Von der Leyen opens up to economic migrants: “Let’s bring skills to Europe”

Brussels – Opening the EU’s doors to economic migrants, those with regular work permits obtained in advance, before departure. For Ursula von der Leyen, the answer to human traffickers also passes through a new paradigm. The president of the European Commission proposes to focus on a hitherto little explored dimension, not least because, by definition, an economic migrant falls outside the concept of refugee and is not entitled to reception. 

At the second conference of the Global Alliance against Migrant Smuggling, von der Leyen decides to break taboos in the name of the need to manage migration flows. “We need to create more bridges between our continents so that people can find jobs where their talents are in demand and take their skills beyond our borders,” the president of the EU executive said. It means attracting workforce in an orderly manner. “We need to open up safer routes to Europe,” von der Leyen insists, confident that “the new talent partnerships offer routes to work in Europe.” On the understanding that “with the Global Gateway initiative, Europe not only creates good jobs worldwide, but also invests in skills and vocational training.” All this, she emphasises, “will connect European employers with non-European job seekers.” 

So, onwards with regular work for a new season of economic migrants, which the EU has been struggling with since 2021, but without any major developments worth mentioning, at least as far as combating irregular immigration is concerned. Because the underlying problems remain, yet here von der Leyen seems distracted. She offers a narrative that goes so far as to blame those around the world who seek a better future by fleeing from unsustainable realities. 

“Every voyage with the traffickers [of human beings] avoided is potentially a life saved,” says the president of the European Commission. And maybe it is true, it probably really is. The chronicle of the last ten years is full of disasters at sea, but those who set out do so because they feel they have no great alternative; they feel the need to leave, and so they leave. Sometimes quickly. “We have to show potential victims that there are always safer alternatives” than journeys organised by human traffickers, insists von der Leyen. Too bad that being able to choose can sometimes, or often, be a luxury for the few. The way the president of the EU executive approaches the issue of migrants is superficial and wrong, because it glosses over the real causes behind the departures. Causes on which the EU seems to remain indifferent.