Rights of migrant workers in Europe
“We focus our advocacy on changes on an institutional and policy level”
The EU's immigration system creates dependency of migrant workers on the employers, says expert Lilana Keith from our partner organization PICUM. Here she explains what needs to change and how PICUM is working towards this.
There are millions of migrant workers in the EU. Why does their situation need to improve?
Migrant workers work across most sectors of the economy. Yet, they are often working in precarious conditions. The major difference with EU workers, when somebody is coming from outside of the EU, is related to their residence and work permit. The type of permit people receive is often linked with a specific employer and job. This means workers who have come from outside the EU are usually very dependent on their employer and on a particular job. For their status, for their permit, for their income, sometimes even for housing. Workers also often depend on their employer for information, as they are not familiar with the applicable regulations and in many cases it is their employer who manages the administrative procedures.
So, the immigration system creates dependency of migrant workers on the employers who sponsor their permit – they have few real alternatives and those alternatives are quite risky. At the same time, many migrant workers have made huge investments in their migration project. They've often racked up huge debts and no longer have any other home to go to. For them, losing a permit and having to leave the country can mean losing everything they have worked for.
You mentioned the precarious conditions of migrant workers. What are they like?
It is quite standard for people to be paid less than the minimum wage, to be working extra hours, sometimes quite extreme over-hours, and not being paid for those hours. People often have their wages withheld, there are delayed payments for some days, weeks, even months or completely missed payments. We call this wage theft. The work conditions are often quite harsh, that means people don’t have appropriate health and safety equipment, don’t have the possibility to take a break, are not able to have paid sick leave nor to take holidays. There is often no predictability, in terms of whether there will be enough work or way too much work, or stability and security, with people being made redundant from one day to another, without any reason or redundancy pay.
We focus our advocacy on trying to change things on an institutional and policy level. One aim is to address the lack of access to permits. The criteria and the conditions to get a work permit are not actually reflecting the reality of the labour market and of migrant worker’s needs. In many labour migration systems, it is just not possible to get a permit for the jobs migrant workers are doing. It is not possible to meet the criteria, or there are not enough permits available. Sometimes people don’t get the permits because they are undocumented or only have a tourist visa, and are not allowed to apply from within the country.
At the same time, we don’t want any kind of permit: we aim to ensure that the permits issued are better quality, in terms of being longer in duration and more easily renewable, in terms of labour market mobility and independence from employers, and in terms of the family, social and residence rights they provide.
When permits are dependent on an employer, people often become undocumented if they lose their job. When workers are undocumented, they often can’t turn to the same actors that a citizen can turn to when they have a dispute with their employer. They are often not member of a trade union, and could face major challenges and risks if they try to seek justice through the labour inspection complaints mechanisms, or by taking a case before the Labour Court. We don't expect all migrant workers to do this kind of legal action because it's also quite complicated. But if they're not able to do so and exercise their rights, it kind of gives a free card to employers to exploit them.
We're trying to change those systems to also make sure that it's possible for workers, including when they are undocumented, to stand up for their rights, negotiate with their employers, and if their employers will not respect their rights, to take legal action.
In April 2024, the EU council adopted revised rules on work permits for migrant workers. Are you satisfied with the improvements achieved?
One of the important reforms is around the right to change employers. This was one of our priorities for the revision of the law. At least on paper, the revision is a key step forward. It introduces for migrant workers a right to change employer, and it limits the possibilities that governments have to restrict that right. Now we need to see what this will look like in practice: we have to make sure that if governments will introduce any kind of procedure for workers to change employers, it is substantively different from the current situation. The procedure needs to be simple, free, fast and predictable in terms of a process.