Business and unions call for 'open' EU

Sverker Rudeberg, the chairman of Businesseurope's Immigration Working Group, did away with the popular notion that immigration of third-country nationals jeopardises the employment of the local workforce. He stressed that employers seek new workers within widening concentric circles, exaplining how if they cannot find a worker to fill in a vacancy locally, they first look regionally, then nationally, Europe-wide and eventually worldwide. 

Thus Rudeberg said he wants a signal to be sent out to third countries that the European Union is not xenophobic. He argued that legal immigration possibilities can help fight illegal immigration, which is what follows when the demands of the local labour market cannot be met legally. But "businesses prefer not to have undocumented migrants," Rudeberg said. 

He concluded: "To prosper in the future, we must have an adequate system to manage migration," expressing his indignation that there is still no framework for legal immigration at European level and that immigrant workers who want to move from one country to another, for example within a transnational European company, face major difficulties.  

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC)'s confederal secretary, Catalene Passchier, highlighted the responsibility of governments who, as she said, often exploit dormant fears of migrant workers for populist policies. She said it is thus important for trade unions to take a clear position: "We don't believe in closed borders. We don't believe that closing borders protects workers."

Passchier referred to ongoing discussions with respect to the EU Blue Card, where there is a tendency to favour temporary or 'circular' migration over permanent immigration. She stated: "Temporary migration cannot replace permanent immigration. It will always be less attractive for some workers." 

Addressing the French Presidency and its initiative to foster high-skilled immigration while curbing the low-skilled equivalent, she asked: "Is it possible? Is it desirable?" She provided the answer herself: "We also need lower-skilled workers - eight million irregular workers, mostly in the low-skilled sector, prove this."

But she pointed out that the cross-border competition for low wages that has emerged within Europe - which has led to wages for tomato pickers of as low as €2 per hour - is becoming "a major problem". 

In the eyes of trade unions, another problem is the confusion between the free movement of services and free movement of people, where rules on services tend to be abused, leading to the deterioration of social standards. Passchier said: "Movement of labour-only services is movement of workers and should be covered by rules applying to workers' mobility." 

Air France's Emmanuel Jahan, speaking on behalf of CEEP, Europe's public employers organisation, pointed out that beyond well-known problems such as the lack of mobility among the EU population (only 2% are considered mobile), language and differences in legal systems and pensions, employers also face huge challenges with respect to immigrant workers' legal status. A key issue is that in many member states the law obliges them to verify themselves whether a worker has proper legal status within that country. 

With respect to the portability of pensions, Jahan said: "EU member states have not even been able to sort that out among themselves, so I am afraid it will take a long time before we can envisage a solution for immigrant workers."