Labour market integration of third country nationals: key learnings

Webinar

07 October 2024

By Platform

On 1 October, the Policy Learning Platform hosted a webinar on labour market integration of third country nationals.

Explore the recording, key learnings and presentations below.

Webinar agenda

Navigate the agenda below to the topic of your interest.

The webinar has been designed and moderated by Mart Veliste and Erik Gløersen, Thematic Experts for a more social Europe.

00:00:58 Introduction by Mart Veliste and Erik Gløersen

00:09:08: Keynote speech by Marcel Stumpf, Saxon State Ministry for Economic Affairs, Labour and Transport, MILEstone project, about the good practice “Labour market mentors Saxony”, Germany

00:29:50: Q&A: When you mention other inmigrants, do you refer to Undocumented migrants?

00:31:43: Q&A: Is the mentor program also for newcomers who want to start their own business (entrepreneurship) or was it mainly geared towards participation on the regular labour market?

00:34:36: Presentation by Oana OSANU, Maramureș County Employment Agency, about the good practice “Specific activities for the labour market integration of Ukrainian refugees, in Maramures,” Romania

00:50:20: Q&A: Which of the events or initiatives you've been involved in had the greatest impact in helping Ukrainian people find employment?

00:51:43: Q&A: How does the moving of population between the two countries impact your work?

00:56:04: Presentation by Alexander Grit, MILEstone project, about the good practice “Plan Einstein: living, learning and working together”, The Netherlands

1:09:56: Q&A: What was the main takeaways from the events and initiatives you organised?

1:12:10: Q&A: What kind of refugees/asylum seekers were mostly involved in these courses (from perspective of citizenship/ country)?

1:12:43: Q&A: Do you have a filtring process to make sure this stays a positive experience for everyone?

1:14:54: Q&A: How do you work with cultural differencies when supporting creation of social bonds among locals and migrants?

1:16:07: Panel discussion

Key learnings

Migration reasons and migrant’s needs for support are very individual

Support programmes have more success when they can cater to such needs flexibly and provide tailored support or support pathways, instead of expecting all migrants to go through the same programme in a similar sequence and time frame. To do that successfully various authorities within the governance structures need to have a smooth collaboration with each other as well as with the third sector.

When designing labour market integration interventions, it is important to also work on the employer side.

It is not enough to upskill the migrants. An effort is needed to raise awareness among employers and provide them with advice and guidance on how to integrate newcomers into the company. Furthermore, the local government is able to map companies and identify potential vacancies to offer jobs to refugees in a coordinated way.

One of the core challenges regarding labour market integration is the mismatch between migrants’ skills and local job markets.

The migrants can often be very qualified but struggle to find employment either due to a lack of local language skills or because their credentials are not recognized due to incompatibility in certificate recognition. One short-term solution is to design legislative exceptions to professions where there is a dire shortage in the local labour market, e.g. doctors, nurses, social care workers, etc.

While national governments develop migration policies, integration happens at the local level.

City and municipal governments play a crucial role in the reception and integration of asylum seekers in local communities by providing services and engaging with diverse communities as well as mitigating tensions between these communities. The power of local communities in supporting the integration process should not be underestimated.

Integration, including engagement with the labour market to gain practical experience, should start immediately from day one.

By starting the process early, both challenges and successes can be addressed in real-time, ensuring a smoother and more adaptive integration process. Even if the individual moves on to another Member State or returns home then there have been positive social benefits for the individual as well as the hosting societies.

To successfully integrate migrants to the society and labour market there should be positive interventions within existing programmes.

Instead of building new programmes and structures from scratch, collaboration needs to be set up with already existing non-profit associations and initiatives. For example, if there is already an “introduction to entrepreneurship” course offered to (foreign) students then it would also be beneficial to make that course open to refugees instead of creating a stand-alone programme.