The role of migration in the health care sector
On 28 January, the European Commission held its first European Dialogue on Skills and Migration. Christiane Kuptsch, Senior Specialist in Migration Policy at the ILO, took part in a panel discussion on the health sector.
While the health sector in the EU has high growth potential, it is expected to experience severe skills shortages due to population ageing and difficulties in retaining health care workers. In light of this, the experts discussed the potential for migrants to accommodate current and future labour market shortages.
The speakers observed that inward migration of third-country health workers varies between EU member states as well as between the EU and the rest of the world. While English-speaking countries such as Canada, New Zealand, the UK and Ireland have high shares of foreign-trained health personnel, not all EU destinations are equally attracting third-country health care workers. Language barriers and difficulties with regard to the recognition of qualifications play an important role in this.
Removing these obstacles might go a long way in attracting more health professionals, although effective skills screening, investment in vocational training and safeguards to ensure fair and transparent recruitment and contracting practices are equally important instruments to reduce the mismatch between supply and demand.
While all participants agreed that labour mobility will remain crucial to fill existing and future skills gaps, they also underlined the challenge of forecasting which skills will remain in short supply in the years to come, as national health systems continuously evolve. This makes it difficult to make the appropriate investment decisions with regard to training and recruitment efforts.
The speakers observed that inward migration of third-country health workers varies between EU member states as well as between the EU and the rest of the world. While English-speaking countries such as Canada, New Zealand, the UK and Ireland have high shares of foreign-trained health personnel, not all EU destinations are equally attracting third-country health care workers. Language barriers and difficulties with regard to the recognition of qualifications play an important role in this.
Removing these obstacles might go a long way in attracting more health professionals, although effective skills screening, investment in vocational training and safeguards to ensure fair and transparent recruitment and contracting practices are equally important instruments to reduce the mismatch between supply and demand.
While all participants agreed that labour mobility will remain crucial to fill existing and future skills gaps, they also underlined the challenge of forecasting which skills will remain in short supply in the years to come, as national health systems continuously evolve. This makes it difficult to make the appropriate investment decisions with regard to training and recruitment efforts.