The EU Single Permit Directive offers third country nationals who wish to come and work in the European Union a simplified procedure for obtaining a work and residence permit with a view to facilitating labour market activation. The Directive also guarantees third country nationals a minimum set of rights based on equal treatment with EU citizens. However, given the significant discretion of EU Member States in determining their national labour migration policies, to what extent do single permit holders benefit from these objectives in practice?

CDE Member, Dr Amy Weatherburn along with master students from the Equality Law Clinic has undertaken a comparative study of the reality for (prospective) migrant workers in Belgium, the Czech Republic and Spain to investigate their lived experiences of seeking employment, working and living in the EU, with a view to determining the aspects that can be further improved to ensure that their social and labour rights are guaranteed.

Given that the Single Permit Directive is currently being revised and that changes at a national level are also underway, the findings of the study will greatly contribute to the debate around the future direction of labour migration policy approaches.

The realisation of the study has been made possible by the support of PICUM, CNCD-11.11.11 and Confederation of Christian Trade Unions of Belgium (ACV / CSC), Association for Integration and Migration-SIMI (Czech Republic); and Fundación Cepaim (Spain).

The full text of the study can be found here.