EZA MAGAZINE
EZA PODCAST

Youth and mobility: new European workers

On 23, 26 and 30 March 2021 took place three online sessions about “Youth and mobility: new European workers”, organized by ACLI - ENAIP (Associazioni Cristiane Lavoratori Italiani - Ente Nazionale ACLI Istruzione Professionale), with the support of EZA and of the European Union. Around 50 representatives of workers’ organisations from Italy, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Brazil and the UK attended each session.

The labour mobility of young people is in the focus of public attention, but few studies systematically describe its characteristics. This is due above all to the poor traceability of flows, which also corresponds to a low propensity on the part of individuals to ratify their personal choices through administrative channels.

Moreover, we are considering phenomena that for the most part take place within the common European area and, furthermore, we must not overlook the fact that in some cases young people undertake complex mobility projects, sometimes preceded by a study experience, within which the logic of circulation prevails that of settlement.

Even taking these complex elements into account, it must be pointed out that the debate is fueled by fragmented information and reconstructions from media sources. There is no quantitative analysis based on primary data.

Does the experience of mobility change not only the professional self-perception of young people, but also their conception of citizenship? In his recent book Mobile Europe, the result of an articulated European research project, Ettore Recchi puts the question as follows: are EU-Movers, i.e. those who have experienced freedom of movement within the EU, pioneers of an unprecedented and accomplished European citizenship? On the basis of the data collected, he concludes that if it is at least hazardous to claim that we are in the presence of people who have gone beyond the concept of national citizenship, at least "there are good reasons to believe that the experience of transnational mobility promotes supranational (European and cosmopolitan) identification"; that is, a more authentic sense of common belonging.

The chosen topic allowed us to deepen and discuss the workers mobility in Europe and the animation of the associative communities abroad, as well as it represented the opportunity to confront with other associative realities and institutions, to restart after the difficult period of social distancing that has involved the whole world.

Some researches show how, despite an overall satisfaction for one's own occupational condition, there are some situations in which the worker is left alone to face some important issues, related to the integration in the host country. Starting from the comparative analysis of the different countries, it was interesting to compare experiences of support to mobile workers activated by training institutions and local workers' associations, dealing with workers coming from other countries, and to carry out an analysis of the social impact of European policies related to youth professional mobility.

Covid and migration; new vulnerabilities and social exclusion for young expatriates; Erasmus opportunities: the new Erasmus+ 2021-2027 programme is one of the focal points on which the European institutions want to invest for shared development: the funds will provide more than 26 billion Euros, an increase of even 83% compared to the previous programme, making it less elitist and giving, therefore, the chance to participate to an increasing number of boys and girls from less well-off backgrounds and situations; proposals and opportunities for social animation for a more cohesive Europe. Support tools for European mobility, existing platforms for guidance and information for expatriates; new poverty and new mobility were also discussed.

The perspectives of the NextGenEU were also an issue.

All the speeches and debates considered the difficulties and structural changes that Covid produces in the labour world and in the European and world mobility. Needs change, the new migration requires assistance policies and measures of information, training, orientation and accompaniment to each emigration project on arrival and departure, involving the institutional, social, association and service representatives present. In order to deal with the post-pandemic, it is necessary today to start laying the foundations for a more resilient society through ambitious and far-sighted political choices. This is why greater involvement of young people in political choices could finally give a voice back to a fundamental stakeholder who will be the protagonist of that future.

The comparison between the experiences of workers' associations, youth associations and vocational training bodies operating in the different countries of the European Union will be fundamental in order to confront the central issues concerning the mobility of young workers in the EU. The living conditions of workers, by illustrating the reasons for choosing professional migration, the responses of the host countries in terms of integration policies at the service of these workers, and good practices related to the different experiences in European countries

Results of the seminar:

In recent years European politics has proved unable of providing answers to a long-term economic crisis. At the same time, we experienced a crisis of democracy weakened on the one hand by nationalist impulses, and on the other by the EU's lack of commitment to cope with issues and challenges of globalisation and its failure to govern related processes and consequences. Among these challenges of the last two decades, there is certainly the great flow of migrants within the Union, a flow that has marked the last generations and that Europe has not been able to keep up with. On the contrary, with the current crisis triggered by the pandemic, the European Union has shown itself capable of proposing community responses, putting in place today, in the great NextGenerationEU project. The hope is that, through the various National Recovery and Resilience Plans (NRPs), it will promote, among other things, "European policies to support mobility, social security policies, as well as the recognition of a fuller European citizenship in the face of a still too evident fragmentation of workers civil and social rights". To rebuild Europe, it is therefore necessary to produce a discontinuity with the past. This translates, for example, into the implementation of policies aimed at the long-term employment of young people, the fight against poverty, especially child poverty, for which the Child Guarantee has already been approved in the European Plus Fund. The three pillars of the European recovery, namely sustainability, innovation and social cohesion, will be dealt with and studied in the next two important stages for the Union: the Social Summit in Porto on 7 May, which will officially launch the European Pillar of Social Rights, for which measures are envisaged such as the definition of a European minimum wage and the recognition of the "dignity" of the new European mobile workers, and the Conference on the Future of Europe on 9 May, which is intended as an open and concrete debate on decision-making for the Europe of tomorrow.

To foster the integration of mobile workers and a feeling of European citizenship, European workers associations, as the ACLI, present through their International Federation (FAI), must continue to play their role as a bridge between communities of origin and adoption to help "build a positive and sustainable mobility that works, in an area that is increasingly united, especially in terms of social rights and access to fundamental goods". It is essential, concluded ACLI President Emiliano Manfredonia, that when planning we ask ourselves how young people approach the labour market and social rights. It is necessary, instead of resorting to reparatory measures, that development issues should be thought of first in the tradition of the social economy.