BRUSSELS — The fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic has led to Europe’s largest one-year economic contraction since the Second World War. While historically large investments by EU governments in job retention measures have temporarily cushioned the blow, this also means the full labor market effects of the crisis remain to be seen. What is clear is that the pandemic has exacerbated the labor market challenges already facing some migrant groups, including recently arrived refugees, migrant women and those with limited digital literacy.
As Europe plans for the post-pandemic recovery, strategic efforts will be crucial to reverse disruptions to migrant integration and heightened labor market vulnerabilities, a new Migration Policy Institute Europe study finds. The report, Taking the Long View: Options for Inclusive Post-Pandemic Labor Markets, examines the factors that have contributed to the precarious situation of many migrants and refugees in Europe and offers recommendations for incorporating these groups into the post-pandemic workforce.
At the outset of the public health crisis, many European governments quickly took steps to protect migrants from the most immediate risks, including by introducing temporary regularization schemes, granting temporary labor migrants more leeway to switch jobs and sectors, giving asylum seekers faster access to work and easing third country nationals’ access to income support and health care. Yet, longer-term recovery planning must take into account how trends such as automation, digitalization and atypical work are transforming European economies—and how these trends may have been accelerated by the pandemic.
The report offers the following suggestions for policymakers to protect and advance migrants’ economic inclusion in a context of labor market transformation:
"Without careful management, the crisis may turn back the clock on hard-fought progress in newcomer integration, erode talent pools that may take a long time to rebuild and fuel inequality and social tensions in diverse societies for decades to come," MPI Europe Policy Analyst Liam Patuzzi writes. "In this context of urgency, however, integration, employment and education policymakers must not fall prey to a tradeoff trap—jeopardizing long-term strategies for the benefit of short-term stopgaps."
The report is the latest from MPI Europe’s Integration Futures Working Group, which brings together policymakers and experts, civil-society officials and private-sector leaders to create a platform for long-term strategic and creative thinking. The Working Group is supported by the Robert Bosch Stiftung.
Read the report here: www.migrationpolicy.org/research/inclusive-post-pandemic-labor-markets.
And earlier ones in the Integration Futures series can be found here: www.migrationpolicy.org/programs/integration-futures-working-group.