Eurochambres is hoping to rein in more partners for an EU-wide effort to integrate refugees, seeing them not as a challenge to society and the business community – but an opportunity to fill skills gaps.
President Arnaldo Abruzzini, speaking to The Business Observer after an intervention at the recent conference organised by The Economist, said the proposal had been widely welcomed by various stakeholders, ranging from local and regional authorities to unions, and from colleges to religious organisations.
It is not clear whether any partners from Malta will sign up. So far, the Employment and Training Corporation has confirmed that it will not be taking part.
The European Refugees Integration Action Scheme was drawn up to bring together various initiatives already introduced over the years by various member states, such as mentoring programmes in Austria and vocational education programmes in Germany.
“Clearly, we cannot simply extend established domestic training programmes,” Eurochambres explained, noting that these would need to take into account everything from validating the competence of the refugees to language and culture aspects.
And jobs are one of the reasons that all these people are drifting from their own countries: they have no economic future
Over a million refugees entered Europe last year and a further million are expected to enter this year. Nearly a quarter of asylum seekers and refugees are aged between 16 and 25.
Eurochambres is proposed to coordinate the scheme – which will require an stagerring estimated €962 million financing – from “public administrations, including the EU institutions”, as well as donors and sponsors.
To succeed, it would need support beyond the Eurochambres members, and Mr Abruzzini said the scheme was being extended to business organisations from the southern shore of the Med.
Would the money be worth it? Asked how many jobs it would create, he admitted that it was difficult to make a precise forecast: “But based on pilot schemes we have already run in different regions in Europe, we might say that our goal would be to create at least 200,000 jobs for refugees.
“Certainly this will not entirely solve the migrant problem as there are millions out there. But economic studies support the idea that if we give a job to one out of each 10, that will stabilise the situation of the family environment of that one person, in a way that will actually carry on to the other nine.
“But the same scheme could later also be applied to migrants and then the figures would be completely different,” he said.
The role of the southern Mediterranean was hotly debated during the conference, with arguments being made for both geo-economic forces and geo-political ones. Mr Abruzzino believes that they go hand in hand – to a point: “The policies set by governments are creating a widening gap between the political and the environments.
“I referred in my intervention to the foundation of the European Union, which was after all a political decision based on a business reality: coal and steel. It was all about precise business factors.
“What we are witnessing these days is that the political environment is going another way, taking a different path to the business one. We should reconcile the two.
“The aim is clearly not to negate the impact of politicians. Countries have to be run by politicians and not by businessmen. But we should reconcile the two visions as business is what creates jobs. And jobs are one of the reasons that all these people are drifting from their own countries: they have no economic future. That is why we appeal to political leaders to reconsider the huge contribution that the business community can give to the stabilisation of the region. This should be done through an economic growth and not through political decisions.”