SKILLS DIMENSION OF MIGRATION: PERSPECTIVES FROM THE ETF PARTNER COUNTRIES

Transcription

1 EVENT NAME SKILLS DIMENSION OF MIGRATION: PERSPECTIVES FROM THE ETF PARTNER COUNTRIES LOCATION Hotel Marriott Grand Place, Rue Auguste Orts 3-7 / 1000 Brussels DATE(S) September 2015 SUMMARY This conference is organised as part of EU Eastern Partnership (EaP) Platform 2 dialogue, 1 focusing on six EaP countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine). It aims to promote exchange of knowledge and experiences for informed policy making among the ETF Partner Countries on how skills development and employment policies can contribute to the better management of circular migration. For mutual learning, the Southern Mediterranean countries which recently signed the Mobility Partnership agreement with the EU (Morocco, Tunisia and Jordan) and others who started or might soon start similar migration dialogue (Lebanon and Egypt) are also invited. In addition, representatives from the EU Member States, relevant EC services and institutions, the international organisations, research institutes and/or Member State agencies who work on migration and development issues are invited to the conference. The ETF partner countries are primarily emigration countries due to many factors including difficult labour market conditions. This high labour mobility across borders increasingly puts education and training systems under pressure to produce qualified human resources both for domestic and foreign labour markets. On the other hand, imperfect labour markets and asymmetric information prevents the full use of migrant skills both in countries of origin and destination. Therefore, skills development and employment policies might take migration into account for better use of potential and returning migrants at both ends of migration. 1 EaP Platform 2 is created between six Partner Countries and EU Member States to deal with economic integration and convergence with EU policies. It includes Platform and Panel meetings as well as more technical seminars and workshops with the purpose to share information and exchange best practices among its members within the Work Programme This event is organised under the work on labour market and social policies with a focus on labour migration. Final - 16 September 2015 Draftdraft

2 This conference originated within the framework of the EU external migration policy 2, linked to the Mobility Partnerships (MP) signed between the EU and Moldova (2008), Georgia (2009), Armenia (2011), Morocco (2013), Azerbaijan (2013), Tunisia (2014) and Jordan (2014). The MP negotiations with Belarus are currently ongoing, while a dialogue with Lebanon started last December and may lead to signing a MP in It is not yet clear when a dialogue with Egypt will start. Considering some of the repeated themes of the new European Agenda on Migration just published in May 3 (e.g. the need to fill skill needs, facilitating job-matching for third country nationals and recognition of migrants qualifications), shifting the attention to the skills development agenda can provide more fruitful results for migration management. A global inventory of migrant support measures from the employment and skills perspective (MISMES) and country case studies made by the ETF will be presented and discussed at the conference. In line with ETF s mandate as a specialised agency of the European Union working in transition and developing countries, the conference will particularly focus on the role of countries of origin in pre-departure preparation of potential migrants, reintegration of returnees, and the transparency and portability of skills. The ETF work proves that policy measures for improving skills utilization and skills enhancement are often the missing link, although they are key instruments to overcoming labour market integration problems and skills mismatches in both countries of origin and destination. Special attention is required to the qualifications of migrants/ returnees to make their skills more visible, readable and portable regardless of how they have been learnt (formal, non-formal, informal). Skills partnerships across the countries of origin and destination through investment in education and training systems of partner countries to improve access and quality, could be part of effective migration management strategy, especially in sectors of high labour mobility. The aim of the conference is to present and discuss successful policy measures, lessons learnt and good practices targeting migrants and returnees from the employment and skills prospective, creating a mutual learning platform for an informed policy-making. The results of ETF MISMES inventory and country case studies will be the basis of these facilitated discussions, with a particular focus given to the role of origin countries in pre- and postmigration phases (both pre-departure preparation and reintegration of returnees) and measures for transparency and portability of skills including in the VET sector. This will create a unique opportunity to share the experiences among all the European neighbourhood countries in their implementation of the Mobility Partnership with a particular focus on the link between skills development and migration. 2 EU Communication on Global Approach to Migration and Mobility (GAMM), COM (2011) 743 final. 3 EU Communication on A European Agenda on Migration, COM (2015) 240 final,

