Topic 3: Personal and social consequences of migration

The European Agenda for the Integration of Third-Country Nationals (European Commission, 2011) highlights the most pressing challenges regarding migrant integration in the EU. In particular:

  • Gaps in the educational achievement;
  • Low employment levels of migrants, especially for migrant women;
  • ‘Brain waste’ and high levels of ’over-qualification’;
  • High risks of the social exclusion and poverty.

The existing evidence (e.g. OECD/European Union, 2015) underlines that third-country nationals continue to face high barriers in the education system than native-born. In another perspective, low levels of education not only cause refugees’ social exclusion and poverty, but they also create significant potential costs for Member State economies.

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Migrants can face many challenges, both while arriving at the receiving country and on arrival, including:

  • The difficulties occurred during the journey (it may be dangerous, expensive, long lasting, long transit period, including crossing other countries and not the destination country directly)
  • Hard living conditions may be faced
  • Limited job opportunities and restricted access to labor market,
  • Difficulties in adjusting to unknown bureaucracy procedures,
  • Dealing with discrimination and social exclusion
  • Language and cultural barriers
  • Psychosocial aspects resulted from this change and experience