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New measures in the EU’s immigration control have already extended beyond strictly border control’s actions and became integral part of national employment policies, the workplace’s regulations and the “external employment resources”. Two aspects are vital: immigration control leading to labour market protectionism, and remote work which has grown immensely; however, some hybrid models emerged, but fully remote work still dominates.
Background
Two major shifts are shaping European labour markets: migrant workers in the EU (or third-countries nationals) with numerous restrictions imposed, and remote work (with various hybrid modifications). As as a counter-balance to traditional employment policies, they require some clarifications. Thus, in the former, growing restrictions, such as labour market tests, salary thresholds and waiting periods for migrants are “modernizing” traditional employment. While implementing rather independently in most EU states, these measures amount to a new form of labour market protectionism, paving the ways to emergence of trends giving the appearance of “safeguarding native workers” while quietly reshaping immigration systems.
The latter approach (remote work) continues to expand among the EU-27, with nearly one in five workers now in hybrid arrangements and around one in ten working fully remotely. Hybrid models, i.e. splitting time between home and office, have become the dominant form of flexible work, especially in cities and high-skilled sectors.
These two trends reveal a paradox: labour market rules are tightening for migrants even as remote and hybrid work opportunities expand in the European employment policies.
However, it is vital to see the third component in the general arsenal of means in a modernised national employment strategy: i.e. the role of education providers that shall constantly update training new skills in line with the modern global challenges.
See, e.g. Eteris. E. Educational Challenges for a New Century: Policies for sustainable growth. – Springer Briefs in Education Series (2024). -126 pp. In: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-59013-9; ISBN 978-3-031-59012-2.
The EU-wide employment policy promotes high levels of citizens’ activity and social protection; thus, key objectives include achieving high employment rate, fostering necessary-skilled workforce, improving job quality, etc. These objectives are supported by funding, e.g. through the European Social Fund+, and the Youth Guarantee scheme; e.g. European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) is the main EU-27 instrument for investing in working people: i.e. with a budget of €142.7 billion for the period 2021-2027, the ESF+ continues to provide an important contribution to the EU’s employment, social, education and skills policies, including structural reforms.
More in: https://european-social-fund-plus.ec.europa.eu/en; and in: https://employment-social-affairs.ec.europa.eu/policies-and-activities/eu-employment-policies_en
First: immigration issues
During last decades, various European governments have adopted numerous actions (administrative and legal) aimed at regulating, or even limiting so called external employment resources on the nation-wide labour market, making it ground for fierce competition from immigrant workers.
Recent research has shown that, as wide-public concerns about controlling immigration have become a hot issue, several European countries have introduced irregular migration movements for a “migrant labour” damaging rather stable existing market competition. As a rule, such measures are designed to limit “external labour” by placing restrictions on access to employment through labour market tests, minimum salary requirements or qualifying periods before migrants can be assigned for empl0oyment. The researchers have noted some “forms of labour market protectionism” in such spheres where markets were “supposed to be increasingly deregulated and free from government intervention”. But it is not clear, whether immigration could to a new form of labour market protectionism in Europe: recent study of legislative changes in Austria, Germany, Ireland and the UK has revealed some answers.
Source and citation from: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2025/08/19/has-immigration-led-to-a-new-form-of-labour-market-protectionism-in-europe/
Specifically, the researchers examined several types of restrictions that the mentioned four countries have introduced: e.g. by differentiating groups according to comparison between lower requirements for highly skilled and low-skilled labor migrants:
1) labour market availability tests, where an employer can only hire an immigrant after it has been established that no native, or migrant with full access to the labour market, can take the job; 2) minimum salary or education requirements;
3) requirements regarding the length of time for which TCNs are legally bound to their employer before they can look for another job; and
4) waiting times for asylum seekers before they are able to legally access the labour market.
During last thirty years, the mention countries introduced a range of new legislation and policy measures; i.e. notable two countries (Austria and Ireland) have had very little restraints on labour competition at the start of the period, but have introduce lately almost similar type of restrictions as the so-called “long-standing countries of immigration” as Germany and the UK. The chosen immigration categories were seen through measures referred to highly skilled migrants being subject to labour market availability and salary threshold tests.
Initially, the EU didn’t regulate the “foreign access” to national labour markets; first measures were applied only from the start of this century (e.g. European Labour Law Network’s Employment Relationship Recommendation, 2006, No.198; and a recommendation from 2013); but even then, the initial Council Directive, which related to the reception of asylum seekers, noted that “only the EU member state can determine a period from the date of the application for asylum in which the applicant would not have access to the labour market” (Directive, 2003/9/).
