Brussels, 24/06/2003 (Agence Europe) - At a debate on 17 June on "The economic and social consequences of immigration", which was held by The European Policy Centre and the King Baudoin Foundation, Anna Diamantopoulou, European Commissioner for Social Affairs and Employment, said that "immigration is a reality in all the Member States, and we need a European approach" (see EUROPE of 21 June, p.16, on the European anti-discrimination campaign she has just launched). Ms Diamantopoulou spoke in favour of a Union policy reflecting the multiculturalism of society. "We are not just countries of control and returns policies", she stressed. She also pointed out that the EU "will find itself faced with a challenge in terms of demography and employment, and immigration has a central role to play in solving our problems".
According to the Commission's communication on immigration, integration and employment, published on 3 June, even if the Lisbon objective of a 70% employment rate is achieved in 2010, "we can expect a general decline in employment after 2010, and the fall in the number of employed people between 2010 and 2030 would be in the order of 20 million workers for EU25". This drop in employment "cannot be reversed by (unexpected) increases in fertility rates, as it would take more than two decades for "new baby boomers" to reach their working age and contribute to the growth of total employment". The Union, furthermore, is in a situation whereby countries with high unemployment rates are, conversely, short of employment candidates for certain sectors. A lot of workers stop working early and "live off invalidity pensions or other systems allowing them not to work", states a report by professors Nigel Harris and Demetrios Papademetriou, who were quoted during the debate. 18-22% of workers are apparently in this situation in Sweden, and 40% in Italy. "We urgently need doctors and nurses", said Professor Harris of the University of London, who is calling for a real societal debate in the United Kingdom. Each country "selects the type of people it needs to add to its workforce, then develops a strategy to attract them", says Demetrios Papademetriou, co-director of the Migration Policy Institute, citing the example of France, which allows employers to take on three or four immigrant workers as long as they also hire ten national workers. Jean-Louis De Brouwer, from DG Justice and Home Affairs of the European Commission, says "when we talk about immigration, we should define relations with other countries, in other words look at issues of sovereignty and national identity". "We need immigration not solely for demographic reasons, but also for innovation", adds Rita Süssmuth of the German Committee on Immigration. "But we must be aware that if we invite foreign workers, we need to make investments for them, so that they can acquire knowledge and become integrated", stressed the former Bundestag President.
"No country has a good integration policy. The watchword should be adaptation with a capital A", concludes Demetrios Papademetriou, and it is not just the immigrants who need to adapt.