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Within the EU, there are growing concerns about the ever-increasing numbers of displaced persons globally on the one hand, and the ever-increasing need for workers in all sectors on the other. While displacement and labour shortages are treated as separate policy areas, their potential solutions might be well connected. Complementary labour pathways are a promising solution for both challenges, and the EU Talent Pool could support their expansion in Europe if accompanying measures help it to meaningfully include displaced persons and support employers.

The Russian attempt at outright invasion of Ukraine has caused huge loss of life and led to levels of forced displacement unprecedented in recent history. Over six million people from Ukraine have sought protection abroad, with a significant proportion crossing into neighbouring Moldova. Currently hosting more Ukrainian refugees per capita than any other state, Moldova has shown remarkable resilience in accommodating Ukrainians, now hosted under a temporary protection regime.

In March 2025 at the latest, temporary protection for people fleeing Ukraine comes to an end. Determining what comes next is a complex process in which host countries must navigate multiple policy options, practical considerations, and political and economic interests. There is no time to waste in developing a coordinated approach, particularly due to the large number of people concerned, the range of countries involved, and the prospect of necessary legislative changes.

Low- and middle-income countries hosting refugees are facing unprecedented challenges: A slew of interlocking crises, including regional instability, economic recessions, climate change, and natural disasters, have created a devastating cocktail. Collective action, premised on the principles of solidarity and responsibility sharing, is required to develop new and creative solutions.

Debate on the interplay between climate change and mobility has occupied an increasingly prominent place on the international agenda over the past decade – and we now have solid understanding of the climate-mobility linkage. However, a plethora of persisting misconceptions continue to mar a meaningful, solution-oriented conversation on the topic. This commentary addresses some of the more enduring of these misconceptions.

One year after the Russian invasion, much uncertainty remains. Remote work can provide a degree of flexibility for some refugees from Ukraine, supporting integration in the short term and reconstruction in the long term. Supporting Ukrainian teleworkers is a smart move.

In the global race for talent, the EU is struggling to keep up with frontrunners like Canada and Australia. Despite their differences, the EU and its Member States could turn to leading nations for inspiration on attracting and retaining global talent.

National policies of dispersal, which seek to distribute asylum seekers across different parts of the country, typically give only limited consideration to newcomers’ professional profiles and personal preferences and to characteristics of receiving communities. If they are willing to look at the fuller picture, and facilitate a better match, dispersal policies can become more effective in supporting integration and fostering local development.

Takeaways from Vienna Migration Conference 2023, ICMPD’s annual flagship event, held 10-11 October 2023.

Though Europe has come a long way, it is not yet ready to be the leading talent destination of the world. Despite progress, there are obstacles that leaders and practitioners across Europe must still overcome before the region can call itself the place where the global labour market comes to live, study, and work. An emphasis on ‘living’ is more important than ever in this equation.

Africa-to-Europe value chains in manufacturing and agri-food production can mitigate factors driving current migration patterns by employing Africans in local value-added production and boosting African GDP growth, reorienting Africa-Europe relations towards mutual economic benefit and dignity.

Immigrant integration remains a pressing issue for policymakers in Europe and beyond, and monitoring reports offer a useful resource for collecting evidence and assessing integration outcomes and policies. This commentary highlights how integration monitoring can be a beneficial policy tool and provides insight on how to address potential challenges when developing and conducting integration monitoring.    

Conventional wisdom holds that Europe should use tools from all policy fields, especially the holy trinity of visa, trade, and aid incentives, to reach its migration goals. But what if the prescribed medicine only works for a few patients? New research spells out three uncomfortable truths that should guide Europe’s use of carrots and sticks in migration cooperation in the future.  

While the Temporary Protection Directive has been praised for its success in providing immediate assistance to millions, uncertainty remains about what will happen once it ends. One option that has recently gained attention is to further prolong temporary protection beyond March 2025. It may seem straightforward to simply extend temporary protection by another year, yet this may create some important challenges beyond deferring longer term decisions.

18 October 2016 is the 10th EU Anti-Trafficking Day. In a three-part-blog series, ICMPD analyses challenges and future priorities for the EU and its Member States in combating trafficking in human beings. In view of the forthcoming EU Anti-Trafficking Strategy, we're looking at current anti-trafficking efforts in the context of global migration trends and policies, asking the question of how current debates might shape anti-trafficking in the coming years.

The surge in the number of refugees and migrants making their way to Europe in 2015 brought the weaknesses of the fragile European migration and protection system to the forefront and indeed led to a virtual collapse of some of its key components, such as the Dublin Regulation. This triggered a policy and political crisis within the European Union as Member States and European Commission found themselves in disagreement over how to effectively handle the situation.

This infographic provides an introduction to complementary labour pathways, explaining who they are for, what benefits they can bring, and how they can be expanded in the EU.

This infographic provides an introduction to working holidays and other youth mobility schemes, explaining their potential benefits and how they can be expanded in EU Member States.

This commentary reflects on the major migration-related policy developments over the past four years that influenced or culminated in the EU’s new Pact on Migration and Asylum. It describes a radically changed landscape since 2020, when governments — principally out of realpolitik — broke taboos, one by one, right across the migration policy spectrum, a trend which looks set to continue after the European elections on 6-9 June.   

This timeline charts the key EU migration policy developments and events influencing the discourse on migration during the 2019-2024 European Commission. 

These infographics map selected legal migration channels and other labour migration initiatives that might be utilised to support complementary labour pathways to Austria, Czechia, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden.