Transcript Kein Folientitel - Prof. Mag. Dr. Gudrun Biffl

Ageing of migrants: a challenge for the individuals, the
economy and society
Gudrun Biffl
Lifelong Learning - Equal opportunities for mature workers
Workshop 3: Vocational training of mature migrant workers
Leipzig, 20 March 2006
Key Notes for discussion in the workshop
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Challenges for the individual migrant
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in terms of employment opportunities,
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accreditation of prior learning,
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access to (further) education and training and to funding,
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language proficiency,
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social contacts with host society and own ethnic/cultural group…
Challenges for economic integration due to
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educational attainment level,
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occupational skills and
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regional concentrations and thus mismatch of skills supplied and demanded
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Formal / informal sector jobs …
Challenges for the society due to
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sheer numbers (size and concentration/Ghettos?),
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degree of diversity of migrant communities (ethnic and cultural mix),
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capacity to communicate (language barriers)
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Poverty …
Europe has become an important
immigration area
Some EU-MS (Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and
Sweden) have a percentage of immigrants at least as high
as the United States, i.e., approximately 12% of the
population are foreign-born.
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Luxembourg and Switzerland have even higher shares,
close to or higher than 20% (the majority from the EU), not
dissimilar to the traditional immigration countries Canada,
Australia and New Zealand.
The percentage of foreign-born exceeds 10% in most old,
and in some Southern European MS (Belgium, France,
Ireland, Greece).
Also the new MS in the East are attracting increasing
numbers of migrants, the leading country being the Czech
Republic with 4.5% foreign-born in 2001.
S.: OECD-SOPEMI.
United States
United Kingdom
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Slovak Republic
Portugal
Poland
Norway
New Zealand
Netherlands
Luxembourg
Ireland
Hungary
Greece
Germany
France
Finland
Denmark
Czech Republic
Canada
Belgium
Austria
Australia
In percent of total population
Foreign born as a proportion of the total
population in selected OECD countries: 2001
35,0
30,0
25,0
20,0
15,0
10,0
5,0
0,0
The role of migrants in the socioeconomic development of the EU
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Lisbon Agenda and ageing have important
implications for further education and training of
migrants, many of them mature workers
Raising immigration cannot counter the negative
effect of population ageing on economic growth
Strike a balance between migration and trade in
view of the surplus of un- and semiskilled
immigrants – immigration in Europe is increasingly
less demand driven and more supply driven (chain
migration and family reunification, humanitarian
intake).
The challenge of older migrant workers for
the economy and the individual
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Public policy has to be cognizant of the economic environment
older migrant workers are facing: manufacturing industries, which
tended to be the major employers of migrants upon arrival, are
restructuring due to technical change and relocation of
production in a value added chain.
Job losses hit above all blue collar workers, often of mature age
and with migrant background.
Given that increased trade is overall welfare enhancing, equity
considerations suggest that policies have to be put in place to
compensate the losers from increased internationalisation of
production by facilitating adjustment to the new needs.
Adaptation of labour market skills are one way to go, another is to
provide incentives to employers to employ more unskilled
workers, and earned income tax credits to raise the income of the
working poor.
A policy mix is needed which promotes flexible work
arrangements while at the same time raising the employability
through vocational training
The challenge of vocational training for the
individual
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Often recognition of the skills from prior learning
abroad or from on the job training in the host
country does not suffice to get a job because:
the labour market does not call for these skills,
 there is an oversupply of these skills;
 the communication skills needed to exercise the
task may not be sufficient,
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discrimination has to be overcome
Training Measures at the Workplace
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Age management can work if a policy mix is put in
place, which facilitates flexibility while at the same
time ensuring employment and income security for the
worker by:
 By progressively removing seniority pay from those
whose productivity no longer improves with age and
experience.
 By offering further education and training and/or cofinancing it, as it may promote the employability of
older workers
 By ensuring a healthy workplace and by
implementing preventive health care thereby
prolonging the work ability.
