Skills Partnerships for Sustainable and Just Migration Patterns

Background and Problem

Many countries face an existing or growing shortage of skilled workers. In Germany, the areas currently most affected are nursing and care, freight transport, technical (including construction-related) occupations and the hospitality sector (Bundesagentur für Arbeit, 2023). When specialists and experts are also taken into account, childcare, software development and pharmacy are added to the list (ibid.). Many industrialised nations depend on migrants to cope with their domestic shortage of skilled workers (Lio-Farrer, Green & Cole, 2023). Irregular migration leads to considerable disadvantages for those concerned, since they have no access to the regular labour market. Efforts to overcome the shortage of skilled workers therefore focus primarily on regular migration, e.g. the creation of new regular pathways (Bendel, 2022). However, it is evident that even regular labour migration poses a challenge for systems and actors (Uluğ, 2022). Overqualification or being overlooked in recruitment (cf. Mergener, 2018) are only a fraction of a more comprehensive lack of fit. Added to this are qualification systems that do not (or cannot) respond adequately, in terms of quality, to changing requirements.

The SKILLS4JUSTICE project is creating an evidence base for the design of just and sustainable regular migration against the backdrop of skills partnerships between the participating partner countries. To this end, various examples of a lack of fit between qualifications, work and individual circumstances are identified and analysed, and possible solutions are developed. This evidence base is validated with relevant labour migration actors as the process unfolds and is made accessible to the various actors through a range of formats.

Research questions

• What form does the shortage of skilled workers take in the five participating EU countries and six non-EU countries in the context of global labour migration?

• Which type(s) of skills partnership have the potential to remedy the identified shortage of skilled workers in the participating EU and non-EU countries?

• How do (labour) migrants experience their migration pathways, and what experiences do they have in the labour markets of the destination countries of labour migration?

• Which instruments can be identified and provided in order to develop and establish skills partnerships between the participating EU and non-EU countries?

Approach and Methods

The cross-national research project begins with an analysis of the country-specific manifestations of skilled labour shortages, as a function of labour market requirements, the qualification profiles of labour migrants and the framework conditions for labour migration in the national context (WP2 so-called destination countries; WP3 so-called countries of origin). Building on a country-specific literature review, national and international data sets are analysed descriptively, and the results are explored in greater depth through problem-centred interviews (Witzel, 2009) and focus groups at national level. The aim of this first step is a synthesising analysis of the conditions in the partner countries, oriented towards the sectors with the greatest need. The theoretical foundation is provided by concepts for the design of structures (e.g. Global Skills Partnerships; cf. Clemens, 2015; ILO, 2019) and by approaches to capturing capability (e.g. Skills Ecosystem; cf. Buchanan et al., 2016). In the next step, the results of the comparative analysis are communicatively validated through interviews with labour migrants (Meyer, 2018) and supplemented by their perspective (WP4). In WP5, enabling and hindering conditions for local development processes are condensed on the basis of the results obtained so far, focusing on qualifications acquired abroad, the recruitment of skilled workers and the prerequisites for educational cooperation on an equal footing. In addition to the joint activities within the consortium, smaller accompanying research projects with varying country constellations are being carried out.

Results and Expected Results

Important results of the SKILLS4JUSTICE project are the country reports on models of skilled labour shortage produced in WP2 and WP3, as well as scientific publications. The most important result of the project is the ‘toolkit’. This is being developed over the course of the project for the target groups of policymakers, education actors at political and institutional level, and actors in migration policy. Its purpose is to enable these stakeholders to develop just and sustainable pathways for competence development in the context of migration. The form of the ‘toolkit’ is being shaped together with the actors as the project progresses.

Dissemination and Transfer Activities

Every work package provides for dissemination activities. Since the results are addressed to different target groups (e.g. the scientific community, policymakers, employers and their associations), different output formats are planned. These include focus groups (WP2 and WP3), ‘round tables’ (WP4, WP5, WP6), participation in international conferences through either research workshops or scientific presentations, an overarching presentation of results in the context of European institutions (e.g. Cedefop), and a total of four scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals. A final conference will be held in Lithuania at the end of the project.

Klaus, F. & Kühn, I.K. (2026) Sustainable labor migration through vocational education and training providers? Conditions of access and accessibility in the public-private (continuing) VET sector. Front. Educ. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2025.1735860