Skills and migration
The ETF works on the skills dimension of migration to help improve their employability in a global labour market. As migration dynamics and skills formation evolve alongside labour markets, the link between mobility and human capital is becoming more important, and complex. Migration can support skills development and economic opportunities but can also lead to mismatches or talent loss depending on how labour migration is designed and managed.
The ETF focuses on generating evidence and supporting policies that better align mobility, skills and labour market needs, ensuring more balanced outcomes for individuals and counties of origin and destination via triple win approaches to fair and efficient labour migration systems.
To address the growing challenges of labour migration, the ETF launched the Community of Migration Experts (MIGCOM) in April 2025. Experts and institutions can join the community by registering their interest via this EUSurvey.
With around 400 members worldwide, MIGCOM is part of the Skills Lab Network of Experts and brings together specialists from universities, research centres and institutions to analyse labour migration trends and co-produce new knowledge.
What are our most recent outputs?
- Skills for a fair and efficient labour migration: policy-oriented research on aligning skills development, qualifications recognition and migration governance to support more balanced and mutually beneficial outcomes.
- Skills and migration in changing labour markets: a working paper on how labour market transformations, migrations systems and skills formation reshape the relationship between mobility and human capital
- Migration dashboard: an interactive tool providing data and insights on migration trends, skills and labour market dynamics across ETF partner countries.
- Migrant women’s learning pathways: research on how migrant women engage with lifelong learning systems, with a focus on Georgia, Morocco and Tunisia, alongside a policy briefing on migrant women calls for skills needs and broader evidence on prejudice regarding women and skills.
How do we support EU policies on labour migration?
The ETF helps to implement the labour migration component of the European Commission’s New Pact on Migration and Asylum.
In the Mediterranean region, including in the context of the Pact for the Mediterranean – Middle East, North Africa and the Gulf, the ETF supports the European Commission and partner countries in promoting skills portability, qualifications transparency and labour mobility. This includes initiatives such as the MED Skills Tracker for effective matching across borders.
We also contribute to the design and carrying out of Talent Partnerships with Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia, along with Pakistan and Bangladesh for win-win-win solutions for migrants, their countries of origin and the countries of destination.
Finally, we also help in implementing the Commission's Recommendation on the recognition of qualifications of third-country nationals.
Contact us: migration-team@etf.europa.eu
