Skilled non-EU workers ‘still needed’

Ireland has attracted one of the most qualified non-EU workforces in Europe, thanks to Government policies that prioritise highly-skilled workers, according to a report from the Economic and Social Research Institute.

The ESRI has concluded that, in spite of the high levels of unemployment which persist here, there remains a shortage of suitably qualified indigenous workers particularly in the ICT, healthcare and financial services sectors. Therefore it says the country needs to persist with initiatives to attract highly-skilled non-EU workers.

There were just over 64,300 non-EEA workers employed in Ireland last year, representing 3.9% of total people employed. That compared to an EU27 average of 4.1%.

In Attracting Highly Qualified And Qualified Third-Country Nationals: Ireland, the ESRI, in association with European Migration Network, found that:

Almost half of non-EU nationals (46%) in employment here were working in high-skilled occupations. Among the 20 EU states for which data was available, only Britain and Luxembourg showed higher proportions.

Almost 70% of non-EU nationals at work here had high levels of education, degree level and above. That is the highest percentage among the 20 EU states.

The Government’s ability to attract the highly skilled workers has meant that between 2008 and 2012, in spite of the recession, the percentage of non-EU work permit holders earning over €60,000 rose from 12% to 25%.

In its document, the ESRI admitted that “the development of policy measures to attract non-EEA workers is controversial, particularly in the context of economic recession and high unemployment”.

However, it said: “Such concerns need to be balanced with the need for proactive labour migration policy development, in order to compete internationally for the skills required and to promote economic growth.”

While praising the broad range of proactive measures put in place here to attract the skills-set from outside the EU, the ESRI also said it could be argued that the development of policies to attract the migrant workers required “has not been sufficiently proactive to fully address skills shortages”.

It also outlined possible challenges to attracting the workers required into the future including:

The recession and resulting fall in employment has been shown to have impacted severely on immigrants in Ireland.

The absence of statutory family reunification and long-term residence schemes.

Irish attitudes towards immigrants have become more negative since the economic downturn. This could have implications for integration.