Why Europe needs to open its doors for labour migration

Developing the debate on migration in Challenge
Europe Nigel Harris argues on
the European Policy Centre website that a
sustainable immigration policy is both essential for Europe’s
economic development and a potentially important tool in the fight
against global poverty. Overly restrictive immigration controls in
many EU Member States disrupt circular patterns of migration and
discourage immigrants from returning to their homes, thus denying
remittances and labour to developing countries while aggravating
social tensions within European societies.

In mid-January, Franco Frattini, the new European Commissioner
for Justice and Home Affairs, issued a green paper on immigration.
The purpose of the exercise was to initiate a six month long
discussion on how to establish conditions and rules – without
infringing upon the sovereign prerogatives of Member States – for
legal economic migration into Europe “in order to fight illegal
immigration.” 

It is an attempt to establish some order, equity and
transparency governing the expected inflow of workers to the EU
over the two decades following 2010. It is now becoming clear what
the cost might be of not allowing this type of inflow; projections
by the ILO suggest the decline in the native-born workforce could
lead to a reduction in European per capita incomes by more than one
fifth. 

Mr Frattini’s paper is a brave attempt but given its current
prospects, it is, like so many efforts to establish common policies
in this field, likely to fail. This is a particularly unpromising
time since there are, at worst, significant xenophobic tendencies
are prevalent in much of Europe and an agonising reappraisal of the
benefits and costs of immigration is taking place in many Member
States. In such a context, it would be almost electoral suicide for
governments to concede any say in determining who should enter
their sovereign territory to the European Commission. 

Unfortunately, migrants are not just workers needed to
strengthen the shrinking domestic labour forces – they are not
faceless imports of goods or capital. They are people who may
demand, as a condition of their work, acceptance into to the
national electorate, thus changing the composition of the
population, its supposed culture and the definition of its
interests. For some, the very nation itself is threatened, as if
immigrants were an invading army. No wonder governments err on the
side of caution. 

An incoherent governance 

However, while politicians delay, events move much faster than
the public discussion, and governments are, on a daily basis,
making decisions which add up to a regime of governance, a system
of migration management, no matter how incoherent or ad hoc it may
be. Some are much braver than others. 

To read the full text of the article, visit the European Policy Centre website.