Making Labour Migration Work: Identifying Skills Shortages and Attracting Migrant Workers as Part of the Solution

This half-day conference will bring together Irish and international speakers to provide a comparative overview of approaches to identifying labour shortages, and related migration policy formulation. Recent policy developments in Ireland and Europe indicate that migration is one, increasingly well established, part of the response to identified shortages. The conference will also provide insights into new measures used to compete for migrant workers needed to fill the identified skills and labour gaps

Joint conference hosted by EMN Ireland, within the Economic and Social Research Institute, and the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation.

Programme

8:45

Arrival and Registration

9:15

Welcome Address

Alan Barrett, Director, ESRI

9:20

Opening Remarks

Ged Nash, TD, Minister for Business and Employment at the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

9:30

SESSION 1: Approaches to identifying labour shortages and informing migration policy

Chair: Martin Shanagher, Assistant Secretary General, Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

New approaches to labour migration in the OECD

Jean-Christophe Dumont, Head of International Migration Division, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

Approaches to identifying labour shortages and informing migration policy: Review of the UK's Tier 2 routes for skilled migrant workers

Jennifer Smith, Member of Migration Advisory Committee, UK and Associate Professor of Economics, Warwick University

Identification of skills shortages in Ireland: Institutions, data and methods

Jasmina Behan, Labour Market Economist, Skills and Labour Market Research Unit, Solas, Ireland

10:30

Questions & Answers

10:50

Coffee Break

11:05

Competing internationally for migrant workers

Chair: Mr Kevin O’Sullivan, Head of Immigration Policy, Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service

Competing internationally for talent: Economic migration policy in Ireland

Fiona Flood, Head of Employment Permits and Economic Migration Policy and EU/EPSCO, Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

Ireland as a global centre for excellence

Mark Redmond, Chief Executive, American Chamber of Commerce

Competing internationally for migrant workers

Iván Martín, Migration Policy Centre, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute

12:05

Questions & Answers

12:25

Closing Remarks

Alan Barrett, Director, ESRI

12:35

Lunch

Further information - Conference programme

EMN Ireland is located within the ESRI and is financially supported by the European Union and the Irish Department of Justice and Equality.