The PERC Experts’ Workshop: “Challenges of...

The PERC Experts’ Workshop: “Challenges of Migration in Europe: Building a Pan-European Response” was organised in Brussels, 25 and 26 May with the support of the ILO-ACTRAV and the FES.

In this setting trade union experts and leaders from European countries discussed, with participation of the EU Commission DG Home, the ILO, the ETUI and PSI/EPSU, the multifaceted migration challenges, including underdevelopment and lack of decent opportunities in countries of origin and the need to promote decent work there, also as a part of neighbourhood policies, legal migration and integration processes, growth of care economy and demographic challenges of aging populations, refugees’ crisis and inadequate response on it by the EU and some governments, challenge of growing xenophobia and stigmatisation, discrimination and dualities of labour markets, informal economy and trafficking and forced labour, remittances and reintegration, the role of public services and different levels of social dialog and union involvement on migration agenda: national, sectoral, local or enterprise level and in promoting rights, organising and representing migrant workers regardless of their status and international cooperation and joint actions to assist migrants. The workshop started preparations for the PERC Summer School as migration would be the principle agenda item and by that the PERC seeks to contribute to the global discussion on migration that would be part of the ILO Conference agenda next year and identified some areas of Pan-European attention as well as brainstormed practical ideas to support existing policies and actions of the ITUC and the ETUC, e.g. by promoting relevant ILO and UN instruments or by contributing to MigrantNet by bridging with non-EU unions of the PERC region. These elements are summarised in draft concluding document that would be further enriched by the proposal of participants and submitted to the PERC members’ consideration as a background document for the Summer School.