Invitation - Challenges associated with short-term labour mobility - 13&14 June - Brussels

Challenges associated with short-term labour mobility: third-country nationals, posted workers, seasonal workers, and refugees

ETUI Seminar

13-14 June, ITUC building, first floor, room B

Short-term labour mobility is a structural and permanent feature of the European labour market. However, in its many forms it also raises significant challenges for the European Union, the Member States, stakeholders, and migrant workers themselves. External shocks such as the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine have also brought new and at times unpredictable challenges for short-term labour migrants as regards their role and integration in the labour market.

This two-day seminar will explore these challenges and sketch out some possible solutions to the main issues around short-term labour migration in its various forms. A special emphasis will be put on short-term migrant workers from third countries (including Ukrainian refugees who have been given immediate access to the European labour market), posted workers, and seasonal workers. The idea behind the event is to bring together the research expertise gathered in the last few years with the political and administrative experience of the key stakeholders working in the field in order to identify not only the challenges but also potential solutions and improvements for protecting and representing the interests of short-term labour migrants.

Programme Monday 13 June

12.00 – 12.30 Registration and lunch

12.30 – 12.45  Welcome

Zane Rasnača (ETUI, Belgium)
Nathan Lillie (University of Jyväskylä, Finland)

12.45 – 14.45 Session 1: Setting the scene: protecting short-term labour migrants

Chair: Mojca Vah Jevšnik (Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Slovenia)

Speakers:
Zane Rasnača (ETUI, Belgium)
Nathan Lillie (University of Jyväskylä, Finland)
Frederic De Wispelaere (KU Leuven, Belgium)

14.45 – 15.00 Coffee break

15.00 – 16.30 Session 2: Political challenges to short-term labour migrant regulation

Chair: Nicola Countouris (ETUI, Belgium)

Speakers:

Claes-Mikael Stahl (ETUC, Belgium)
Robert Plummer (BusinessEurope, Belgium)
Agnes Jongerius (MEP, European Parliament, Belgium)
Representative from the European Commission, tbc

16.30 Closing of the first day

Tuesday 14 June 9.00 – 9.15 Welcome coffee

9.15 – 10.45

Session 3: Third-country nationals as short-term migrants

Chair: Devi Sacchetto (Universita degli Studi di Padova, Italy)

Speakers:

Silvia Borelli (Researcher, University of Ferrara, Italy) Quivine Ndomo & Katarzyna Kärkkäinen (University of Jyväskylä, Finland)
Rutvica Andrijasevic (University of Bristol, UK)

10.45 – 11.00 Coffee break

11.00 – 12.30 Session 4: Short-term migrants’ labour market and social security outcomes

Chair: Francesca Alice Vianello (Universita degli Studi di Padova, Italy)

Speakers:

Wouter Zwysen (ETUI, Belgium)
Vladimir Bogoeski (University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands)
Sonila Danaj (European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research, Austria)
Cecilia Bruzelius (University of Tübingen, Germany)

12.30 – 13.30 Lunch

13.30 – 14.45 Session 5: Integrating Ukrainians in the labour market

Chair: Mehtap Akgüç (ETUI, Belgium)

Speakers:

Izabela Florczak (Assistant Professor, University of Lodz, Poland)
Olena Feyduk (Universita degli Studi di Padova, Italy)
Dominika Polkowska (Maria Curie-Sklodowska University, Poland)

14.45 – 15.00 Coffee break

15.00 – 16.20 Session 6: (Round table) Defending the rights of short-term labour migrants

Chair: Jens Arnholtz (Employment Relations Research Centre, Denmark)

Speakers:

Mikko Murto (Finnish labour Inspectorate, Finland)
Lotte Dickow Schmidth (FHO, Denmark)
Phillipp Brokes (Chamber of Labour, Vienna)
Marek Benio (European Labour Mobility Institute, Poland)
Robertas Lukaševičius (European Labour Authority, Slovakia)

16.20 – 16.30 Concluding remarks

Zane Rasnača (ETUI, Belgium)
Nathan Lillie (University of Jyväskylä, Finland