This European added value assessment (EAVA) has been written with the aim of providing support to the ongoing work on a European Parliament legislative-initiative report on legal migration policy and law (2020/2255(INI)).
The assessment reviews the key issues concerning legal migration in the status quo (with a focus on labour migration) and discusses the reasons why the EU should take action. It then explores a selection of possible EU actions, that include recognising migrants’ qualifications, facilitating access to employment of migrants already in the EU, developing new avenues for legal migration to the EU, tackling discrimination and promoting migrants’ rights.
The assessment finds that all policy options could generate substantial benefits for workers and spillover benefits for the EU economy. Moreover, as these policy options are complementary, they could be implemented together in order to enhance the added value of EU action.