“It is important to have an adequate overview of migration flows and labour mobility in order to enable appropriate policy-making and avoid problems such as misuse of social benefits,” said Taavi Rõivas, Minister of Social Affairs of Estonia in his opening statement at the ‘Migration and Demographic Challenges in the Nordic-Baltic Region’ conference on 7 & 8 March in Tallinn, Estonia.
“A very positive example here is the data exchange agreement between the population registers of Estonia and Finland,” he said. “There is definitely room for further cooperation in this field.”
The conference was initiated by the Nordic Council of Ministers’ Office in Estonia and aimed to bring together the results from a number of studies on migration and labour mobility in the Nordic countries and Baltic States.
Researchers, experts and policy- and decision-makers gathered to exchange experiences and present key findings from recent studies in order to start shaping a common understanding in the region regarding migration and demographic challenges. Around 240 participants attended the two-day conference. The event also marked the start of the Swedish presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers for 2013.
NordRegio, the Norwegian Institute for Labour and Social Research, the Finnish Institute of Migration in Turku and the Swedish Institute for Social Research were the research institutes involved from the Nordic countries. Ulf Holm, Second Deputy Speaker of the Swedish Parliament, touched upon migration as a motor for exports in Sweden.
A common thread between the countries is the major changes that have taken place in the last 20 years in the region and the different challenges the countries will face in the years to come. The Nordic countries underscore both positive and negative aspects of migration. Migration and free movement of labour are part of the Nordic mindset as well as the Nordic success story.
To solve current problems of economic challenges in the Baltic States, there is a need for increased productivity, a reduction in inactivity and unemployment and an increase in the birth rate in combination with immigration, said Raul Eamets, a professor from the University of Tartu in Estonia. A lesson for the Baltic region is how the countries will remain sending countries in the short term, but will turn into receiving countries in the long term.
A recurrent topic during the conference was the measures needed for better policy-making concerning migration and labour mobility. Improved data collection and exchange in order to understand migration processes was a view shared by several of the conference speakers. Other measures in improving migration policy were to inform citizens about their rights in order to prevent work exploitation and to support people to return to their countries of origin. An example from Latvia was to use social media and web-based surveys in order to gain knowledge about reasons for emigration. In Estonia, mobile positioning techniques are used to explore patterns of mobility.
The migration and demographic challenges project will continue with several conferences and workshops throughout the year in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Further information is available online at http://www.norden.ee/en.
Madis Kanarbik
Nordic Council of Ministers’ Office in Estonia
Telephone: +372 742 3625
E-mail: madis.kanarbik@norden.ee