Europe
Recent Activity
The Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA) and Europe appear to be an ideal demographic match: the former has a large supply of young, active workers, and the latter has a shortage of the youthful, skilled or unskilled labor it needs to sustain its economic competitiveness. MENA is the source of 20 million first-generation migrants, half of them now living in another MENA country and most of the rest in Europe. The region also hosts around the same number within its borders. In addition, the size of MENA’s working-age population will continue to rise sharply in the next two decades while the corresponding segment of the population in Europe will soon start to decline.
This report examines the advantages and disadvantages of two fundamentally different approaches to economic migrant selection—demand driven and employer led systems and human-capital-accumulation focused and government led systems, best illustrated by “points systems,” which apportion numerical values to desirable human-capital characteristics.
This report provides a global look at circular migration experiences, depicts various governments’ attempts at creating circular migration, evaluates the economic costs and benefits of circular migration for sending and receiving countries, identifies components of effective bilateral agreements, and reviews outcomes governments might realistically expect from their circular migration policies.
This brief takes a look at hometown associations (HTAs)—immigrant organizations based on a common hometown—and their often overlooked function as integration intermediaries in their country of destination.
This report examines the immigration regimes of European nations, particularly those with points systems and “shortage lists,” and highlights the flaws of such systems which base selection on formal indictors of applicants’ educational qualifications, work experience, previous salary, and occupation.
This report examines granting local voting rights in municipal elections to resident non-nationals.
More than half of all the states in the world, countries of immigration as well as emigration, now tolerate some form or element of dual citizenship. This report goes beyond statistical trends to the heart of these changes and how best to think through the policy answers.
Why the European Labor Market Integration of Displaced Ukrainians Is Defying Expectations
People displaced from Ukraine are finding work more rapidly in European countries than prior refugee cohorts. But uncertainty over how long they will stay, combined with hurdles such as language barriers, has meant many are prioritizing any job over the right job. This commentary examines how policymakers could address this waste of skills as they seek to fill pressing labor needs and facilitate deeper integration of the new arrivals.