Growth, Equal Opportunities, Migration, and Markets (GEMM)
Theoretical background and objectives
The GEMM project addresses the ‘Migration, Prosperity and Growth Dimension’ of the call on the European Growth Agenda within the Horizon 2020 framework of the European Commission. With over 20 researchers located in 8 countries in Europe, our consortium will approach this important topic and deliver:
- An analysis of the obstacles to the successful incorporation of migrants and in particular to the attraction and retention of highly skilled migrants;
- A thorough assessment of the migration related drivers of growth and the optimal functioning of markets;
- An assessment of ethnic inequality in the labor market as a barrier to competitiveness and innovation in Europe;
- A set of policy recommendations that contain concrete guidelines as to how migrants can contribute to the EU economy and society.
These deliverables are realized by putting forward an innovative research agenda that combines scientific rigor, a mixed methods and comparative approach, and crosscutting expertise. The main contribution of this project is to advance our understanding of ethnic inequality as a central barrier to the optimal functioning of the European labor market and thus to growth and innovation. Ethnic inequality inhibits two main migration related drivers of growth: the efficient use of human capital and managing mobility of human capital both within Europe and from other regions in the world. In the research framework, we analyze the interrelatedness between ethnic inequality as a barrier to growth, and the two migration-related drivers of growth. We achieve a unified research focus across work packages in two ways: by analyzing types of migrants defined by their educational qualifications – individuals with high, medium and vocational, and low skills; by exploring three sets of determinants of inequality - individual (gender, age, health, family situation, caring responsibilities, social ties (friendship ties), religious affiliation), contextual (neighborhood deprivation, segregation, climate of reception), institutional determinants (employment discrimination, labor market (occupational, sectoral) segmentation, flexibility and security of work, access to social welfare (policy regimes more broadly).