How can labor migration policies help tackle Europe’s looming skills crisis? Policy brief for the Horizon Europe project Global Strategy for Skills, Migration and Development (GS4S)

The policy brief forms part of the Horizon Europe project Global Strategy for Skills, Migration and Development (GS4S), grant number 101132377. The policy brief explores how EU actions on legal migration could help address pressing skills shortages across EU Member States. It draws primarily on qualitative research, including legal analysis of EU legislation and policies, a desk review, and key informant interviews with stakeholders involved in designing and implementing recent EU-funded mobility schemes. This research was informed by two GS4S working papers, on what role mobility schemes can play in addressing skills shortages in Europe, and on efforts to address skills shortages across policy domains. The research explores opportunities to better use EU labour migration policies, including through legislative action (such as a skills and migration ‘omnibus’ that makes horizontal reforms across several directives), refocusing EU-funded mobility schemes, and supporting greater policy coherence between interventions on labour migration and other skills investments. The Migration Policy Institute Europe is the rightsholder of the publication and its underlying data.