Refugee Labour Mobility to the EU: A Tool Contributing to Fairer Sharing of Responsibilities in the Context of Forced Displacement?

The idea of facilitating labour mobility for refugees as a pathway for admission is back on the policy agenda. Such complementary pathways are promoted in the Global Compact for Refugees as means to facilitate access to protection and solutions in addition to resettlement, and praised by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees as directly contributing to easing pressure on host countries by promoting a fairer sharing of responsibilities. Yet, a significant shortcoming of work-based pathways is that in most cases they do not lead directly to a durable solution but rather offer a journey to a durable solution on the basis of temporary residence permits. This begs the question, to what extent can we rely on such pathways to support responsibility sharing and what happens in cases where beneficiaries of such complementary pathways lose residence rights? By comparing the different approaches applied to Ukrainian and Syrian refugees in the European Union, this article concludes that refugee labour mobility in its current state has the potential to contribute to fairer responsibility sharing only cumulatively with other durable solutions and complementary pathways, and when it provides admission facilitation coupled with a fast and clear path to permanent residence or legal mechanisms, ensuring possibilities for extension of residence rights and legality of stay.

Automated summary

The idea of facilitating labor mobility for refugees as an entry pathway is back on the policy agenda. However, a significant shortcoming of work-based pathways is that they often do not lead directly to a durable solution but rather offer a journey to a durable solution on the basis of temporary residence permits. This article concludes that refugee labor mobility can contribute to fairer responsibility sharing only when used cumulatively with other durable solutions and complementary pathways.