Luxembourg, 3 December 2024
- Migrants made up 6.1 % of the EU’s population in 2023.
- Around €1.9 billion was allocated to EU member states for integration measures under the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) for 2021-2027.
- AMIF’s contribution to migrant integration was difficult to assess, also because member states did not monitor integration pathways.
The actual impact of EU aid for migrant integration remains to be seen, according to a new report by the European Court of Auditors. While the auditors recognise that the measures financed by the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) were relevant for supporting integration, they also point to shortcomings. They criticise the risk that the administrative complexity of the supported programmes may limit their added value, and the fact that the programmes are not always tailored to needs. They also found that the information member states provided about the effects achieved was unreliable.
After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the number of non-EU citizens legally residing in an EU country (so-called ‘third-country nationals’) rose to 27.3 million, i.e. 6.1 % of the EU’s population in 2023. Around 73 % of migrants lived in just four member states: Germany (28 %), Spain (16 %), France (15 %) and Italy (14 %).
The Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund resources allocated to integration measures (such as language training, careers advice and measures to promote social orientation) in the various member states’ programmes totalled approximately €1 billion for the 2014-2020 budgetary period, and almost doubled to around €1.9 billion for 2021-2027. Additional Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund resources are directly managed by the Commission for integration measures. Other EU funds, such as the European Social Fund (ESF), the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+), the European Regional Development Fund, and other programmes such as Erasmus+, may also contribute to integrating migrants and people with a migrant background.
“The Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund should play an important role in supporting the integration of migrants in the EU”, said Viorel Ștefan, the ECA Member in charge of the audit. “However, in the absence of legal requirements, member states do not consistently monitor the actions to help migrants overcome barriers on the way to integration. As a result, the Fund’s contribution to migrant integration is difficult to assess”.
The auditors found that the Commission reviewed member state reporting within an existing and well-structured system, but that the data provided were not always reliable. In Spain, for example, the underlying data on all integration projects showed that the number of participants was twice as high as the number actually reported to the Commission. Monitoring was largely based on outputs, such as the number of participants in integration measures funded by AMIF, or the number of integration projects supported by AMIF. Such output data provide only partial information, as they were largely dependent on the national models chosen to implement AMIF. The Commission nevertheless used the number of beneficiaries as one of its key performance indicators. The audit also revealed that member states did not generally align the (mostly decreasing) number of migrants included in their national integration programmes with the increase in the AMIF funds allocated for this purpose. On average, AMIF support per participant was expected to rise considerably between the two programming periods. However, there was no analysis to justify the targets for participant numbers.
Furthermore, tailoring integration measures to specific groups of migrants varied in the member states the auditors visited. While recognising skills and qualifications is increasingly important for integration into the labour market, AMIF support for this area was marginal, although other EU funds such as the ESF can address the issue.
The auditors recommend that the Commission, in cooperation with the member states, should identify financing gaps, streamline AMIF programming for migrant integration, collect and share best practices, enhance project data reliability, and improve monitoring and reporting on AMIF support. In addition, the Commission should refine the reporting framework by the end of 2026 so as better to assess AMIF’s impact on integration pathways.
Background information
Since 2004, the Council has stressed the strategic importance of the orderly integration of migrants, and has set out 11 common basic principles for immigrant integration policy in the EU. In 2016, the Commission adopted an Action plan on the integration of third-country nationals, containing measures to support member states and other parties in their integration efforts. In 2020, the Commission adopted a new Action plan on integration and inclusion (2021-2027) with additional action to address gaps in key areas (such as education, employment, and access to healthcare) between host-country nationals and migrants, and between different migrant communities. The European Parliament also adopted the Pact on Migration and Asylum on 10 April 2024.
This report complements the ECA’s previous audits of EU migration policy: Special report 06/2017: “EU response to the refugee crisis”, Special report 24/2019: “Asylum, relocation and return of migrants”, and Special report 17/2021: “EU readmission cooperation with third countries”.
Read the ECA report
Read the EU Commission replies
Related links
Source – ECA