Brussels, 27/06/2012 (Agence Europe) - The EU must ensure that it has the resources to remain attractive to highly qualified migrants from third countries and rapidly resolve its problems, unless it wants to see its major competitors, led by China, skim off all of that young labour force. This is the warning sent out in Brussels on Thursday 29 June by the secretary general of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development), Angel Gurria, at the presentation of the annual report 2012 on international migratory tendencies. This is a particularly important challenge to overcome, as the level of migration into OECD countries between now and 2015 is unlikely to be enough to maintain the working-age population in many countries, most specifically in the EU, Gurria warned.
In its report, the OECD notes that although the proportion of Asian nationals among migration flows to OECD countries has increased by some 10% in 10 years, rising from 27% to 31% between 2000 and 2010, Asia “is now creating and offering more interesting jobs”, the organisation explains, and “is attracting a higher number of qualified workers from other regions of the world”. In the long run, the countries of the OECD, which include the EU27, will be less able to count on this regular flow of qualified migrants, the OECD warned. In the view of Gurria, who was in Brussels on the eve of the European Council, it is therefore particularly important for the EU27 to take “decisive measures” and re-establish their competitiveness and attractiveness.
More broadly, the organisation observed in its publication a slight increase in 2011 in migration flows into OECD countries, following a certain amount of stagnation directly linked to the financial and economic crisis during the years 2008, 2009 and 2010. Migration flows into the bloc fell by 2.5% in 2010 compared to 2009 figures, representing some 4.1 million people. Migrations into the United States fell around 8% during this period and in the order of 3% for the European OECD countries. Intra-European flows also fell, which can be explained less by the restrictive migration policies of the member states than by the decline in demand for labour, Gurria said. Also in 2010, the number of migrants rose by more than 10% to Canada, Korea and Mexico.
Among the other lessons to be learned, emigration from the countries of the eurozone the hardest hit by the crisis, between the countries of the South - Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal - and Ireland, was not as high as expected, having indeed taken place but remained somewhat modest. Numbers of departing natives were also fairly low, the report continues, except in Ireland, where language barriers to emigration may be fewer.
The increase in migration noted in 2011 remains fragile, however, the OECD explains, and is also increasingly facing tougher political discourse than previously, with the countries of the organisation, including those of the EU, having to deal with particularly high unemployment rates, thereby making immigration issues particularly sensitive to the general public. This is one of the paradoxes European Commissioner Cecilia Malmström wished to raise, with the political climate towards immigration becoming harder and harder and the EU failing to meet certain specific needs, or to find the qualified labour force it needs within Europe.
Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs Laszlo Andor, who also attended the presentation, stressed the current situation for immigrants in Europe, who are hit harder than the others by unemployment and over-represented in the so-called “vulnerable” categories of the population, which “raises a great many questions” in terms of the integration of migrants and education, the commissioner said.
In the countries of the OECD, the unemployment rate for persons born abroad rose by four percentage points between 2008 and 2011, compared to 2.5 percentage points for natives and in most countries, immigrants contributed “a proportion of between 14 and 30% to the increase in long-term unemployment”, the report states. (SP/transl.fl)