EU clash between worker shortages, anti-immigrant politics

With immigration the top political issue in Europe, particularly with the surge of the far right, pressure on governments to keep the numbers down has increased.

And yet several countries, even those with a publicly anti-immigrant stance, are luring foreign workers to fill a large labor void and keep the economies in an aging continent running.

The European Union has identified 42 occupations that face labor shortages and has come up with an action plan to attract foreign workers. Nearly two-thirds of small and medium-sized businesses in the bloc say they cannot find the talent they need.

On the face of it, many European leaders, especially those on the far right, have advocated deals with third countries to curb the entry of immigrants or repatriate them elsewhere. And yet, amid much less fanfare, signs of a policy shift acknowledging the need for immigrants have come to light.

Italy to recruit Indian nurses

Italy's far-right government, led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, has decided to recruit hundreds of thousands of foreign workers desperately needed to plug the gaping shortages.

"For the three-year period [from] 2023-2025, the government expects a total of 452,000 entries,'' the Italian government said last year, also admitting it is much less than the "detected need of 833,000'' workers over that period of time. 

According to the IDOS Study and Research Center, Italy needs 280,000 foreign workers annually until 2050 to meet the labor shortfall in various sectors such as agriculture, tourism and health care — about half the number of asylum applications filed last year. The country faces labor shortages in 37 occupations, with nurses and other health care professionals in the most demand.

The government recently announced it will recruit 10,000 nurses from India to help make up a shortage that is three times that much. Italian Health Minister Orazio Schillaci said in October that India has an oversupply of nurses. "There are 3.3 million nurses" in India, he said. "We want to bring here about 10,000."

Schillaci said the Indian nurses are professionally capable and will be recruited directly by Italian regions and placed wherever needed, once their ability to speak in Italian has been determined.

Maurizio Ambrosini, a professor of sociology and a migration expert at the University of Milan, told DW that Meloni's government has been compelled to change policy by employers who are in desperate need of workers.

"Italian employers were very silent on the migration debate for years. I suppose they didn't want a battle with the right-wing parties,'' he said over the phone. "But no longer."

Many, even in her own coalition, see the policy as a strong reversal from Meloni, who once referred to pro-immigration policies as part of a left-wing conspiracy to “replace Italians with immigrants."

"I hoped now that we finally have a right-wing government the situation would change, but the right is getting worse than the left,'' said Attilio Lucia, a member of the far-right League party and the deputy mayor of Lampedusa, a tiny island that is the arriving port for many migrants.

Netherlands wants to retain 'knowledge migrants'

Businesses may have also affected the thinking in the new Dutch government led by far-right lawmaker Geert Wilders' Freedom Party. 

ASML, the country's largest company that manufactures semiconductor equipment, has said its success depends on talented people, wherever they come from. The company has suggested that inbound migration must not be restricted. Nearly 40% of the company's employees are foreign workers. 

"We have built our company with more than 100 nationalities," Christophe Fouquet, ASML's CEO,  said at the Bloomberg Tech Summit in London last month. "Bringing talent from everywhere has been an absolute condition for success, and this has to continue."

The Netherlands has sought an exemption or an "opt-out'' from the EU asylum system, which treats asylum as "a fundamental right and an international obligation for countries." Media reports have suggested that high anti-immigrant rhetoric perpetuated by the far right has made skilled workers feel less welcome in the country.

But even the far-right political groups must grapple with the reality of just how much the companies need foreign workers to stay competitive. 

The Netherlands has only marginally reduced the tax incentive for foreign workers — from 30% to just 27%. This tax break has been among the most attractive features for talented youth to move to the country, or "knowledge migrants" as the government calls them.

"This is a relatively small change in the total net income of highly skilled foreign workers," said Lisa Timm, a researcher on migration at the University of Amsterdam, "I think it will have a negligible effect on migrant arrivals."

Germany introduces 'Opportunity Card'

Germany is on course to issue 200,000 visas to skilled workers this year, a 10% increase from 2023. This is due to an "Opportunity Card" scheme, residence permits that allow workers from countries outside the EU to come to Germany and seek employment, introduced in June.

On a recent visit to India, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Germany is "open for skilled workers" and agreed to smooth out bureaucratic hurdles and increase visas for Indians from 20,000 to 90,000 annually. 

Germany needs around 400,000 new skilled employees a year to cover worker shortages, especially in the fields of engineering, IT and health care, and sees a potential workforce in trained Indians.

On the other hand, the rise of the far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) in regional elections and a knife attack in the western German town of Solingen over the summer compelled Scholz to sign off on internal border checks in the EU "to curb migration."

Speaking on the issue in July, Scholz said irregular migration to Germany must "come down" but also stressed the country's need for skilled foreigners.

A public and a silent policy

Nearly all European countries face the same problem — labor shortages in an aging population. Despite an influx of immigrants, they don't want to appear to be allowing for migrant arrivals without visas. 

Ambrosini, the University of Milan professor, said European countries are having trouble reconciling two different immigration policies, one for public consumption that calls for "border enforcement agreements with transit countries like Tunisia, or deportation to external facilities like Italy's Albania agreement.

"On the other hand, it is becoming clearer that they need workers, and they are coming up with new policies to attract a workforce that is not only skilled but also seasonal workers," he said. "This second policy is kept a bit hidden, not too much publicized, and can be visible only to the employer associations."

In the end, it's about the governments being able to say they are in control of who is coming in and who gets to stay, said Ambrosini. But that's a myth, at least regarding blue-collar jobs, since employers receive references from those already in Europe for whom to hire.

"How will the employer know who to get from Peru, for instance?"

Edited by: Davis VanOpdorp