The European Union is planning a "blue card" to lure highly
skilled migrants by offering financial and housing benefits, and
cutting red tape.
The 27-nation bloc is trying to compete with the US "green card"
system and schemes in other Western countries for the
best-qualified migrant labor which is increasingly important to
plug labor gaps in the aging developed world.
The scheme, proposed by the European Commission yesterday, would
offer candidates a fast-track procedure to get work permits.
It would make it easier for them to work in another EU country,
have their family join them, receive public housing and get
long-term residency status, a draft shows.
To qualify for a blue card, a migrant would need an EU job
contract of at least one year guaranteeing a salary of at least
three times the minimum wage in the country concerned plus health
insurance, the text shows.
The proposal "aims... to improve the EU's ability to attract,
and where necessary, to retain highly qualified workers," the draft
text to be approved by the EU executive says.
"The EU as a whole... seems not to be considered attractive by
highly qualified professionals in a context of very high
international competition," the text says, referring in particular
to the US and Canada.
The scheme must gain approval from all 27 member states and
faces resistance in some countries, notably Germany.
The holder of a card would be able to have his or her family
join them, at the latest, six months after having asked for it and
without having to prove that he or she had reasonable prospects of
obtaining a permanent residence permit.
The holder of an EU blue card would be treated in the same way
as EU nationals regarding tax benefits, social assistance, and
payment of pensions when moving to another country.
The migrant should also be entitled to the same access to public
housing and study grants, although a member government could chose
to do so only after the person had stayed three years in its
territory.
The blue card would be valid for up to two years and could then
be renewed. It could be revoked if its holder loses his or her job
and is unemployed for more than three months.
The EU executive will also propose making it easier for young
high-skilled migrants to get the blue card.
Those under 30 years old would need only to earn twice the
minimum wage to be entitled to the scheme. Governments could decide
to waive the salary requirement altogether if the migrant had
obtained a bachelor's or master's degree in an EU state.
If they agree to the law, EU states would then have two years to
implement it.
(China Daily October 24, 2007)