Note. Regulating “foreign workers” in the EU primarily involves a combination of EU directives, such as the Posted Workers Directive and the Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions Directive, that set minimum standards for all workers and ensure predictable employment conditions. While some regulations apply universally, specific rules regarding work permits and visas are handled by individual member states, often influenced by EU policies on legal migration and external border control. The goal is to ensure fair treatment and prevent the exploitation of both EU and third-country national workers by establishing minimum rights and monitoring the labor market.
Further directives for third-countries nationals, TCNs in long term employment followed in 2004 and 2006 (followed by a regulation on statistics, no. 311/76 with amendments in 2021); but only after the first decade in this century the EU began to introduce EU-wide regulations on the TCNs employment (by that time, these four countries had already introduced most of the measures to limit labour market competition).
More in the article “Comparing Immigration Policies: An Overview from the IMPALA Database”, in: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1111/imre.12169; and the regulation in: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2007/862/oj/eng
Second – the remote work’s issues
It is apparent that the COVID-19 pandemic has triggered rapid and widespread adoption of remote work in many countries; the shift that was initially viewed as a short-term adjustment (some researchers still discuss whether workers are returning to offices, either voluntarily or involuntarily), presently is turning in some states into hybrid models, with e.g. proposals for “limit remote work” for civil servants. However, the core issue – returning to office-work – remains at the center of contemporary broader politico-economic discussions.
Thus, increasing facilities in the remote working conditions and possibilities, which have grown immensely in all European countries in the post-pandemic period, gave way to so-called hybrid models that are expected to dominate and reshape the remote-work models.
The LSE’s researchers analysed employment data from 30 European countries and showed a clear shift towards hybrid work. E.g. in 2023, the share of workers who occasionally worked from home (defined as working remotely less than half of the time), continued to increase. By contrast, the share of fully remote workers – those working mainly from home – declined slightly compared to the peaks reached during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
Reference to: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2025/08/18/hybrid-remote-work-dominates-in-european-cities/
There is a different data-pattern in recent trends in the United States, where the share of remote workers has stabilized or slightly declined, while in Europe in 2023, one in five workers were in a hybrid arrangement, and only one in ten worked fully remotely. Therefore, in Europe, remote work continues to expand, but growth is increasingly driven by hybrid arrangements rather than full remote work.
The researchers conclude that “this shift reflects the broader normalisation of flexible working, with employees dividing their time between home and work”: i.e. instead of reversing the remote work gains (made during the pandemic), employers and workers have adopted models that optimally “balance flexibility with in-person interaction”.
Thus, fully remote work surged in Europe during the last pandemic (peaking in 2021), and has since declined but remains well above pre-pandemic levels. In countries such as Belgium, Finland, Ireland and Sweden, fully remote workers now account for approximately 15% of the workforce, exceeding the European average.
In contrast, note LSE’s researchers, hybrid work continued to expand in most countries even after the pandemic: i.e. in Iceland, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Norway, more than 30% of workers now work at least partly from home. Although several countries in Southern and Eastern Europe have also experienced increases in hybrid work; but the overall rates in these regions remain significantly lower than those observed in Northern Europe.
Cities still lead in remote and hybrid jobs because they concentrate industries and occupations that lend themselves to remote work. Although the urban-rural divide still exists, remote work has spread beyond major cities; but structural differences in job types and digital access persist, slowing its expansion in rural areas.
Hybrid work became the dominant form of remote work since 2023, especially across professional occupations: i.e. many positions in education, finance, consulting and public administration now involve a blend of remote and in-person work, combining remote desk-based tasks with face-to-face collaboration.
Fully remote work remains concentrated in a just few sectors, such as ICTs and specialised services; in other sectors “fully remote work” has stabilised or decline since the pandemic. These trends highlight a growing divide: while many workers now benefit from some degree of remote flexibility, only a small share can perform their jobs entirely off-site, note the researchers. So, workers with higher levels of education, self-employed and those in certain sectors and occupations are much more likely to work remotely.
In the conclusion, the LSE’s team (Davide Luca, Cem Özgüzel and Zhiwu Wei, August 18th, 2025) notes, that making remote work more attractive and inclusive, he governments and employers should focus on: a) reskilling and upskilling workers for occupations more suited to remote work; b) promoting remote-capable sectors outside of cities; and c) improving digital infrastructure in rural and underserved regions.
Thus, national political economies guidelines should also “recognise that hybrid work is the new norm”; and consequently, should include in perspective planning such factors as urban mobility, as well as availability of office spaces and public services, accordingly.
Source: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2025/08/18/hybrid-remote-work-dominates-in-european-cities/