Greater Euro-Mediterranean mobility

People circulate a lot less easily than goods or funds. The Mediterranean is no exception, although some progress has been made, with mobility taking increasingly multiple forms, combining professional, family and leisure motives. However, circulation in the region has a long way to go before the “in-depth” integration that IPEMED is working on can become a reality.

Greater mobility could be a solution to help adjust the highly fragmented labour market on both sides of the Mediterranean. Among other things, it could help make up the structural labour shortages that have been identified in the North Mediterranean, and help bring down high unemployment rates, particularly among young and qualified people in the South.

There is another reason for greater mobility, and it is a political one. Talking about “in-depth” integration or a Union for the Mediterranean is not possible without easier mobility for people in the region.

The objectives of IPEMED’s think-tank work on this theme are as follows:
- To provide information on the actual situation and foster greater mobility;
- To analyze and understand the phenomenon of mobility and migration in the region;
- To move away from an administrative vision of migration towards an economic vision of mobility.