The linkages between climate change and migration are receiving growing attention in policy debates. Yet, the role of legal labour migration to support climate adaptation and to enable communities to achieve a more sustainable future in the EU and beyond has been less at the forefront. Tackling this untapped potential is all the more relevant given the ambitions laid out under the Green Deal and the Farm to Fork (F2F) Strategy as well as the EU’s ongoing efforts to strengthen and broaden its partnerships with neighbouring countries.
This project will examine the role of legal migration pathways to achieve ambitious climate adaptation targets in the EU and its Southern Neighbourhood, focusing on the F2F Strategy as an illustration of the challenges and opportunities ahead. With an ageing population and a shrinking workforce, including in the agricultural sector, legal migration schemes, such as Skills Mobility Partnerships (SMPs), have the potential to play a strategic role in filling labour and skills shortages in Europe, in turn facilitating the green transition and the implementation of the F2F Strategy. Building mutually beneficial legal migration schemes could help the EU, but also partner countries. Partner countries could potentially benefit from schemes allowing their nationals to take part in training or work abroad with the aim of making their food systems sustainable and to undertake the green transition. Legal migration schemes could also present an opportunity for partner countries to improve their climate adaptation and development prospects through innovation, investments, and remittances.
This project will:
- Assess current and future skills and labour gaps in the relevant F2F sectors in the EU and partner countries
- Map and identify existing and potential legal migration pathways, taking a gender-sensitive approach and highlighting key challenges and opportunities for implementation
- Examine the potential of legal migration schemes to positively accelerate the climate transition and adaptation strategies in the EU and neighbouring countries in North Africa
The research findings will be presented in a policy brief along with policy recommendations on how to leverage legal migration schemes to support the green transition in the agricultural sector. This project is a joint effort by the EPC and the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, with strategic inputs and support provided by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Regional Office for Middle East and North Africa (MENA).