Presentation by John Kellock (Policy Advisor, European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights) on the occasion of the conference on Immigration – a source of wealth and duties for Europe organised by the EESC, the Council of Europe and the French Economic, Social and Environmental Council in Brussels on 15 March 2013.

1. CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY
IMMIGRATION – A SOURCE OF WEALTH AND DUTIES FOR EUROPE
Respect for immigrants’ fundamental rights: a duty
I would like to thank the organisers for inviting me today. I believe that conferences such as
this provide us with an opportunity not only to discuss a key issue in public discourse, but to
share our understanding and knowledge and move forward with a more comprehensive and
calibrated view of immigrants and their contribution to Europe’s wealth and its global
competitiveness.
This is a particularly opportune moment as Europe is still experiencing the financial and
economic crisis, and the mid to long term exit strategy from the crisis has been outlined
through priorities, initiatives and targets under the Europe 2020 strategy for smart,
sustainable and inclusive growth.
It has been refreshing to discuss immigration as an opportunity and source of wealth, and
also the recognition that immigrants are interconnected globally in ways different to host
populations.
And there is also the very practical consideration related to the reality of present day
Europe’s demographic changes – two major facts stick out, Europe’s population is ageing
and living longer and migration accounts for the largest proportion of the EU’s population
growth.
Some interesting figures emerge from Eurostat’s demography report in 2010. EU-27
Member States are host to around 20 million non-EU-nationals and around 5 million non-
nationals have acquired EU citizenship since 2001.
As a practical thought - I do not think that anyone can reasonably argue that in the EU we
should not respect the rights of 25 million people, and that we should exclude them from
labour markets or opportunities to contribute to the EU’s wealth – and pay taxes!
Given that most immigrants are relatively young and have arrived quite recently they
contribute to the size of the EU-27 labour force. Among EU nationals, in addition to the
approximately 8% of foreign-born people residing in the EU, a further 5% have at least one
foreign-born parent, and this category is expected to grow. By 2060, persons of all
nationalities with at least one foreign-born parent are expected to account for close to a
third of the EU-27 population. An even larger percentage of the work-force will be of foreign
descent.
Looking at migration therefore I think we can say that respect for immigrants’ fundamental
rights is not only a duty, but a necessity.
1

2. As I have said this adds to a more comprehensive and calibrated view of immigration and its
contribution to a nation’s wealth and well-being. I say this as in my experience all too often
a discussion about immigration quickly assumes a defensive posture for those who defend
immigrant’s rights. The resulting debate tends to devalue the role and contribution of
immigrants, or assumes no long term consequences, or impact of certain actions against
immigrants on the global stage or in the global market place.
The truth is we cannot afford not to respect the rights of a substantial proportion of our
future workforce, and that how we treat immigrants today will impact positively or
negatively on future social cohesion, wealth creation and the EU’s global competitiveness.
What I would like to do is demonstrate how fundamental rights underpins much of what we
have discussed here today and that fundamental rights is important in order for us to
achieve the outcomes I believe that are beneficial for immigrants, the general population,
society and the economy.
Rights do four important things – they guarantee respect, fairness, opportunity and
protection. With regard to immigrants - All these things provide immigrants with the
confidence to participate actively in the social, cultural and economic life of the country,
society and community.
In the work of the Agency we have focused predominantly on those rights which guarantee
respect, fairness and protection – rights which are fundamental to improving the situation
of the most vulnerable of the immigrants.
They have formed the basis of our opinions in our reports on experiences of immigrants in
employment, the situation of immigrants in an irregular situation employed in domestic
work, accessing healthcare or in the future in relation to severe forms of labour exploitation.
The Agency pointed out that while the Member States are not under an obligation to offer
the same benefits to irregular immigrants as to nationals, they must follow a core set of
human rights standards.
And these include access to:
necessary healthcare for all, including emergency as well as essential healthcare, such as
the possibility to see a doctor or to receive necessary medicines;
healthcare for pregnant women, and healthcare and education for children on the same
basis as nationals;
justice – a mechanism allowing an individual to make a complaint and get a remedy such
as compensation, for example, for a work accident, and
access to primary school education
The treatment of immigrants also forms part of our views on the Seasonal Workers Directive
and the need to prevent abuse of their situation, ensure that they have adequate
information about their rights and that their rights are protected.
In addition, the Agency has highlighted that immigrants are victims of hate crimes:
2

