On 5 and 6 November, the EMN Annual Conference entitled The Agenda for Growth in the EU: Why Migration Matters took place in Vilnius. Prominent researches, policymakers, representatives from international organisations and academia discussed various aspects of labour migration. The organisers welcomed approximately 130 participants from 26 EU Member States and Norway as well as representatives from third countries including the USA and Canada.
After welcoming of participants and introductory remarks the first panel discussion “The role of migration in fostering economic growth – different perspectives” was launched. Presenting experts dealt with the demographic development as well as the link between migration and innovation.
The speakers of the second panel “Needs based labour immigration policy: challenges of assessment” tried to answer the questions how to assess Europe’s labour market needs; what the tools to measure them are; and how to explain a paradox: high unemployment and the need for immigrant workers.
The third panel “Labour migration: policy options and lessons (un)learned” focused on migration systems and schemes in the UK, Poland and Sweden. The perspective of the third countries on the labour migration management was presented through contributions dealing with the developments in Canada and OECD countries.
Consequently, the second day commenced with the panel discussion on “Perspectives from sending countries and well-being of migrants”. Besides the introductory remarks on the destination countries as suggested by the pools in Lithuania and third countries as well as the closing presentation introducing insights from the World Migration Report 2013, the speakers discussed the situation of migrants coming from Ukraine and Moldova.
The presenters of the last panel “A way forward: exploring future scenarios” discussed what the EU priorities in labour migration area could be; how the economic crisis and the Arab spring will impact migration policy; how to plan migration policy in high uncertainty and what we can learn from earlier predictions.
More about the EMN annual conference as well as the presentations can be found on the following website: http://emn2013.lt/.