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Labour migration in the Baltic Sea Countries – trends and prospects
In the light of technological developments, the EU integration processes and the globalization of the labour market, international migration in the Baltic Sea region is today more diverse, more rapidly changing and more challenging than ever before. The expert seminar Labour migration in the Baltic Sea countries: trends and prospects took a closer look at the challenges posed by international migration within the context of regional migration issues, with a special focus on labour migration.
The expert seminar held in Vilnius, Lithuania was the third of four seminars arranged within the project Migration as a part of a policy for increased competitiveness, funded by the Swedish Institute and comprising a cooperation between think tanks and research institutes working with migration and integration in the Baltic Sea region.
The seminar was arranged in collaboration with the Nordic Council of Ministers’ Vilnius section.
“It was clear that our hosts, the Lithuanian Social Research Center, had succeeded in reaching the key actors concerned with the invitation to the expert seminar. In the packed hall of the Lithuanian Parliament were not only representatives of think tanks from across the Baltic Sea region, but also trade unionists, activists, parliamentarians and researchers” noted Lisa Pelling, programme manager at Global Challenge.
Expert voices
“You can’t separate the issues of labour migration and labour” reminded us Dr. Tadas Leončikas, research manager at Eurofound, underlining that the general working conditions had to be at the center of the discussions for the day.
Prof. Charles Woolfson, REMESO (Linkoping University) spoke about migration as it relates to austerity in the Baltic states. He identified a growing dislocation between the powerholders and the powerless in society and posed the question: How do we make Lithuania a livable country?
“There is a need for a new social contract, Lithuania needs to compete at the high end, it should not to be competing with China in terms of low-skilled labour. We have seen what new liberalism gets us: crisis and austerity. The way forward has to be a reaffirmation of collectivist values and social solidarity” said Woolfson.
“The EU enlargement has been a huge issue to trade unions, and it can bring out the best and worst in them” said Kjell Skjaervo of the Norwegian United Federation of Trade Unions. He stressed that Polish and Baltic migrant workers abroad suffer from severe lack of representation and advocacy.
Jan Niessen, Director of the Migration Policy Group, Brussels presented the MIPEX integration index and demonstrated that international cooperation has paid off: “Together we lift the standard. The better a country complies with EU standards, the higher it scored on the MIPEX.”
In day’s final keynote speech Anna Platonova, Regional Labour Migration/Migration and Development Specialist at the IOM said that there is a tendency in migration policy today of micro-managing too much and trying to impose very detailed processed based solely on statistical data. Instead focus should lie on mapping shortages. “Stop micro-managing and help the employers, with a view to ensure that migrants can have a job not just now but also in ten years.”
The panels brought together participants from Nordregio, the Lithuanian Social research Centre, the Department of Sociology at Vilnius University, the Institute of Political Science and Governance at Tallinn University, Latvian think-tank Providus, the Institute of Baltic Studies in Estonia, the Institute of Social Policy at the University of Warsaw and Vytautas Magnus University in Lithuania. Moderators were Global Challenge’s programme manager for migration and integration Lisa Pelling and András Kováts, director of Menedék – the Hungarian Association for Migrants.
The presentations can be found here:
