Steve Peers

In 2009, the EU introduced the ‘Blue Card’ Directive to attract highly qualified individuals from non-EU countries. As part of a broader strategy for legal immigration, this Directive is crucial. However, a recent Commission assessment suggests that the Directive has not effectively reached its goals. This raises the question of necessary revisions for improvement.

Implementing the Directive

While all EU Member States obligated to implement the Directive have done so, the actual impact has been underwhelming. Despite Germany and Luxembourg issuing the majority of Blue Cards, the overall numbers remain low.

Many Member States utilize national programs for attracting highly skilled migrants alongside the Blue Card system. These national programs often prove more successful, except in a few cases where the Blue Card is more advantageous.

The number of Blue Card recipients is influenced by various factors, including national quotas, brain drain concerns, and salary requirements. Member States have implemented different approaches regarding these aspects, but their impact remains uncertain.

Furthermore, there are inconsistencies in how Member States implement other provisions, such as social assistance withdrawal, application procedures, and equal treatment in employment and education. Some Member States offer more favorable conditions, such as recognizing experience as equivalent to qualifications or applying lower salary thresholds for in-demand professions.

The Commission concludes that it’s premature to gauge the Directive’s effectiveness in attracting highly skilled applicants. Concerns regarding implementation issues, lack of consistency, limited rights, and obstacles to intra-EU mobility are apparent. Although hinting at potential infringement proceedings, the Commission doesn’t currently plan to propose legislative amendments.

Observations

Determining the optimal immigration approach for attracting highly skilled individuals is crucial. Available evidence suggests that the EU struggles to attract such individuals, partly due to its immigration system. Factors such as paths to permanent residency, geographic mobility, and the visibility of these programs are appealing to potential migrants. Studies also highlight the importance of flexible family reunification and job mobility regulations.

Unfortunately, key components of the Blue Card proposal designed to draw highly skilled individuals were either discarded or diluted during implementation. These include expedited processing times, salary threshold exceptions for younger workers, and regulations concerning in-country applications, job mobility, and permit duration.

Current evidence suggests that many Member States implement the Blue Card Directive in a way that discourages applications. The existence of parallel national programs further diminishes the Blue Card system’s impact.

It’s too soon to determine if the use of national programs for attracting highly skilled individuals has declined since the Directive’s implementation. However, the numbers admitted under the Blue Card system are lower than those admitted through national systems in the preceding year. Therefore, the Blue Card system has not inherently boosted the influx of highly skilled migrants into the EU.

Interestingly, Jean-Claude Juncker, a candidate for Commission President, has pledged to review the Directive with the goals of addressing demographic imbalances, providing a secure pathway to Europe, and enhancing the EU’s attractiveness to highly skilled individuals.

Several steps could be taken to achieve these objectives. Eliminating or reducing competing national programs would increase the program’s visibility. Enhancing the program’s attractiveness could involve: allowing in-country applications for all legally residing or present individuals in all Member States; faster processing times; salary threshold exemptions for younger workers; stronger equal treatment provisions for education and employment access; extended initial permit durations; and flexibility to transition to self-employment, especially for those creating jobs.

Member States could still address social and economic concerns related to migration by utilizing their authority to establish quotas on labor migration and mandate labor market tests before granting Blue Cards. The existing options within the Directive could still be employed to prevent brain drain from developing nations.

The incoming European Commission leadership should prioritize revitalizing the EU’s primary labor migration policy promptly.

Barnard & Peers: chapter 26