Feasibility study on attracting long-term care workers from non-EU countries

What is the issue?

Long-term care refers to services and assistance for those who require support for daily living activities or permanent nursing care. Tasks making up long-term care may include support with bathing, dressing, eating, moving around, using the toilet or aspects of independent living such as shopping, managing money and performing housework. The long-term care sector is of great importance within the EU where demographic changes mean that a growing number of people will require long-term care in the future. However, the sector is facing challenges with the recruitment and retention of the workforce.

In 2019, there were 6.3 million long-term care workers in the EU (3.2% of the overall workforce) (Eurofound 2020). As demand for workers in this sector continues, stakeholders in the EU are interested in facilitating recruitment, admission and validation of qualifications for third-country workers. This includes considering what legal pathways are available, what current channels for recruitment are used, the current skills profiles of third-country long-term care workers and their working conditions, especially in relation to their EU counterparts.

How are we helping?

The Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs (DG HOME) commissioned RAND Europe in partnership with Ernst & Young to undertake research to better understand the role of third-country workers in the long-term care sector in the EU. This includes exploring options for creating pathways to attract such workers to the EU and to formulate recommendations for the Member States and the EU, in particular in ensuring fair and ethical recruitment and treatment of non-EU long-term care workers. The study will focus on the following five topics:

• Existing and potential recruitment channels for third-country long-term care workers in the EU.
• Existing and potential admission pathways for third-country long-term care workers into the EU.
• Skills and qualification profiles of third-country long-term care workers in the EU.
• Working conditions for third-country long-term care workers (compared to native and EU long-term care workers).
• Policy options for facilitating future recruitment, admission and validation of qualifications of third-country long-term care workers in the EU.

This project will utilise desk research, interviews, surveys and expert workshops to collect data on these topics and the study team will analyse these and any relevant secondary data to report on the topic and draft policy recommendations.