Originally published here.
The Lisbon strategy is the most important driver of EU socio-economic policy, and heavily influences the policy priorities of Member States. It is important for actors in the racial equality and migration fields to understand the Lisbon Strategy in order to capitalise on the opportunities it presents for improving the situation of people vulnerable to racism. Which people are vulnerable to racism? ENAR has defined the following communities in Europe as being vulnerable to racism: Roma, Sinti and Travellers; migrants including EU nationals and third country nationals, particularly undocumented migrants and asylum seekers; the Jewish community; the Muslim community; long-standing ethnic minority communities; national minorities; more recent migrants; and EU citizens in the context of intra-EU migration.
While there appears to be a correlation between a community’s vulnerability to racism and its socio-economic standing, there are exceptions. For example, many Jewish communities do not experience widespread socio-economic disadvantage despite the long-standing racism they have encountered. The target group for this research is ‘migrants and ethnic minorities’, a term which broadly encompasses most of the communities vulnerable to racism and reflects the target group of the Lisbon strategy (which does not explicitly include religious communities).
Despite focusing on ‘migrants and ethnic minorities’, this paper includes the relevant information found on religious groups and national minorities, albeit very limited. The purpose of this publication is to examine the social and employment dimensions of the Lisbon Strategy in order to establish the extent to which the situation of migrants and ethnic minorities and others vulnerable to racism is taken into account in European and national strategies with a view to identifying advocacy strategies for anti-racist civil society organisations to ensure that this issue is given the attention it requires.
Monitoring the situation of migrants and ethnic minorities is one of the most effective ways for ensuring that the Lisbon strategy improves the socio-economic life of migrant and ethnic minorities. Statistics can reveal inequalities as well as measure the impact of strategies put in place to overcome these inequalities. Statistics point to the fact that there is a problem, and that something (more) needs to be done so that all people in European societies are able to realise their full potential. The Lisbon strategy uses indicators, targets and benchmarks to focus the attention of Member States and to monitor the effectiveness of the strategy.
To a limited degree there are indicators to monitor the situation of migrants and ethnic minorities. This publication provides commentary on whether existing monitoring, particularly in relation to migrants and ethnic minorities, is effective and suggests options for addressing the limitations identified. Chapter one provides an overview of the overarching Lisbon Open Method of Coordination (OMC). It examines its framework and policy priorities as outlined in the Integrated Guidelines on Growth and Jobs, which directs the work of the European Employment Strategy and the Social Inclusion and Social Protection Strategy.
The Lisbon OMC’s monitoring framework is examined, including use of indicators, targets, benchmarking and its newly devised analytical tool (LIME assessment framework), which measures the impact of migration and integration. Chapter two examines the data options for monitoring the socio-economic situation of migrants and ethnic minorities. It looks at the available data sources that allow for comparability across EU states and notes the limitations of migration-related data and the absence of data on ethnic background, race and religion.
It looks at the strengths and weakness of using data on country of birth and nationality as ‘proxy variables’ for capturing migrant status and provides suggestions for examining the situation of different categories of migrants and ethnic minorities using EU data. It highlights the value of the 2008 ‘Labour Force Survey ad hoc module on the labour market situation of migrants and their immediate descendants’ in better understanding the situation of different types of migrants and concludes with a brief examination of work being done by the Social Inclusion and Social Protection Strategy to improve data on migrants and ethnic minorities at the national level.
Chapter three focuses on the inclusion of migrants and ethnic minorities within the European Employment Strategy (EES). It looks at monitoring at the European level through the use of indicators, and the limited use of targets and benchmarking. Shortcomings in current monitoring at the EU level are highlighted and a number of opportunities for better monitoring are presented. The chapter then looks at the implementation of the Lisbon Strategy at the national level through National Reform Programmes by identifying strategies being used to improve the labour market and educational outcomes of migrants and ethnic minorities as well as the use of target setting and indicators.
Chapter four focuses on the social inclusion strand of the Social Inclusion and Social Protection strategy (the Social OMC). It provides an overview of the OMC framework and then outlines the extent to which migrants and ethnic minority groups are targeted. The chapter explains how the Social OMC monitors progress at the European level through the use of indicators (it does not use targets or benchmarking at the EU level).
It looks at the limited monitoring being done on the situation of migrants and ethnic minorities at the EU level and presents a number of options for improvement. The focus then turns to the national level. In each chapter strategies are presented that are aimed at making the situation of migrants and ethnic minorities a policy priority of the Lisbon strategy, both in its implementation at the EU and national levels. Racial equality and migration actors can use this information to inform their advocacy strategies as well as their own data collection and analysis on the socio-economic situation of migrants and ethnic minorities.
The Commission has made significant efforts to encourage Member States to address migrants and ethnic minorities as a matter of urgency. It expresses its opinion that, while some Member States take a comprehensive approach to the various dimensions of social inclusion (participation in the labour market and access to housing but also in social, cultural and political life) and focus on involving both immigrants and the host society, the non-prioritisation of the issue and absence of details in most National Action Plans on Social Inclusion comes across as a potentially serious omission.
The Commission has stated in its guidance on preparing National Action Plans that Member States are recommended to reflect that the social integration of migrants needs to be given more attention on selecting key objectives; and has made it mandatory to report on the situation of migrants and ethnic minorities in National Action Plans. Therefore, it is not surprising that the inclusion of migrants and ethnic minorities is much more prominent in the National Action Plans than in the National Reform Programmes even though there is a significant overlap between the issues identified in the National Action Plans and the National Reform Programmes, particularly in the areas of employment and the labour market.Anti-racist civil society organisations can advocate to Member States that migrants and ethnic minorities be included in National Action Plans on Social Inclusion as a specific target group. This can include an explicit reminder of the Commission’s strong views on the prioritisation of migrants and ethnic minorities in National Action Plans.
The significant amount of work being done at the national level to improve the situation of migrants and ethnic minorities provides opportunities for mutual learning, however the lack of data makes it difficult to identify best practice. The Commission has already identified examples of good practice in the 2009 National Action Plans on Social Inclusion and Member States could direct their attention to these successful initiatives to see if they have relevance for their own national situation.
Without using targets and benchmarks, the Commission has been largely reliant upon the will of Member States to commit to improving the social inclusion of migrants and ethnic minorities. If Member States agree to proposals to introduce target-setting into the Social OMC, this would be an opportune time to ensure that targets are disaggregated, where possible, to examine the situation of migrants and ethnic minorities.
The Commission notes that there is not only a lack of reliable data, but that data is required that can examine the situation of different types of migrants and ethnic minorities. In addition, it is taking active steps to try to improve the quantity and quality of information available, although its efforts are focused at the national level.
The Social OMC could give consideration to a number of data sources that have been identified in this paper that can provide a better understanding of the situation of migrants and ethnic minorities, and which provide the potential for a wider range of indicators that can be disaggregated on migration-related grounds, or which directly capture migration-related dimensions. The Commission’s drive for better data to capture the situation of migrants and ethnic minorities suggests they are likely to be receptive to recommendations in this area, for example, that its only national indicator ‘employment gap of immigrants’ be recast as an EU level indicator.
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