Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 06/2011

Labour Immigration Policy in the EU: A Renewed Agenda for Europe 2020

Sergio Carrera, Anaïs Faure Atger, Elspeth Guild, Dora Kostakopoulou

April 2011

Centre for European Policy Studies

Abstract

The EU’s capacity to implement a legitimate and coherent policy on labour immigration that complies with the rights of migrants faces enormous challenges in light of the political priorities set in the EU’s 2020 Strategy and the effects of the recent revolutions and war in North Africa. This Policy Brief examines the incoherencies characterising the current generation of EU labour immigration policies and the challenges of ensuring a global rights-based approach to migration. The analysis carried out in this paper is accompanied by a synthesis of the main policy recommendations discussed at the Workshop on “The Next Phase of EU Labour Immigration Policy: Enhancing Policy Coherence and Advancing a Rights-Based Approach” organised in the context of the Conference “State of the Union: Brussels Think Tank Dialogue 2011” in January 2011. This Policy Brief is authored by Sergio Carrera, CEPS Senior Research Fellow and Head of the Justice and Home Affairs Programme; Anaïs Faure Atger is a CEPS researcher; Elspeth Guild is Associate Senior Research Fellow at CEPS and Jean Monnet Professor of European Migration Law at Radboud University, Nijmegen; Dora Kostakopoulou is Jean Monnet Professor in European Law and European Integration at Manchester University.