Europe plays 'blue card' to bridge skill gap

The EU adopts an immigrant work permit but it is unlikely to surpass the US green card in appeal.

For generations of Indians, the colour of hope has been green; the US green card being the most coveted ticket to a better life. But the European Union (EU) is now attempting to tint the immigrant dream another hue, by introducing its own version of the American work permit: the blue card.

In May this year, the Council of the EU officially adopted the Blue Card Directive, which participating member states now have two years to put into practice. The scheme is the end product of much hand-wringing in Europe as its population ages and economy stagnates.

America’s youth, dynamism and creative energy is often contrasted to European inertia and inflexibility. One major reason for this discrepancy, the EU argues, is the differential ability of the two entities to attract skilled immigrants.

Highly-qualified foreign workers make up only 1.7 per cent of the employed population within the EU, but the equivalent figure for Australia is nearly 10 per cent, over seven per cent in Canada and 3.2 per cent in the US. And it’s not as if Europe does not need these immigrants.

Studies predict an estimated shortfall of 20 million skilled and unskilled workers by 2030, the result in part of a steady decline in the EU’s working age population.

The blue card is also intended to cull the “right” kind of immigrants from the “wrong” sort for which the EU is currently a magnet.

The European Commission says some 85 per cent of global unskilled migrant labour heads to the EU, while only 5 per cent goes to the US. Given its redistributive welfare system, what Europe wants is an immigrant workforce that is a net financial contributor to, rather than a receiver from, this system.

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