The EU funds jobless youths to find work abroad – more Britons should participate

Jonathan Lindsell, 4 August 2015

A story in The Telegraph today entitled ‘EU pays jobless migrants to come to Britain’ explains how 1,178 EU citizens have used the ‘Your First EURES Job’ scheme to get a job here. In total 34.7% of jobs the scheme has placed people on have been in Britain, but only 25 Britons have found work through it.

At first this seems grossly unfair – it looks like EURES, a continent-wide jobs portal, is paying for Europeans to take British jobs while failing unemployed Britons. This is not entirely accurate: EURES’ mission is to help 18-35s from the EU, Iceland and Norway to find work, plus help employers fill difficult vacancies. This chimes with the single market ethos of moving resources to where they are needed.

In practice, by moving jobseekers from states with soaring youth unemployment (Greece, Italy and Spain) to countries faring better (Britain and Germany), it helps relieve the social pressure of joblessness on their home states, and boost their personal prospects.

EURES’ method should work well for Britain. There is a travel allowance of up to €350 so migrants from far off can apply for specialised UK jobs if they’re well-suited, plus €50/day subsistence funding so applicants don’t burden other states’ welfare systems. If applicants are successful they can also get €1,060 in relocation expenses, funnelling cash into Britain.

In addition applicants can get €1,270 for language training and €1,000 towards the bureaucracy for getting their qualifications recognised in the UK. Over half of 2015’s jobseekers had degrees and another third had secondary education. Employers could get an additional €1,060 in language and training allowances.

As I explored fully in The Norwegian Way, proper language training and skills recognition are vital for an effective integration policy. They mean that new migrants will not be competing with low-skilled natives for low-paid jobs, but should fit into the economy at their appropriate level, competing on merit rather than undercutting Britons via wage/conditions exploitation. They’re also likely to pay more in taxes.

Clearly I am framing the EURES story in a positive light, where it could be taken negatively by focussing on the imbalance of young Britons getting jobs through the scheme. Why aren’t young Britons benefiting? According to the Telegraph, ‘EU sources said British public bodies did not take part in the scheme, meaning there was low uptake… ’. This is damning: here is a programme that could help hundreds of young Brits into jobs in Germany, Denmark or Holland but is simply not being used by UK Jobcentres.

This is either dire oversight by the government, or an omission intended to make EU free movement look more unfair than it should. The scheme is designed to relieve suffering states’ youth unemployment and bring workers with appropriate skills to employers struggling to recruit – exactly the kind of beneficial migration that would likely continue after Brexit, as the inclusion of Iceland and Norway implies. The government should boost British participation without delay.

Jonathan Lindsell is EU research fellow at Civitas. He is currently investigating young peoples’ perceptions of the EU.