Shaping Migration Strategies
Patterns – Practices – Policies
September 2007
On 19 and 20 September 2007, eight EQUAL Development Partnerships have once
more shown that transnational cooperation can bring the debate on asylum and
migration to a higher level. Started by the Transnational Partnership "The
Alliance", but soon joined by other enthusiastic EQUAL projects and supported by
several European parliamentarians strongly committed to the cause, the partners
organised a very successful conference in the Brussels premises of
the European Parliament.
Key speakers included Ruud Lubbers, former Prime Minister of the Netherlands
and former High Commissioner of UNHCR, Franco Frattini, Vice President of the
European Commission and Commissioner responsible for Justice, Freedom
and Security and Vladimir Špidla, Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs
and Equal Opportunities.
Ruud Lubbers argued that it was time to "get beyond our fear". Migration can
bring a "triple win", i.e. to the new country, the country of origin and the
individual migrant, but Europe's politicians insist on rejecting and returning
newcomers. This was an unsustainable situation in the light of our rapidly
ageing population and the strong growth of the Knowledge Economy. Franco Frattini fully agreed with Ruud Lubber's viewpoint, and introduced several
policy initiatives that his Directorate would put forward in the coming months
to make the European Union a more attractive destination for legal migration.
These included the introduction of legislative measures to improve the basic
socio-economic rights of third country nationals and specific measures to
facilitate the admission of highly skilled migrants, to be followed by proposals
for the admission of seasonal workers, remunerated trainees and intra-corporate
transferees. He stressed that policy development should take a long-term
approach, preparing for what would happen in the next 10-15 years.
Vladimir Špidla emphasised that migrants opened the door to cultural diversity
and enrichment. He asked the audience where countries with a strong economy,
such as Germany and the UK, would be today without their migrant workforce and
stressed that the EU could only develop globally by accepting newcomers. He
indicated that the European Social Fund had an important role to play with
regard to the integration and labour market access of migrants, as €1.4 billion
are allocated to actions to assist migrants and a further 9 billion destined to
assist disadvantaged groups in general. Finally, Dirk van den Boom, evaluator of
several EQUAL partnerships, confronted the audience with the shocking
differences that still exist between the Member States with regard to the
reception of asylum seekers, as well as their access to education, training and
employment.
Links
- Preliminary information and starting document:
- The speech of Franco Frattini :
- The press release after the conference:
- "The Alliance", Transnational Partnership's website
- The conference website:
- New - 26/09/2007 : Parliament adopts priorities on legal
and illegal immigration policies:
- New - 30/09/2007 :
Joint response of projects and stakeholders involved EQUAL to the
Green paper on the future of the Common European Asylum System
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