ATTRACTING INTELLECTUAL MIGRANTS: EXPERIENCE OF EUROPEAN UNION COUNTRIES

Abstract

The article examines the approaches of the European Union countries to the attraction of intellectual migrants. It is determined that the European Commission implements a variety of tools to support member states, among which cooperation with social and economic partners can be highlighted to promote a multi-stakeholder approach to labour market integration through the European Integration Partnership; supporting employers through exchanges and training; facilitating assessment and validation of skills. Although the legal basis of the European policy of attracting intellectual migrants is the Blue Card, competing for the best talents, EU countries develop and implement specific measures aimed at attracting highly qualified citizens from third countries. One of these European best practices is establishing partnerships to attract talent and develop a network to improve migrant employment processes. Examples of such partnerships were studied: in Austria, these are international cooperation programs under the auspices of «Scientific and Technical Cooperation», in France – the «Young Professionals» program, in Germany – the «Triple-Win» project for the recruitment and training of junior medical personnel to support the health care sector health. Common practices in the EU for the development of special programs to simplify the procedure for attracting intellectual migrants have been analyzed. For example, most such foreigners gain access to the Netherlands through the «highly skilled migrant scheme», which guarantees fast processing and high acceptance rates for migrants whose wages exceed a certain threshold. It was determined that an innovative approach to attracting intellectual migrants is the creation of a common pool of EU talents, designed to match the skills of potential migrants with the needs of the labour market in the member states.