New MPF publication: Partnerships for Mobility at the Crossroads - Lessons Learnt from 18 Months of Implementation of EU Pilot Projects on Legal Migration

  • The launch of the EU’s New Pact on Migration and Asylum, and its proposed Talent Partnership framework, has brought renewed interest and attention to the role of labour migration in EU cooperation with third countries. The EU-funded Pilot Projects on Legal Migration, under implementation since 2019, and to a large degree financed through ICMPD’s Mobility Partnership Facility, offer important insights into existing practices for further development of policy and funding frameworks on skills mobility and migration.

The new MPF policy brief explores the preliminary lessons learnt from 18 months of implementation of projects that exemplify important approaches and principles at the heart of the proposed Talent Partnerships. While form and scope of mobility, and targeted stakeholders differ from one Pilot Project to another, all of them have sought to test different methodologies addressing the forming of partnerships, skills and labour market research, candidate search and selection, matching between candidates and employment or educational offers, as well as the organisation of placements and reintegration activities.

The insights gathered in the context of these early Pilots feature important success factors for design and implementation of mobility schemes, and shine a light on the areas where more dedicated efforts will be needed to help mobility initiatives thrive and deliver on their ambitious goals.

This policy brief highlights the potential to capitalise on the Pilot Projects by recognising their importance as system diagnostic tools for cooperation on legal migration. Learnings from them can help EU and national-level decision makers to formulate strategic choices that will ultimately contribute to scaling up mobility projects for the benefit of all stakeholders.

Read the full brief here.