support has also come through expertise from EU agencies and Member States with a total of 144 experts deployed by Frontex in 2019 and 180 by the European Asylum Support Office (EASO). This expertise remains an essential part of the EU contribution to migration management and preparedness in the Central Mediterranean and Member States need to maintain the required level of deployments.

Despite significant progress in the past four years, the situation remains volatile and geopolitical developments have created new challenges for the EU. We should continue to work to address immediate key challenges and to make progress on on-going work. Despite solidarity efforts in the context of disembarkations in the Central Mediterranean, lives continue to be lost at sea and the ad hoc relocation solutions coordinated by the Commission are clearly not long-term solutions.

The Commission is fully supporting the process initiated with the signature of the Joint Declaration of Intent on 23 September 2019 by Malta, Italy, Germany and France setting out the contours of a predictable and structural set of arrangements. However, long-term solutions can only come from the reform of the Common European Asylum System to which we remain committed, in the framework of a comprehensive approach to migration.

COVID-19: the pandemic impact on the migrants’ lives and integration in the EU

The coronavirus pandemic has affected all spheres of our lives. It has severely reduced our mobility as citizens and workers, has brought European economies to a standstill and is still threatening to trigger one of the most severe global economic crises in recent decades. Over the last weeks and months, the Commission has nevertheless worked to respond to this new pandemic and acted much faster and more effectively than many thought possible.

At the same time, for the European Commission it remained imperative that the crisis should not undermine the rule of law or the fundamental values of the European Union. From the very first moment, President Von der Leyen, Vice-President Schinas and Commissioner Johansson highlighted the need for immediate operational action but also for solidarity.

In the area of migration management, similarly to many others, the Commission has taken on a coordination role in this crisis at the request of Member States. The recently adopted Guidelines on Asylum and Return Procedures and on Resettlement (European Commission 2020a) are a product of this role given to the Commission. Protection needs do not disappear because of the pandemic; therefore, the guidelines illustrate how to ensure continuity of procedures as much as possible while fully guaranteeing the protection of people’s health and rights.

Among the key challenges that needed addressing, the migrants’ camps in countries of first reception are seve...