European Policies to Attract Talent: The Crisis and Highly Skilled Migration Policy Changes

Abstract

Most European states consider the immigration of foreign workers as an important means to decelerate the decline of national workforces as a consequence of population ageing and have developed strategies and policies to respond to the increasing demand of employers for certain types of skills in short- or long-term shortages. This chapter aims to give an overview and to compare various national and supra-national high-skilled migration (HSM) policy initiatives that have been implemented across Europe over the last two decades, with a particular focus on recent years after the global financial and economic crisis. European immigration policies (discourses) are increasingly characterized by a stark contrast between high-skilled and low-skilled migration policies. While the immigration of lower skilled migrants from poorer countries is increasingly perceived as in need of control, over the past two decades most European countries have implemented policies to attract skilled and high-skilled migrants, such as academics, medical personnel, engineers and, more generally, high-income earners. Consequently, the global competition for the highly skilled has intensified and most European states and companies have become involved in a battle for the ‘best and brightest’.