The third edition of the Migration Winter Academy (2–6 February) tackled a central tension in national labour immigration policy: how to globalise labour markets while protecting local workers and safeguarding human rights.
Migrants fill critical roles in industries facing worker shortages, particularly in essential services like care and food production of high-income countries. These economies not only rely on migrant workers within their borders but also benefit from global supply chains that depend on migrants elsewhere.
A frequent challenge is that migrants might arrive to a given country with a permit to work, but they then enter into the fluidity of migration legal status, where people often transition from regular to semi-compliant to irregular statuses –not necessarily linearly. These changes can create significant right gaps. For instance, a recent study co-authored by Clare Fox-Ruhs, Robert Schuman Centre of Advanced Studies at the EUI, found that no European country fully protects irregular migrants from immigration enforcement when they attempt to claim labour rights.
The interest of the actors involved in governing people on the move (from states to employers) often diverges. As a result, addressing the core questions in labour immigration regulation –such as how to manage numbers, selection, and rights– remains far from straightforward.
Saki Tomita, University of Bath, highlighted the importance of framing coherent policy programmes for labour migration systems. According to Tomita, policymakers face a “political trilemma” which, if not reconciled, can lead to policy incoherence: balancing labour market demands and meeting employers’ needs across sectors while maintaining economic competitiveness; managing political pressure to control borders and limit immigration flows; and upholding human rights.
These tensions can create regulatory blind spots (for example, mislabelling programmes that prevent the application of appropriate labour standards), exploitation risks, and broader policy failures. The problem is made worse by the often-vague use of terms such as 'labour shortages' and 'skills', and by the politics behind definitions, including the blurred lines between 'international migrant', 'international migrant worker' and 'international labour migrant'.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution to labour shortages, and managing immigration and workforce needs is often more complex than governments can fully anticipate or coordinate.
As Martin Ruhs, Deputy Director of the Migration Policy Centre, put it: “Demand for migrant labour critically depends on the underlying economic and social model, and arises from a broad range of public policies and institutions that go beyond immigration policy. Therefore, this debate needs to include wider public policy areas, including labour market and social policies”.
At a moment marked by polarisation and binary narratives, the Migration Winter Academy gathered 22 professionals and offered them a space to explore critical questions in a slow-paced, reflective setting. A distinctive feature of this training is providing participants with the opportunity to step back from their organisations and roles to engage with academics and practitioners from different countries. Through informal gatherings, sessions, and dedicated sessions to present their work, they exchange perspectives and build cross-sector dialogue.
“I can definitely say that this Academy gave me motivation to get back into the field of migration with greater focus. It provided me with ideas that I can integrate into my career plans”, said one participant.
For those interested in deepening their understanding of policy debates on the governance of international migration, asylum, human mobility, and transnationalism, the Migration Policy Centre is now accepting applications for its upcoming Migration Summer School, which will take place from Monday 22 June to Friday 3 July 2026 in Florence.