The European Training Foundation (ETF) is organizing an online regional conference called, “Use it or lose it: how labour markets, human capital and migration interact in the Western Balkans.” The event will be hosted on Zoom on Wednesday 1 December 2021 starting at 10 a.m. Central European Time.
Preregistration is required: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0vdOyorT8iG9MD8KyC4XeDX5Bk3G2ZJWu2
The conference emerges from the completion of an ETF project called ‘How labour markets, human capital and migration interact in the Western Balkans.’ It included individual reports on each of the region’s six nations (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia), three technical papers, and a regional overview. The conference will focus on the results of the latter, scheduled to be published shortly. It spotlights the triangular relationships among migration, labour market dynamics and human capital development over the past decade. The two-year research endeavour was led by the ETF with contributions from national and international scholars under the coordination of the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (WIIW).
“It is time for us to share the results with local and regional authorities, EU institutions and international organisations and donors at a high-level policy event,” said Ummuhan Bardak, senior specialist on labour market and migration at the ETF.
All of these countries exhibit declining populations driven by low birth rates, ageing populations and emigration. Emigration has continued apace since the 1990s, partly due to conflicts and problems with the transition from centrally-planned to market economies. It started with irregular departures by low- and medium-skilled workers but is now also characterised by family reunification, education abroad, and greater outflows of highly-skilled people.
All six countries experienced net outmigration between 2010 and 2020. By international standards, a very large share of the population lives abroad (ranging from 42% and 46% for Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina, respectively, to 14% for Serbia). By 2020 the number of people from the region living abroad exceeded 4.6 million - a figure similar to that of Poland, which has a population double that of the entire Western Balkans region. Outmigration is largely shaped by dysfunctional labour markets, the underutilisation of human capital, and widespread skills mismatches.
Migration is neither wholly good nor bad. It produces a wide range of outcomes that include both positive and negative aspects. Most individuals benefit from opportunities to earn more, advance their careers, gain new skills and knowledge, and expand their networks. Thus, migration continues unabated despite rising barriers in many destination countries. Back home, outmigration can help put into motion either a vicious or a virtuous cycle of development, depending on the structure of the economy, human capital, and job markets.
The key objectives of the conference are to:
- discuss interactions among job markets, human capital stock and labour mobility based on the findings of the above-mentioned studies;
- stimulate an open policy debate among national, regional and international actors on the conditions of virtuous and vicious cycles and highlight best practices for policymaking;
- bring together national, regional and international actors from the fields of migration, labour markets and education – who other otherwise have little contact - and encourage them to take joint action.
The conference will start with a keynote presentation of the main findings of the study, followed by two panel discussions featuring practitioners and policymakers. The first panel will focus on examples of opportunities and risks presented by labour and skills mobility. “Each panellist will reflect from their own perspective (employer, educator, and youth) on how mobility can be part of a virtuous cycle to better match jobs and workers in the region’s growing economies,” said the session moderator, Professor Nermin Oruc, coordinator of the Western Balkans Migration Network (WB-MIGNET) and director of the Centre for Development Evaluation and Social Science Research (CREDI).
The second panel will concentrate on policy options at the national, regional and international levels. The emphasis will be on how to maximize the benefits and reduce the risks of mobility. The session will feature the status of information and communications technology (ICT) sector and global digital platforms, notably their potential contributions to virtuous cycles in the region. It will highlight upcoming initiatives of the European Commission and the Regional Cooperation Council; the latter unites 13 Southeastern European countries with financial backing from the European Union. It will also explore the potential for inter-regional cooperation. This part of the programme will also address the issues of young people.
“ETF believes in policy-oriented research and evidence-based policies,” said Georgios Zisimos, head of Policy Advice and EU Programming Unit at the ETF. “We promote active use of research findings in policy action, and not keeping studies in drawers.”
The conference will end with concluding remarks for next steps by Xavier Matheu de Cortada, Head of Knowledge Hub Department, ETF.
The online conference will be held in English, with simultaneous interpretation into the main languages of the region. Pre-registration is required: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0vdOyorT8iG9MD8KyC4XeDX5Bk3G2ZJWu2.