Final Conference

• Programme
• Pictures
• Downloads and Links

Due to the widely believed positive effects of job-related mobility, such as the fostering of innovations, economic growth and European cohesion, great efforts have been undertaken to enhance mobility. One of the prominent examples is the “European Year of Workers’ Mobility 2006.”

Nevertheless the mobility of the European workforce has been repeatedly evaluated as relatively low. A recent study on job-related spatial mobility of all types – and not only on workforce migration – comes to striking results: almost half of the employees in Europe are mobile for job reasons or have been mobile during their professional life. Workers are sedentary but still highly mobile because they adopt different strategies to meet mobility demands. Europeans seldom migrate, but they commute daily or weekly over long distances, live in long-distance relationships for job reasons, fulfil foreign assignments or undertake frequent business trips in Europe or worldwide.

Based on representative data collected in six European countries the papers presented during the conference analyse the current mobility flows and the explanation of the corresponding consequences for society, economy, demographic development, gender equality, and quality of life in Europe. The findings of the study identify new challenges for the economy and suggest a change of political strategies directed to job mobility.

Programme

9:30 – 10:00 Welcome and Opening

Sepp Kusstatscher, Member of the European Parliament

Johannes Klumpers, Head of Unit, L.4 Scientific Culture and Gender Questions, DG Research, European Commission

10:00 – 11:00 Sedentary or Mobile? The Mobility of the European Workforce

Prof. Dr. Norbert F. Schneider, Project Coordinator, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

Commented by Benjamin Holst, Confederation of Danish Employers, Member of Social Affairs Committee of BusinessEurope

and by Germana Di Domenico, Policy officer, Unit D.3 Employment Services and Mobility, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, European Commission

Discussion

11:00 – 11:45 Rising Mobility, Increasing Inequality? Economic and Social Consequences of Mobility

Prof. Dr. Anna Giza-Poleszczuk, University of Warsaw

Commented by Dr. Maria Jepsen, Head of Department Research, European Trade Union Institute (ETUI – REHS)

Discussion

11:45 – 12:00 Break

12:00 – 12:45 Mobile, Single, Stressed? The Effects of Mobility on Family Life and Individual Well-Being

Prof. Dr. Gerardo Meil, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
                     
Commented by Dr. Krzysztof Iszkowski, Socio-economic Analyst, Unit E.1 Social and Demographic Analysis, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, European Commission

Discussion

12:45 – 13:00 Final Discussion and Closing Remarks

Sepp Kusstatscher, Member of the European Parliament

13:30 – 14:00  Press Conference

Pictures

Podium, with Prof. Dr. Michel Hubert, Germana Di Domenico, Benjamin Holst, Sepp Kusstatscher, Johannes Klumpers, Prof. Dr. Norbert F. Schneider, Prof. Dr. Anna Giza-Poleszczuk, Prof. Dr. Gerardo Meil (from left)

Sepp Kusstatscher (Member of the European Parliament, host of the conference)

Prof. Dr. Michel Prof. Dr. Michel Hubert (Job Hubert (Job Mob, Brussels / Belgium, moderation), Johannes Klumpers (Head of Unit L.4, DG Research, European Commission), Prof. Dr. Norbert F. Schneider (Job Mob, Mainz / Germany, project coordinator)

Prof. Dr. Michel Hubert (Job Mob, Brussels / Belgium, moderation), Prof. Dr. Norbert F. Schneider (Job Mob, Mainz / Germany, project coordinator)

Prof. Dr. Anna Giza-Poleszczuk (Job Mob, Warsaw / Poland), Prof. Dr. Gerardo Meil (Job Mob, Madrid / Spain)

Conference, podium and audience

Downloads and Links

presented results and press briefing

Programme

Abstracts

Press Release in English

Pressemitteilung in Deutsch (Press Release in German)

Information de presse en français (Press Release in French)

Nota de prensa en español (Press Release in Spanish)

Policy Brief

Presentation by Prof. Dr. Norbert F. Schneider

Presentation by Prof. Dr. Anna Giza-Poleszczuk

Presentation by Prof. Dr. Gerardo Meil

The conference was organised in cooperation of the European Commission, the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament, and the consortium of the project “Job Mobilities and Family Lives in Europe” funded within the 6^th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development by the European Commission.