Education and training raises the
adaptive capacity of the workforce
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Should enterprises not provide and finance sufficient
further education and training for mature migrant
workers, public cofunding is called for as the social
rate of return to training is higher than the private return
to the enterprise and individual
Often management as well as mature workers do not
see much sense in further education and training for
older workers as the company tends to have invested
in them until they reached their personal capacity
limits, given the jobs and production processes at
company level (limits to vertical and lateral careers
particularly in SME)
The chances of re-employment depend crucially upon
the skills of migrants and employment opportunities in
the formal sector
Governance structure of LLL for natives
and migrants
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Coordination between policy and execution at
federal, province and local level
The vocational training measures differ in scope,
depth as well as funding
They vary according to the role of migration in
socio-economic development of the
region/country, the extent of humanitarian
migration, and the migration pattern and
dynamics in general
The role of NGOs in vocational training
provision
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NGOs may be key partners in the planning of training measures
and the identification of training needs.
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In addition, they are important partners of public administration in
organising training initiatives and implementing training measures.
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Multicultural associations may act as a bridge between public
administration, migrants and host communities, if they have
intercultural and professional competence.
NGOs/NPOs may help mature migrants and their families in the
region to access mainstream as well as targeted training
measures.
The intercultural competence of the association may also be
accessed by public institutions.
The integration of NGOs into training networks promotes the
expertise and professionalism of training providers; they may also
be helpful in accessing EU co-funding of vocational training.
Contracting out Training to NGOs
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According to NGOs, training can be organised
most effectively by contracting out various
activities from public institutions to NGOs.
Good Practice examples of education and
training measures in Austria, which can be
effectively outsourced to NGOs, are bilingual
occupational education and training measures, as
well as helping to address health issues of
migrants, particularly mature migrant men and
women, as intercultural expertise tends to be
higher in migrant associations than in traditional
public sector institutions.
Network of institutions to connect the
migrants and their skills with facilitators to
promote employment
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The focus of the network is on
mature migrants. Their tasks are:
1: to render the skills of migrants
visible (with or without
accreditation),
2. to build on their skills and
integrate them into an education
and training programme which fills
in, where certain skills are lacking
either as far as the requirements in
the original profession are
concerned or for another
profession/trade which builds on
the acquired skills and
competences.
3.to certify the adapted
professional skills and help get into
a job –recruitment centre/cluster of
firms who tend to take graduates
from the college.
The challenge of social integration
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To overcome linguistic and cultural differences
through intercultural education and training of the
host and migrant communities
To overcome communication barriers/transaction
costs by developing one-stop-shops to bridge
barriers to accessing various public institutions /
interface
Intercultural training of service providers for
migrants,
provision of jobs for migrants at the interface to
help migrants at one-stop-shops (to help find
housing, adequate care, further education and
training, jobs, subsidies, immigration laws,
recognition of skills, prior education and training,
diplomas,…)
The challenge of combatting informal
work
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The reduction of clandestine work will remain a major
challenge as long as the informal sector is large and
growing.
There is a risk of permanent de-skilling of the workers
who are effectively excluded from formal employment.
This may seriously impair the productive potential of
EU-MS with high informal sectors and the capacity to
provide comprehensive social protection.
Reduction of individual costs of structural adjustments by
developing a system of lifelong learning to take off the
pressure on wages and/or unemployment to adjust to the
occupational and sectoral shifts in labour demand will profit
above all mature workers, in particular older migrants
Growth of the informal economy in % of GDP
in Western Industrialised Countries:
1990-2002
30,0
28,3
26,2
25,0
22,3
In percent of GDP
21,5
20,0
17,5
15,4
15,0
16,8
18,7
17,6
18,7
15,5
14,8
13,8
22,3
12,3
11
12,8 12,4
10,8
9,5
10,0
8,6
5,0
S.: Schneider/Enste, 2000; Schneider, 2003; Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft Köln.
2002
USA
Spain
Switzerland
1990
Sweden
Portugal
Austria
Norway
New Zealand
Netherlands
Japan
Italy
Ireland
Great Britain
Greece
France
Finland
Germany
Denmark
Canada
Belgium
Australia
0,0