Policy recommendations

  • To address the internal push factors for migration, the EU should provide adequate assistance to developing countries and achieve the target of 0.7% of GDP for development cooperation. It should help developing countries to devise effective strategies to retain highly skilled workers, e.g. through development programmes aimed at improving local employment opportunities and working conditions. This is especially necessary in the health sector.
  • The EU should provide targeted investments to train, deploy and retain staff in developing countries who are working in sensitive sectors such as education and health. The EU should also provide long-term budgetary support to underpin the domestic financing of those sectors.
  • The EU should ensure that all its member states sign a legally binding commitment one that includes the private sector in order to prevent active recruitment in developing countries. Such a code of practice should address country- or region-specific needs. Furthermore, in order to ensure compliance, the EU should set up a formally constituted body with an oversight and watchdog role in the EU and developing countries.
  • To prevent a negative impact on source countries, the EU should introduce concrete measures to encourage the permanent return of Blue Card holders. Within the EU the portability of social rights should be facilitated. In developing countries, migrants should be offered benefits in order to encourage their return.
  • If the EU attracts workers whose education and training have been provided by their home countries, then these countries of origin should be appropriately compensated for having provided these skills. 
  • The EU should encourage its member states to strengthen their own (national) workforce policies in all sectors in order to become less dependent on foreign workers from less developed countries.

Case: Blue Card

02-09-2008 EVF publishes an article on migration in the European Voice

2 September 2008

On the 28th of August a  comment on the “Blue Card” proposal by the directors of the Evert Vermeer Foundation and Wemos was published in the European Voice. Below the comment  as it has been published. The European Commission is proposing to introduce a ‘Blue Card’ similar to the American ‘Green Card’, in an attempt to attract highly skilled personnel from other parts of the world to the European labour market.

On August the 25th  the draft opinion on the Blue Card proposal formulated by MEP Danute Budreikaite (ALDE) was voted on within the Development Committee of the European Parliament. Most amendments aimed at reducing the negative effects of the Blue card were adopted by the Committee Members. The Committee on Civil liberties, Justice and Home affairs (LIBE), also proposed further amendments to the proposal. On the 4th of November these amendments will be voted on within the LIBE committee, after which the draft report on the blue card will be finalized and sent back to the Commission to become law. 
 

An EU migration policy that is far from coherent

The European Union is proposing to introduce a ‘Blue Card’ similar to the American ‘Green Card’, in an attempt to attract highly skilled personnel from other parts of the world to the European labour market. On 8 and 9 September, the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs will finalize its report on the proposal. We think the current plans disregard the interests of developing countries.

Many African countries are faced with a labour shortage as a result of migration. The ‘brain drain’ is particularly bad in sectors such as education and health care, and is therefore a major obstacle to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Zambia, for example, can train only 50 doctors per year and does everything in its power to persuade them to remain in Zambia.

More than a year ago, the European Union adopted a special action plan to help combat the shortage of healthcare personnel in developing countries. The introduction of the EU ‘Blue Card’ is diametrically opposed to this plan, and is expected to exacerbate the shortage of health workers in developing countries.

Europe must look within its own borders for the solution to its labour shortage, and should not attempt to solve the problem by luring highly skilled staff away from developing countries. In addition, it is important that European development aid is used to strengthen the health sector in developing countries. This will mean that doctors and nurses seeking a better future will not need to look to Europe, and health will be within everyone’s reach.

Peter Heintze and Cily Keizer, directors
Evert Vermeer Foundation and Wemos Foundation
Amsterdam