Immigrant workers make a big difference in Europe

A survey of the European Union Labor Force has revealed that close to 31% of immigrants of working age work in key jobs in the EU.

The 3 categories of workers identified are:

• Native workers
• Extra-EU workers
• EU-Mobile workers

This share of workers in the EU is heterogeneous across the EU nations. The range is from 40% in France and Denmark to over 10% in Slovenia and Bulgaria.

The key jobs in the EU that are filled by these immigrants are:

• Cleaners and helpers
• Personal care workers
• Science & Engineering associates
• Skilled agricultural workers
• Teaching professionals

European countries like Slovakia, Poland, Bulgaria, and Romania account for a zero share of such key immigrant workers. Western European countries like Austria, Sweden, Germany, Belgium, and Italy account for 20% of such workers. Migrants to have visas like German work visa are significant when it comes to counting key immigrant workers. The percentage of certain other countries are as follows:

• Luxembourg - 53%
• Cyprus – 29%
• Ireland - 26%

In most of these countries, the share of extra-EU workers is greater than the EU-mobile workers. But in all, the contribution to key professions is more or less balanced in most member states.

It has been observed that in EU countries, the extra-EU migrants are overrepresented among low-skilled key workers. The low-skill workers include professions like drivers, food processing workers, transport and storage laborers, and health service workers.

Extra-EU citizens themselves account for over 14% of personal care workers, 17% of mining and construction workers, and 25% of helpers and cleaners.

The survey underlines the importance of migrant workers by virtue of the critical role they play in performing basic functions in societies in EU affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, the less-educated migrants play as key a role as the highly educated ones.

If you are looking to Study, Work, Visit, Invest or Migrate to Europe, talk to Y-Axis, the World’s No.1 Immigration & Visa Company.

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