National and European Immigration Policy After the EU Enlargement

The 4th seminar on: National and European Immigration Policy After the EU Enlargement organized within the CASE European Seminars series will be held on May 16, 2003, in the premises of Bank Handlowy,  Leopold Kronenberg Conference Room, 7/9 Traugutta.

The CASE European Seminars series is a joint venture of CASE and the Leopold Kronenberg Foundation.

Seminar will be held both in Polish and English (interpreting provided).

PROGRAMME

11:00-12:00            The demand for the foreign labour force in Poland, Prof. Dariusz Stola, Centre of Migration Research; Prof. Marek Bednarski, Institute of Labour and Social Affairs, Jeremi Mordasewicz, Polish Confederation of Private Employers

12:00-13:00            Prospects for an active immigration policy in Poland, under the consideration of the aecquis and of the country-specific aspects,  Dr Maciej Duszczyk, Office of the Committe for the European Integration; Janusz Grzyb, Ministry of Economics, Labour and Social Policy; Jakub Boratyński, Stefan Batory Foundation

13:00-13:15            Break

13:15-13:45            Prospects for an active immigration policy on the Community level, Sergio Carrera, Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), Brussels

13:45-14:30            Immigrants on the national labour markets: present situation, policy and future developments, Dr Pal Nyiri, Central European University, Budapest, Sona Stara, Czech Ministry of Labour and Social Issues

The seminar forms a part of the project entitled 'New Community - Old Polcies?' realised by the Center for Social and Economic Research (The CASE Foundation) in Warsaw together with the Institute of World Economy of the Hungarian Academy of Science, Academia Istropolitana Nova from Slovakia and the Civic Association 'Europeum' from the Czech Republic. The project seeks to unveil the challenges to the economic and social policies that will come together with the EU accession of the Visegrad group (V-4) countries, by bringing an international group of experts and practitioners together to analyse selected policy areas of particular importance.

Some EU member states have adopted concrete initiatives in the field of active immigration policy to address increasing labour market shortages and demographic problems. For a longer time there has been a fierce discussion between the proponents of replacement immigration, that is immigration aimed at compensating for the inevitable population decline (and labour force decline) in Europe, and those claiming that the demand for foreign labour force is negligible. However a persistent presence of the foreigners on the labour markets has become a widespread phenomenon not only in the EU but also in the candidate countries. The seminar will tackle specific needs of the Polish labour market in terms of foreign labour force as well as the prospects of Poland realising its own active immigration policy after joining the European Union. From the point of view of not only accession countries but also of the current member states it would be interesting to examine the prospects of developing a common immigration policy at the EU level. More and more researchers are of the opinion that the EU countries should openly admit that they are in fact immigration countries and they should develop a common immigration policy.

The 'New Community - Old Policies?' project is supported by the International Visegrad Fund.