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Challenges and opportunities in the socio-economic inclusion of mobile EU workers

Challenges and opportunities in the socio-economic inclusion of mobile EU workers in four EU cities Frankfurt, Leeds, Milan and Rotterdam Advisory Committee for the Coordination of Social Security Systems 23 October 2015 Andrea Pontiroli DG Employment, Social affairs and Inclusions

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Challenges and opportunities in the socio-economic inclusion of mobile EU workers

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  1. Challenges and opportunities in the socio-economic inclusion of mobile EU workers in four EU cities Frankfurt, Leeds, Milan and Rotterdam Advisory Committee for the Coordination of Social Security Systems 23 October 2015 Andrea Pontiroli DG Employment, Social affairs and Inclusions Free Movement of Workers, Coordination of Social Security Schemes

  2. Purpose of the study • Provision of information on challenges and opportunities • Four surveys in four EU cities: Frankfurt, Leeds, Milan, Rotterdam • Significant presence of recently arrived mobile EU workers • Criteria for the choice of the cities • Informing the debate

  3. Scope of the study • Challenges for the inclusion of mobile EU workers in local society and/or labour market • Opportunities for their inclusion in local society and/or labour market

  4. Study questions • Challenges and opportunities faced by mobile EU workers • Challenges and opportunities faced by local community • Specific challenges and opportunities faced by local workers • Policies and solutions

  5. General findings (1) • mobile EU workers represent a very diverse population, ranging from the highly skilled globalised professionals to workers taking up temporary contracts in low-skilled jobs; • mobile EU workers can benefit the local economy by bringing entrepreneurial energy, purchasing good and services, and helping revitalising the housing market;

  6. General findings (2) • the sudden arrival of high volumes of mobile EU workers in the four cities has posed some challenges, often related to broader challenges affecting urban areas: • shortage of affordable (rental) housing; • financial pressure on local services in the context of austerity measures;

  7. General findings (3) • there is no evidence suggesting that mobile EU workers are intensive users of local services (though there is a perception that this is the case amongst some local service providers); • the challenge of having to cater for mobile EU workers has prompted some services to improve the dissemination of information to the public.

  8. Mobile EU workers: challenges • Language barriers • Access to quality and affordable housing • Recognition of qualifications • Exposure to worse conditions / exploitation (risk) • Being hired at lower qualification level • Access to information on social and health services (Frankfurt and Rotterdam) • Poor matching mechanism of labour supply and demand (Milan)

  9. Mobile EU workers: opportunities • Job opportunities • Access to good quality local public services

  10. Local workers: challenges • Pressure on local wages and working conditions (perception), notably in the low-skilled segment segment of the labour force (and the long-term unemployed to some extent) • Flexibilisation of the labour market and impact on power relations between employers and employees in some sectors (Rotterdam)

  11. Local workers: opportunities • Local workers benefit from EU migration in terms of greater overall business competitiveness and economic growth (Frankfurt, Milan and Rotterdam) • New market of services and good for mobile EU workers/citizens generates business opportunities and new jobs (Leeds and Rotterdam)

  12. Local community: challenges • Tensions within local communities • Related to spatial segregation of groups of low-income mobile EU workers/citizens in specific areas (Milan and Rotterdam) • At work, in schools and in the streets (Leeds) • Pressure on housing (rental) market • Limited evidence of pressure on health services • Schools • Leeds: concerns about deterioration of quality of education • Rotterdam: irregular inflow/outflow

  13. Local community: opportunities • Greater cultural diversity and variety of available products, goods and services • Entrepreneurial energy of arriving mobile EU workers • Offsetting negative effects of an ageing population (Rotterdam) • Improvement in local services and simplified administrative procedures as a consequence of adapting to the presence of migrant EU workers (Rotterdam) • Improved networking between public institutions (Milan)

  14. Recommendations • Balanced /integrated approach to EU labour migration encompassing both challenges and opportunities • Increase knowledge by local authorities / recognition of diversity in order to design more tailor-made interventions for the socio-economic inclusion of mobile EU citizens + involvement of key stakeholders • Specific initiatives • Expansions of language training provisions • Setting up one-stop-shops • Facilitate recognition of qualifications • Combat labour exploitation by monitoring sectors at risk + info to workers • Improve access to housing

  15. The four studies and the synthesis report are available on the Commission's website: http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?langId=en&catId=89&newsId=2311&furtherNews=yes Comments? Questions? Thank you!

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