Recognizing the Matching Skills: Labour Shortages and Job Market Nationalism in the EU

It is expected that the demand on the EU labour markets will rise to approximately 80 million jobs during the next years (Cedefop 2010). In this economic context marked by population aging and labour shortages, the role of (highly)skilled immigrants is both acknowledged and contested, causing tensions that are reflected in various policies. Increasing intra-EU labour migration brings up the need to extend the research to policies other than citizenship or asylum, and look to the growing need for effective systems of recognition of foreign qualifications. This policy field plays a significant role in immigrants’ economic trajectories, and in the adaptation of labour markets to the current economic and demographic changes. Seeking to address the research gap in this area, the paper asks if different national systems of recognition of foreign qualifications favor or inhibit the integration of intra-EU immigrants in jobs adequate to their educational and skill profile. The question is asked in view of the significant share of (highly)skilled individuals from Central-Eastern EU countries who are over-represented in low-skilled jobs (Reyneri & Fullin 2010; Bernardi et al. 2010). The paper brings evidence collected through semi-structured interviews from 2014-2015 in Austria, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom with intra-EU migrants about their experiences with the process of recognition of qualifications. The results signpost the role of labour shortages in the employment trajectories of immigrants with different wanted/unwanted professions and raise the issue of demand-supply matching mechanisms as key instruments contributing to the resilience of EU labour markets