April 2024
On Friday 12 April 2024, the Council of the European Union adopted the revised Single Permit Directive which defines the procedure for obtaining a single permit to work and reside in the EU with a common set of rights for third-country workers. The revision provides for a shortened application procedure and aims to strengthen the rights of third-country workers by allowing a change of employer and a limited period of unemployment.
Main Theme: Economic migration
Keywords: single permit directive, recast
March 2024
As labour and skills shortages have been increasing and are expected to continue rising over the coming decades in all EU Member States, the European Commission published an action plan setting out key measures that the EU, Member States and social partners should take in the short to medium term to address this challenge.
Main Theme: Economic migration
Keywords: labour shortage, skills shortage, social partner, labour market integration, skills development, intra EU mobility, talent partnership
January 2024
Today, the Parliament of the Brussels Capital Region adopted in plenary session an ordinance relating to economic migration. The objective is to modernize, make coherent and simplify the current texts, to better respond to labour shortages identified in the job market.
Main Theme: Economic migration
Keywords: labour market shortage, shortage occupation, Brussels, foreign workers
November 2023
The European Migration Network (EMN) held a two-day conference titled ‘Shaping the future of EU legal migration: where are we and where do we want to go?’. The event was part of Spain’s current presidency of the Council of the EU, with a focus on legal migration strategies to attract the talent and skills needed from abroad.
Main Theme: Economic migration
Keywords: talent partnership, talent mobility, skills recognition, EU Talent Pool, labour shortage
November 2023
The Commission is today presenting a Skills and Talent Mobility package to make the EU more attractive to talent from outside the EU and to facilitate mobility within it. Today's measures include a new EU Talent Pool to match employers in the EU with jobseekers in third countries, as well as measures to promote the recognition of qualifications and learner's mobility.
Main Theme: Economic migration
Keywords: EU Talent Pool, talent partnership, skills recognition, mobility
November 2023
The European Migration Network (EMN) Glossary is an essential resource, which offers an EU-wide multidisciplinary vocabulary of approximately 500 terms and concepts related to asylum and migration. Let's focus today on the term "labour shortage" to make sure we have a common understanding and use of the term!
Main Theme: Economic migration
Keywords: labour shortage, labour market access
October 2023
The 2023 Innovation Awards were awarded at the IOM Global Chiefs of Missions Meeting (GCOMM) in Istanbul on 25 October 2023. In the category "Regular Pathways", Displaced Talent for Europe (DT4E), which facilitates skilled migration for displaced talent to respond to labour market shortages, was acknowledged as the changemaker.
Main Theme: Economic migration
Keywords: regular pathway, skilled migrants, displaced person, labour market shortage
September 2023
The European Migration Network (EMN) Belgium was at the European Parliament today for a presentation on “The Power of Labour Mobility Pilot Projects to Support the EU Legal Migration Reform”, organised by the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD).
Main Theme: Economic migration
Keywords: labour mobility, pilot project, Migration Partnership Facility
September 2023
Flanders has published a new list of medium-skilled shortage occupations open to migration which enters into force today. The new list has been adapted to the current economic reality and labor market situation - it now contains 29 positions.
Main Theme: Economic migration
Keywords: shortage occupation, labour market
August 2023
Walloon Minister-President Elio Di Rupo has written to Prime Minister Alexander De Croo to call for the regularisation of undocumented immigrants capable of working in jobs in short supply, reports L’Echo.
Main Theme: Economic migration
Keywords: labour shortage, shortage occupation, regularisation, single permit
July 2023
Myria has published the fourth thematic section of its 2023 annual report. This section entitled "Economic migration, free movement en students" reports that 8.098 long-stay visas were granted for professional reasons to third-country nationals in 2022 (46% more than in 2021) and 19.721 single permits were issued to third-country nationals in 2022 (75% more than in 2021).
Main Theme: Economic migration
Keywords: long-stay visa, single permit, posted worker, student
May 2023
The Fair Recruitment Initiative (FRI) was launched in 2014 as part of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Director General’s call for a Fair Migration Agenda. Since its launch, the FRI has been critical to ILO’s work in the area of national and international recruitment of workers.
Main Theme: Economic migration
Keywords: migrant worker, fair recruitment, fair migration agenda
March 2023
Nicole de Moor calls for an interministerial conference on labour migration to better protect and integrate migrant workers. Integration courses for this target group should be considered.
Main Theme: Economic migration
Keywords: migrant worker, Integration path, housing
March 2023
In the House of Representatives today, Nicole de Moor responded to numerous questions regarding possible fraudulent cases of applications for single permits. All involved actors, including the Flemish Region, the Federal Public Service Foreign Affairs and the Immigration Office, are now part of a working group to foster information exchange and avoid future abuses.
Main Theme: Economic migration
Keywords: single permit, fraud
May 2022
EMN Belgium, the Belgian development agency Enabel, and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Belgium & Luxembourg, organised on 1 & 2 June 2022 a (hybrid) conference on "Skills Mobility Partnerships”. Here you can find the PowerPoint presentations, the concept note, the videos and some photos of the event.
Main Theme: Economic migration
Keywords: Skills Mobility Partnerships; Labour Migration
May 2020
Border closures and quarantine rules to prevent the spreading of Covid-19 risk having a negative impact on seasonal work. To address labour shortages in the agricultural and horticultural sectors, the federal and regional governments decided to adopt a series of measures in the spring of 2020.
Main Theme: Economic migration
Keywords: seasonal labour
November 2019
This report provides a broad overview of recent trends in international migration flows and migration policies in OECD countries and some non-OECD countries.
Main Theme: Economic migration
Keywords: OECD
October 2019
The conference 'From Tampere 20 to Tampere 2.0: Towards a new programme (2020-2024) for EU migration and asylum policies 20 years after the Tampere conclusions?' was held in Helsinki on the 24th and the 25th of October.
Main Theme: Cross-sectional, Integration, External Dimension, International Protection, Economic migration, Irregular Migration
Keywords: Dublin Regulation, CEAS, EMN Annual Conference
September 2018
This report provides a broad overview of recent trends in international migration flows and migration policies in OECD countries and some non-OECD countries.
Main Theme: Economic migration
Keywords: migration flows
May 2018
In 2018, the European Migration Network (EMN) celebrates its 10 year anniversary. On this occasion, the EMN organized a conference on 15 May in Brussels.
March 2018
Following the adoption of the Cooperation Agreement on the Single Permit Procedure on 2 February 2018, different legislative texts have been adopted at the federal and regional levels in March 2018 to approve this Cooperation Agreement.
Main Theme: Economic migration
Keywords: single permit directive
November 2017
A joint European Migration Network & OECD event exploring the topics of family migration and illegal employment took place in Brussels on 9 November 2017.
Main Theme: Economic migration, Family reunification, Irregular Migration
Keywords: EMN conference
October 2017
On the 26th of October 2017 the general policy note on asylum and migration of the State Secretary for Asylum and Migration was published. The policy note provides an overview of the main achievements and priorities in the field of asylum and migration.
October 2017
Today, the Belgian National Contact Point of the European Migration Network organized an event in Brussels to discuss the irregular employment of third country nationals.
Main Theme: Economic migration, Irregular Migration, Return & Readmission
Keywords: illegal employment, migrant worker
September 2017
In the framework of the Estonian Presidency of the Council, the Estonian Contact Point of the EMN organized the annual EMN conference on 21 and 22 september in Tallinn. The event gathered key stakeholders who discussed good practices and challenges in attracting and retaining talents in the EU and in the Member States.