Legal migration and integration initiatives of the European Commission

1. Legal migration and integration initiatives of the European Commission Belinda Pyke Director – Migration and MobilityDG Migration and Home Affairs

2. I – Context and key figures

3. Figures on legal migration towards the EU • 2.3 million first residence permits issued each year by Member States (2008-2013) • Purposes for migration: • Family (31%) • Work (24%) • Studies (21%) • Others (23%) • 80 % of migrants are of working age

4. Integration of migrants: context • 20 million third-country nationals in the EU in 2014: 4% of EU population • Composition of migrants' population in terms of origin countries and migrant category (labour, family, refugees) varies strongly across EU Member States. • Integration outcomes influenced by both composition of migrant population and MS policy approach on integration.

5. Integration of migrants: context (2) • Unfavourable outcomes compared to natives in terms of employment, social inclusion and other areas: • Lower employment than host-country nationals (53% vs 65%) • Even larger gaps among women and among those with tertiary education • Much larger risk of poverty and social exclusion (49% vs 23%) • Larger share of low-education (44% vs 23%) • But a rising share of tertiary educated in flows since 2008 (35% in 2009-2014 compared to 23% in 2003-08)

6. Refugees' integration • Asylum applicants in EU-28: • Rising recognition rate due to origins of asylum seekers • Increasing share of refugees in the migrant population residing in the EU  further key challenge for integration • Only a few Member States have long-standing experience in integrating specifically refugees

7. Labour market integration takes more time for refugees Employment rate by immigrant categories and duration of stay in European OECD countries, 2008 Source: Based on EU-LFS 2008 module. Extracted from OECD, Is this humanitarian migration crisis different? September 2015

8. II – The legal framework of EU policy in the fields of legal migration and integration

9. Treaty basis for actions on legal migration: Art. 79 TFEU • Area of shared competence • Objectives of the immigration policy of the EU: • Efficient management of migration flows at EU level • Fair treatment of third-country nationals residing legally in Member States • Combatting irregular immigration and trafficking in human beings • Volumes of admission of third-country nationals coming for work can be determined by Member States

10. The EU legal migration acquis: a sectorial approach • Family reunification (2003)  right for legally residing third-country nationals to be joined by at least spouse and minor children • Long-term residents (2003)  granting a prioritised status after 5 years of residence • Students (2004) and Researchers (2005) (recast directive bringing these categories together to be adopted soon)  tailored admission conditions and rights for multiple categories of migrants: students, researchers, trainees, pupils, volunteers, au pairs • Highly qualified workers – 'Blue Card' (2009, proposal for a new directive expected in 2016)  attractive scheme for skilled workers • Single permit (2011)  one procedure and one permit for residence and work, equal treatment rights for workers • Seasonal workers (2014)  providing an admission scheme and specific protection for seasonal workers • Intra-corporate transferees – ICT (2014)  scheme for managers, experts and trainees transferred to the EU by non-EU employers

11. Legal framework for integration The EU has limited competence in the area of integration (Art. 79.4) • Provide support for the action of Member States • Excludes any harmonisation of the laws and regulations of the Member States in that field Further action is made necessary by: • Growing numbers of refugees arriving in the EU, many with particular integration challenges • Heterogeneous Member States policies and practices regarding integration

12. EU cooperation on integration • Common Basic Principles (2004) • European Agenda for Integration (2011) • National Contact Points on Integration • European Migration Forum

13. EU cooperation on integration (2) • European Website on Integration • Handbooks & Modules on Integration

14. EU Indicators of Immigration Integration • Common indicators in the field of employment, education, social inclusion and active citizenship • Adoptedin 2010 through Council Conclusions • Following pilot studywith Eurostat • Available on specific Eurostat webpagehttp://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/migrant-integration/data/database • and in Joint report with OECD

15. EU Funds Supporting capacity building of national and local administrations and self-empowerment actions for legally residing migrants • Asylum Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) • ESI Funds • Other funding instruments such as Erasmus +, Horizon etc Synergies can be developed to between these instruments between • - content/categories of actions • - regional coverage and impact • - target groups and sustainability Joint meeting between the Finnish administrations and the Commission on 4 May 2016 to develop administrative processes

16. III – Future initiatives of the EU in the field of legal migration and integration

17. What next? 'European Agenda on Migration' in May 2015: New policy on legal migration • Legal migration as a key factor contributing to EU growth and competitiveness Communication of 6 April 2016: Enhancing legal avenues to Europe • More proactive labour market policy to attract the necessary skills and talents • Effective integration of legally residing third-country nationals

18. Main planned initiatives • Review of the Blue Card • Action Plan on Integration • Measures to attract and support innovative entrepreneurs • Enhanced cooperation with third countries • Working towards better migration management

19. Review of the Blue Card • Main challenges to be addressed: • Low number of permits issued to highly skilled workers across the EU • Nearly 90% of Blue Cards issued by one Member State • Competition with national schemes • Restrictive admission criteria • Limited rights - especially intra-EU mobility - compared to the more recent directives (for ICTs, researchers) • Target: a harmonised but flexible scheme to attract highly skilled workers and improve the competitiveness of the EU in the global race for talent • New directive proposal is expected this spring

20. Action Plan on Integration • For all third-country nationals, but some refugee-specific actions • Cross-cutting approach: contribution by all COM services • Funding synergies • Individual approach, 5 integration phases: • Pre-departure/pre-arrival • Early integration • Education and vocational training • Labour market integration • Social inclusion and active participation • Expected this spring

21. Other initiatives • Attracting innovative entrepreneurs to the EU: potential EU-wide rules on admission, but also support measures • Strengthening third-country cooperation building on the Valletta Action Plan, potentially including: • Pooling of offers on the EU side on legal migration • Pilot projects on facilitating the recognition of qualifications in certain sectors/professions • Increasing the number of scholarships within the Erasmus+ programme • Support for pre-departure measures and public employment services

22. Other initiatives (2) • Working towards a more coherent and effective legal migration management model • REFIT evaluation of the existing legal migration instruments to identify possible inconsistencies and gaps • Study on a possible EU mechanism to improve (a) transparency and (b) matching between employers and potential migrants •  inspired by international models based on pre-selection and pooling of candidates

23. Questions? DG Home Affairs – European Commission: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/index_en.html European Migration Network: www.emn.europa.eu European Website on Integration: https://ec.europa.eu/migrant-integration/ EU Immigration Portal: http://ec.europa.eu/immigration