3. In the Agency’s 2008 European Union Minorities and Discrimination Survey (EU-MIDIS),
which surveyed 23,500 respondents with an ethnic minority or immigrant background,
found that more than one in four respondents considered themselves to have been a victim
of ‘racially motivated’ in-person crime (assault or threat, or serious harassment) over the 12
months preceding the survey.
And immigrants still face labour market discrimination with persistent patterns of inequality
between immigrants and minority groups in the labour market and the overall majority
populations, in particular migrant and minority women.
Yes, we still have a long way to go.
Recalibrating perceptions of immigrants
At the Agency we are now complementing our focus on respect, fairness and protection
with an emphasis on the way rights guarantee opportunity whether through education,
access to goods and services, freedom of expression or the freedom to conduct business,
rights create an enabling environment in which entrepreneurship and innovation, for
example, can be nurtured.
We therefore have to be careful how we define or perceive immigrants – yes, immigrants
can be in vulnerable situations due to a variety of factors such as social status,
discrimination, prejudice, residential status, cultural difference, language etc., but we
should be careful about institutionalising an image of all immigrants as poor, low skilled, low
educated and dependent on social protection. Immigrants are different and they come to
the EU with different sets of skills, education levels and connections – policy makers need to
recognise this if we want to ensure that immigrants contribute to society and the economy
as effectively as possible.
Immigrants need the acknowledgement of their contribution and they need to know that
they have potential similar to others in society. We need to start saying that immigrants are
also job and wealth creators, that they contribute to innovating goods and services, that
they are high achievers as well whether, for example, in education or commerce.
Identikit images of immigrants and an overwhelming at times emphasis on becoming to all
extents and purposes identical with the majority population through integration approaches
needs careful consideration. The danger is that there is a devaluing or disregard for those
qualities, skills, contacts and ways of doing things of immigrants – the very things that can
add to a nation’s abilities to connect and compete in a globalised market. Rights provide a
framework and context to respect and protect those qualities, skills and contacts.
Greater consideration of immigrants as people in their own right and with a set of useful
qualities, skills and connections needs to be promoted more actively. The task of policy
makers is to devise ways to tap into this potential and channel it into economic growth and
social cohesion.
3

4. The immigrant experience and reality is more complex, varied and differentiated. There is a
compelling positive narrative about immigration and its benefits which can get lost in the
public discourse about immigration.
As we have heard immigrants contribute to national wealth, economic growth, job creation,
innovation and global interconnectedness whether socially or for business. Immigrant
experiences and networks can influence foreign direct investment.
From a rights perspective we have to ensure that those rights associated with dignity, equal
treatment, non-discrimination, opportunity to contribute to economic activity, social
cohesion and participation in decision-making structures in society are respected and
actionable.
Rights such as those related to access to education allow immigrants over time to move
from low skilled work to high skilled work and contribute to innovation and knowledge.
Rights associated with the freedom to conduct business, equal treatment and non-
discrimination allow immigrants to be entrepreneurs and to found a business. It involves
creating an enabling environment for immigrants to access goods and services equally in
order to support entrepreneurship and business.
This means ensuring for example:
1) that bank lending policies and access to finance are available in a non-discriminatory way
to immigrant business,
2) thatimmigrants receive the same support as other small businesses during the crucial
phases of the business life cycle, and
3) a better understanding of the immigrant market by lenders and venture capitalists.
Similarly a different narrative and approach about integration needs to be developed. The
discussion on integration needs to move rapidly from a narrative about integrating low
skilled and low educated people to one about harnessing the economic and social potential
of newcomers, thinking that is focused not only on integrating, but in renewal and
opportunity. Many current policies, from this narrow perspective, have inadvertently led to
what is in effect a one-sided welfare discussion, which has inflated the negative views of
immigrants. The reality is more complexand can be more positive.
The debate on immigrant workers therefore needs to be complemented by a discussion on
immigrants’ connections in the global market place, immigrant’s contribution to economic
growth, on immigrant business leaders and on immigrant-led workplaces in the EU. Let’s
bring the smart as well as inclusion into our integration thinking and policies.Smart
integration for the knowledge and networked world.
A useful way to understand the potential and obstacles that immigrant entrepreneurs and
business face would be to collect European wide data on immigrants’ attitudes to business
opportunities, experiences of bank lending practices, access to business finance, business
4

5. ownership experience and their social and economic networks with countries of origins or in
other EU Member States.
Europe 2020 provides an important framework to highlight the contribution of immigrants
and immigration, and immigrants should not be parked exclusively under inclusive growth
and poverty reduction. There needs to be greater acknowledgement of their role now and in
the future labour and knowledge markets, their potential contribution to smart and
sustainable growth and the Union’s flagship initiatives.
The Fundamental Rights Agency is currently undertaking a project on the freedom to
conduct business which will include data collection on legislation and procedures with
respect to opportunities and constraints to conduct business. The project identifies both
barriers as well as good practices concerning the freedom to conduct business. Immigrants
will be one of the groups addressed in the project. Hopefully this can contribute to
recalibrating the image of immigrants in the European Union.
5