Attracting High Skilled Individuals in the EU: The Finnish Experience

The ageing population, demographic change and a lack of skilled labour in the EU are increasingly provoking governments to apply direct measures to aggressively recruit economic migrants, particularly high skilled individuals (HSIs). As most countries in the EU face similar challenges, attracting HSIs from the third countries are predominantly vital. One of the EU-wide programs to attract skilled professionals is the Blue Card program, which was introduced in 2009 as part of the European Council Directive to focus on highly qualified employment, aimed at making Europe an appropriate host region for qualified workers from the non-EU countries. The EU Blue Card programme is adopted by 25 EU member states, apart from Ireland, Denmark and the United Kingdom. In this article, we discussed underlying features of the EU Blue Card program with a particular focus on the Finnish experience as one of the most successful the EU countries in attracting and retaining talent and HSIs.