EU Commissioner Ylva Johansson (S).
Photo: OLIVIER MATTHYS / EPA / TT / EPA TT NEWS AGENCY
Sweden’s Minister of Migration Maria Malmer Stenergard (M).
Photo: JESSICA GOW/TT / TT NEWS AGENCY
It was during an EU meeting on Monday that Ylva Johansson, EU Commissioner responsible for internal affairs, spoke about the Union’s long-term demographic challenges. She said the EU will need to draw on labor from other countries as member states’ own populations get older and older.
According to Johansson, the EU’s population of working age is decreasing by around one million per year.
– This means that legal migration should grow more or less by a million per year and it is really a challenge to do it in an orderly way, she said according to the EU observer news site.
A report from the European Commission speaks of an even greater loss within the member states. There, the working-age population is predicted to decrease from 334 million in 2014 to around 238 million in 2060 if the Union does not get labor through migration.
The minister: “Sweden needs to shift focus”
Sweden’s Migration Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard (M) says in a written comment that the government is working to attract “the right immigration”.
– This includes, not least, that we promote highly qualified labor immigration, because Sweden needs to attract talent from all over the world. Sweden needs to shift the focus from a large low-skilled to a high-skilled labor immigration, and ensure that more people who are already in Sweden take the jobs that are available, the minister states.
– The demography looks different in the different countries of the EU, and each country should be able to assess its needs based on its conditions, she concludes.
According to Eurostat, the EU’s own statistical authority, the population within the Union will increase until 2026 when it will peak at around 453.3 million people. Until 2050, there will then be a gradual reduction to 447.9 million, after which the reduction will take place at a faster pace. This is expected to continue at least until 2100, when the population reaches around 419.5 million, writes the EU Observer.
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