The ETUC is in favour of a comprehensive policy at EU level on migration, integration and development, offering legal channels for migration at all skills levels, while at the same time rigorously applying and enforcing labour standards and guaranteeing equal treatment with local workers.

Said ETUC General Secretary John Monks: “Immigration cannot be an easy solution for dealing with labour market shortages and demographic change. The social partners must be involved in assessing real labour market needs, and investment in training of unemployed workers – including those from a migrant or minority ethnic background – is a first priority. We will also have to make jobs in sectors where there are shortages more attractive to the locally unemployed in terms of wages and working conditions.”

On the proposal to introduce a ‘Blue Card’ for highly skilled migrants, the ETUC has doubts about splitting off ‘those we want’ and ‘those we do not want’, which can in practice be difficult to define.

For the ETUC, equal treatment in terms of wages, working conditions and contracts for migrants is a key issue, and any proposal to facilitate admission of certain groups of workers should be based on this principle, while also offering migrants and their families opportunities to integrate in our societies. They should not be second-class citizens.

The ETUC will carefully study the Commission proposals, and work closely with the European Institutions to improve them where necessary. We will also discuss these questions with European employers’ organisations.