EU migration policy toward the Arab Mediterranean countries and its impact in their labour markets

Abstract

The paper proposes to analyse to what extent emerging EU common immigration policy, including the EU’s new “Global Approach to Migration” can match the Euro-Arab Mediterranean labour market’s needs and demands while fostering and consolidating cooperation in the Euro-Arab Mediterranean context. To this end, the paper outlines and assesses, in its first section, the gradual emergence of a harmonised EU framework on economic migration. More particularly, it sheds light on the general context of EU migration policy, probes into the development of a common labour migration strategy, and then analyses the nexus between the Global Approach to Migration and economic immigration policy since 2005. In the second section, the paper reassesses the current tools and instruments aimed at implementing the Global Approach to Migration and examines whether they are applicable to Arab Mediterranean Countries. It discusses in detail the dynamics and trends of highly-skilled migration in the Euro-Mediterranean context and evaluates the pertinence and added value of the Blue Card. It also looks at how temporary migration schemes and integration policies might evolve into viable instruments while incorporating the Global Approach into the Euro-Arab Mediterranean context. In the third section, the paper evaluates whether and to what extent the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, as a multilateral framework for relations between the EU and Arab Mediterranean Countries, has integrated migration issues, and to what extent the European Neighborhood Policy, which gave new impetus to the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, embodies at bilateral and regional levels the Global Approach to Migration. In its final part, the paper offers some conclusions regarding EU labour immigration policy and its potential and expected impact in Arab Mediterranean Countries. Moreover, it highlights some recommendations and policy options for reinvigorating present tools and policy tracks in the EuroArab Mediterranean region. More precisely, the paper recommends the emergence of clearer migration orientation line at the EU level with a view to adopting a more coherent and consensual approach towards Arab Mediterranean Countries. It also advocates refining and improving the comprehensiveness as well as the specificity of the Global Approach to Migration by developing certain tailored policies to the region and devising specific institutional and legal tools adapted to EU-Arab Mediterranean labour mobility. Moreover, the paper advocates the contextualisation of the Global Approach to Migration at a bilateral level between EU member states and Arab Mediterranean Countries and recommends monitoring current and previous bilateral experiences so as to evaluate costs and benefits as well as extract best practices for cooperation.