Migrant labour key to boosting employment in the EU

Unlocking the full labour market potential of migrants

The EU is on track to reach its 2030 target of 78% employment rate among people aged 20-64. The activation of vulnerable people, including migrants, is key to closing the remaining gap. The recent European Commission report Employment and social developments in Europe 2025 notes that a total of 51 million people belonging to different vulnerable groups have the potential to enhance the EU's workforce. Out of them, 7 million are migrants.

Migrants, however, still face numerous obstacles to join the labour markets. Language barriers, difficulties with qualification recognition, discrimination, lower educational attainment, as well as added care responsibilities - especially in the case of women - all stack up against their full economic participation. The report also finds that the share of migrants with higher education excluded from the workforce is superior to that of native people. At the same time, however, highly-educated migrants express a desire to work more often than their native counterparts.

To enhance the labour prospects of migrants, the publication recommends comprehensive and tailored approaches. Such solutions can combine, for example, language training and civil orientation, as well as skills enhancement and qualification recognition. Other tools to unlock the potential of migrants include financial incentives for employers and job search assistance. Simplifying work permits by implementing the EU's single permit directive at the national level, for example, will also have a great impact. All these measures will also help attract migrant workers in sectors with acute labour shortages.

Migrant labour is already boosting Europe's economies

Migrants' contributions have already proven essential to filling in shortages and keeping the overall unemployment rate low, as stressed in another Commission report published earlier this year, Labour market and wage developments in Europe. With 2.9 million non-EU citizens in the labour force in 2023, migrants already accounted for 6% of the total EU workforce, up from just 2% in 2010.

The same report found that the number of migrant workers has also risen in certain shortage occupations where native employment rates have dropped, such as plant and machine operators.

Migrants' impactful presence in the labour market is evident on a country level, too. In Portugal, for instance, the number of foreign workers in the country has more than tripled between 2017 and 2022, with migrants' contributions to the social security system now estimated to cover 17% of the country's national pension and retirement costs. Likewise, according to the Czech ministry of labour, beneficiaries of Temporary Protection from Ukraine have over certain periods contributed more in taxes than they have received in benefits.

EU-driven actions to activate migrants' potential

Among the many initiatives taken by the EU to unlock the full labour market potential of migrants, the Commission's Action plan on integration and inclusion 2021-2027 pays special attention to optimising the procedures for the recognition of skills and qualifications obtained outside the EU.

The EU Skills Profile Tool for Third-Country Nationals also maps the skills, qualifications and experiences of migrants, providing personalised employment advice. Available in multiple languages, the tool is already used by various national integration services.

The upcoming Skills Portability Initiative will further explore possible common rules to simplify recognition of qualifications from third countries, making better use of migrants' talents. And the Fair Labour Mobility package, in addition, will ensure fair, transparent and effective labour mobility for all, including third-country nationals.

In addition, funding for migrant integration into the labour market is also provided through the Commission's Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF). In 2024, 8 new transnational projects with a wide scope were launched, including POWGEN, which works to include migrants in the renewable energy sector, WISER, which supports migrant women entrepreneurs, and INTEGRALITY, which promotes the inclusion of agricultural workers.

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EU initiatives and funding opportunities to promote migrants' labour market integration

EU integration policy