Role of social partners in integrating migrant workers

The workplace is one of the key locations for the integration of new migrants, thus creating a particular role for the social partners. A hearing of the European Economic and Social Committee in late June 2006 received evidence that systematic discrimination against migrant workers does take place. However, the hearing also heard reports of positive experiences and practices that could be introduced in all workplaces. The meeting concluded that EU-level social partners can play a key role in the integration process of migrants.

According to an article entitled Migration is a major poverty risk in Europe, it has been estimated that around 20 million people in the EU are migrants. Migrants are defined as third-country nationals with temporary or permanent legal residence. A European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) hearing proposed that labour market integration ‘should take place on a level playing field, without discrimination between workers from the host country and immigrants’ (see EESC press release of 26 June 2006 (36Kb MS Word doc)).

The hearing, co-organised by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions and the International Labour Organisation (ILO), brought together various social partners, including the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and the Union of Industrial and Employers’ Confederations of Europe (UNICE), with the aim of jointly exploring and analysing the experiences of the social partners in relation to the integration of migrants. The hearing received evidence that systematic discrimination exists against migrant workers. However, it also heard reports of positive experiences and practices that could be introduced in all workplaces.

Role of social partners in integration process

The hearing concluded that, since the workplace provides an ideal opportunity to integrate migrants into the community, the European social partners have a key role to play in the integration process. However, while considering a number of strategies to assist in this process, it also concluded that there were ‘no standard models or magic formulae’. Nevertheless, the hearing did acknowledge that, in the context of collective bargaining, employers have to accept their share of the responsibility of helping to integrate migrants, eliminating any direct or indirect discrimination from collective agreements, while unions have to welcome migrant workers into their ranks and help them attain representative positions within their structures.

Views on migration and integration policy

The hearing took place in the context of ongoing discussions in response to the Commission’s policy plan in relation to legal migration, entitled A common agenda for integration – Framework for the integration of third-country nationals in the European Union (COM (2005) 389 Final (202Kb PDF)). On 10 May 2006, UNICE issued a position paper on the Commission policy plan on legal migration: while welcoming publication of the Commission’s plan and the proposals to facilitate the cross-border mobility of third-country nationals, UNICE opposed a general framework directive dealing with the rights of third-country nationals. It strongly favoured assertion of the principle of subsidiarity in relation to decisions on economic migrants, stating that their qualifications and skills, as well as their country of origin, should lie within the competence of the Member State, allowing each state to favour economic migrants of one country over another.

However, ETUC supports a more proactive EU policy on migration and integration based on ‘the recognition of fundamental social rights of current citizens and newcomers, and which is embedded in strong employment and development policies’. In its memorandum to the Austrian Presidency of the European Union at the beginning of 2006, ETUC argues that such a policy ‘should be established in close consultation with the social partners’ and that economic migrants should be admitted on the basis of a common EU framework for conditions of entry. By rejecting subsidiarity in relation to policies on economic migration, the ETUC position differs from that taken by UNICE. The action plan for an ETUC policy on migration, integration, and combating discrimination, racism and xenophobia calls for the following measures:

• new legislation entitling migrants who are long-term residents to citizenship and to the same social and political rights as citizens;

• common criteria for granting legal status to undocumented workers;

• union recruitment campaigns aimed at migrant workers;

• collective agreements incorporating issues concerning the situation of migrant workers;

• ensuring that collective agreements and employment policies, in general, take up and are consistent with issues of migration, inclusion and equal treatment.

Commentary

The adoption of the Work programme of the European Social Partners 2006–2008 (67Kb PDF) is an important step towards exploring common social partner positions on the integration of migrants, particularly in relation to collective bargaining. Thus, while there are still differences between the two sides, the 2006–2008 programme commits the social partners to a joint analysis of the key challenges currently facing Europe’s labour markets, including ‘mobility and migration’. The programme also aims at the negotiation of an autonomous framework agreement, which may focus on the integration of disadvantaged groups in the labour market, including migrants.

Sonia McKay, AWWW GmbH