engleski

Labour market integration of immigrants in New Europe: current situation and key challenges

New Member States economies have been in the recent past viewed as emigration countries, predominately due to economic reasons. Up to recent migration outburst, the key research question in these countries was how to reverse the brain drain process. Recently increased migration flows towards Western Europe transited on the so-called Western Balkan and Eastern Borders migratory routes through the territories of these transition economies. It brought enormous logistic problems and revealed unpreparedness of the officials in these countries for such vast migration flows. Somewhat surprising to the general public, the situation also revealed the unwillingness to accept refugees and asylum seekers. This collided with the joint European efforts to ensure “fair distribution of arriving immigrants” within the territories of the Union. Most studies find that it is of utmost importance how the immigrants are integrated from the moment of their arrival, in order to ensure that the impact on the economy in the future is more likely to be positive. The successful integration in the labour market is frequently emphasized as one of the utmost aspects of integration, since it enables emergence of immigrants into all aspects of host -country life. The refugees and asylum seekers, constituting the largest share of the recent migration flows, are frequently by national regulations prohibited from participation in the labour market for specific period of time. Thus, their arrival is perceived as short-run fiscal burden with possible adverse effects to local economies. Furthermore, in case of weak local labour markets, additional negative perceptions are easily formed. The paper provides analysis of these aspects in selected New Member States countries. Specifically, the focus is on the countries bordering with EU neighbourhood –Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Slovak Republic and Slovenia. Since the successful integration depends on the absorbing capacities of the host countries, the focus is on the current labour market situation in these economies. Furthermore, comparative analysis of the relative labour market outcomes immigrants (and if data permits asylum seekers) in these countries is provided. Finally, policy framework for labour market integration of immigrants is reviewed in order to draw recommendations for future policy actions.

migration ; labour market ; New Member States

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