Brussels, 18/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - It is imperative that EU member states meet the challenge of the continual waves of immigrants and refugees entering Europe, by including them in their labour markets and providing them with immediate support in the learning of the host country's language and the acquisition of relevant skills.
This is the thrust of the message speakers addressed to MEPs in the debate organised by the European Parliament Employment and Social Affairs Committee on Thursday 18 February. This is a major challenge but it is not insurmountable even though almost 80% of migrants barely have any qualifications, as is the case for those that arrived in Germany in 2015.
Dirk Buchwald was perhaps the most eagerly awaited and most listened to speaker because he is an expert from the department responsible for refugees and migration at the Federal Employment Agency in Germany. This role has put him in an ideal position for implementing a medium and long-term response to this challenge created by the migration crisis because this integration will, above all, come about through work.
What is the scale of the challenge? Germany is in the frontline of this crisis and its situation is perhaps a relatively reliable indicator of the existing challenges for the Union as a whole. Therefore, out of the million migrants that arrived in the country in 2015, half of them are able to claim international protection. Out of this half, 70% or 350,000 people, are able to work. Nonetheless, only 20% of them possess a professional qualification or university training.
Buchwald was eager to provide reassurances in this connection and emphasised that the integration of these people can be successful given our abilities and a situation on the German labour market. This success, however, will not be 100% and will not come about without any problems. He estimated that over a five-year period, the refugee integration rate in the labour market is expected to be around 50% and non-skilled refugees will, in all cases, be competing with less qualified Germans. He explained that it was paramount to ensure that the refugees did not become part of the long-term unemployed because this category of the population has already been a challenge in itself in the EU for several years.
The keys to success are already known and the majority of speakers highlighted them. Buchwald said that they needed swift action in response to the migrants that have most chance of obtaining asylum by providing them with German lessons and training. He concluded that the tools to achieve this must be adapted but not necessarily reinvented and must, for example, target young refugees and women.
Leen Verraest, the director-general of the Flemish Integration Agency in Belgium, echoed these sentiments. Verraest immediately underlined the fact that employment was an ideal instrument for integration and that they needed immediate action to be adjusted to the origins of the refugees, swift language learning and training, particularly in the workplace.
The role of the European institutions is very limited when it comes to responding to this integration challenge. At most, the European Commission can explain to the national authorities how to apply for European funding, as it has done recently (see EUROPE 11396). The response to this challenge will therefore necessarily assume 28 different features or as many different socio-economic systems as there are in the EU, explained Aboubakar Soumahoro, from the Italian trade union Unione Sindacale di Base. The goal should therefore be the same for everyone: ensuring that refugees do not become “the slaves of the new millennium”, according to the expression used by Soumahoro. (Original version in French by Jan Kordys)