3 Day one, 15 September 2015, Tuesday Chairperson: Ms Madlen Serban, ETF Director 09:00 Registration of participants 09:30-10:15 Welcome and introduction Ms Madlen Serban, Director, European Training Foundation (ETF) Mr Detlef Eckert, Director of DG EMPL C Europe 2020: Employment Policies, European Commission Mr Simon Mordue, Director of DG NEAR A Enlargement Policy and Strategy European Commission 10:15-10:45 New European Agenda on Migration, GAMM and Mobility Partnerships, with focus on legal migration and mobility 10:45-11:15 Coffee break Mr Jeppe Kirkeskov Winkel, DG HOME A3 International Coordination, European Commission 11:15-13:00 Migrant support measures in countries of origin from an employment and skills perspective (MISMES) Why focus on skills in migration? Ms Madlen Serban, ETF Director How MISMES research was done? Professor Philippe Fargues, Director of the Migration Policy Centre, European University Institute (EUI) Florence What are key findings of MISMES? Ms Ummuhan Bardak, Senior Labour Market Expert, ETF MISMES online search tool, Ms Anna Kahlson, Qualifications Expert, ETF Country reflections on the findings and how they can be used: Armenia, Georgia, Republic of Moldova, Morocco and Tunisia, moderated by Ms Claire Bose, Communication Officer, ETF 13:00-14:00 Lunch Armenia: Ms Mariam Anastasyan, State Migration Service Georgia: Ms Nino Meskhi, Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from Occupied Territories, Refugees and Accommodation (MRA) Moldova: Ms Olga Poalelungi, Ministry of Internal Affairs Morocco: Ms Naima Dchiche, Ministry of Employment and Social Affairs Tunisia: Mr Mehrez Ferchichi, Ministry of Foreign Affairs 3

4 14:00-15:30 Session 1: Perspectives from the Eastern Partner Countries Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Republic of Moldova and Ukraine Which of the following measures are implemented in your country and how can the Mobility partnerships support their implementation? Preparing potential migrants Reintegrating returnees (including entrepreneurship) Transparency and portability of skills Moderator: Mr Vassilis Maragos, Acting Director, Directorate C - Neighbourhood East, DG NEAR, European Commission Armenia: Mr Artak Mangasaryan (State Employment Agency) Azerbaijan: Mr Vahab Mammadov (Ministry of Labor and Social Protection) and Mr Ilkin Nazarov (Seft Consulting) Belarus: Ms Natalia Privalova (Economic Research Institute) Georgia: Mr George Jashi (State Commission on Migration Issues, Public Service Development Agency) Moldova: Ms Oxana Păduraru (Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration) Ukraine: Sergiy Gubskyy (State Migration Service) 15:30-16:00 Coffee Break 16:00-17:30 Session 2: Perspectives from the South Mediterranean Partner Countries Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia Which of the following measures are implemented in your country and how can the Mobility partnerships support their implementation? Preparing potential migrants Reintegrating returnees (including entrepreneurship) Transparency and portability of skills Moderator: Mr Xavier Matheu de Cortada, Head of Thematic Policy Unit, ETF Egypt: Ms Ragaa Elwakeel (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) Jordan: Professor Tariq Al Azab (Al-Balqa Applied University) Lebanon: Dr Iman Khazaal (Ministry of Labor) Morocco: Mr Jaouad Dequiuec (Ministry of Moroccans Abroad and Migration Affairs) Tunisia: Ms Khansa El Gharbi (Tunisian Agency for Technical Cooperation) 17:30-18:00 Conclusions of the day, Ms Madlen Serban, ETF Director 20:00 Official Dinner Sheraton Hotel (Place Charles Rogier, 3 - Bruxelles) Day two: 16 September 2015, Wednesday 4

5 09:30-11:00 Session 3: Good Examples on Partnership for Skills Development and/or Skills Recognition Moderator: Mr Xavier Matheu de Cortada, Head of Thematic Policy Unit, ETF Employers perspective on skills partnership for migration, Mr Frederick Muia, Senior Adviser for Africa, International Organisation of Employers (IOE), Switzerland Triple Win Project, Ms Marianne Haase, Advisor Sector Project Migration and Development, GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit), Germany Recognition of higher vocational education, Mr Sebastian Steele and Ms Heni Hatamzadeh, Credential Evaluators, Department of Qualifications Recognition, Swedish Council for Higher Education (UHR), Sweden VET Training Project implemented in the framework of the EU-Moldova Mobility Partnership, Mr Gerardo Torlino, Deputy Head Unit III- Directorate General for Immigration and Integration Policies, Ministry of Labour and Social Policies, Italy Questions and discussion 11:00-11:20 Coffee break 11:20-12:45 Session 4: Round Table Discussion on Global Perspectives How to enhance coordination between migration and development cooperation agenda? How to support partnerships for skills development as part of migration management? Moderator: Anastasia Fetsi, Head of Operations Department, ETF Ms Camilla Hagstroem, Head of Sector Migration and Asylum - Unit DEVCO B3 Employment, Social Inclusion and Migration, European Commission Ms Natalia Popova, Senior Expert on Skills and Migration, Labour Migration Branch, ILO Geneva Ms Tanja Dedovic, Labour Migration and Human Development Coordinator, IOM Regional Office for Eastern Europe, South Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Vienna Ms Maria Vincenza Desiderio, Policy Analyst, Migration Policy Institute (MPI Europe), Brussels Mr Borhène Chakroun, Chief of Section for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), UNESCO Paris 5

6 12:45-13:30 Priorities for future actions 13:30-14:30 Lunch Ms Ana Carla Pereira, Head of Unit, DG EMPL C4 Skills and Qualifications, European Commission Ms Jean Lambert, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance, Member of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, European Parliament Ms Madlen Serban, ETF Director 6