Closed door rhetoric, open door policy: Europe’s far-right lets in migrant workers needed for the energy transition

Europe is facing two conflicting political demands: the continent is trying to attract skilled workers to fill labour shortages in its clean energy and other sectors, and simultaneously there are loud calls to halt migration. 

“There is a prevailing narrative that too many people are coming to Europe and we need to close our borders. This is a far-right message, but it is also increasingly coming from the centre-right. At the same time, policy makers and companies concerned with demographic ageing trends are saying that there are not enough people,” said Judith Kohlenberger, migration researcher at the Vienna University of Economics and Business.  

Not having enough people is indeed a problem when it comes to the EU's ambition to become the first climate-neutral continent. There is a lack of workers with green skills who can screw solar panels onto roofs, install and maintain heat pumps or repair electric vehicles.

Europe’s climate policies could create one million to 2.5 million additional jobs by 2030, but the question remains who will fill these positions. The EU badly needs welders, plumbers, mechanics and electricians, and is looking into recruiting skilled workers from abroad as a potential solution.

Welders are needed to “assemble wind turbines, build nuclear facilities or decommission old fossil fuel plants,” Sam Huckstep of the Center for Global Development (CGD) told Clean Energy Wire, and European countries will need “many, many more of them.”

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen stated that the EU will “help match the skills of third-country nationals with Europe's labour market shortages,” in addition to retraining and upskilling initiatives.

Attracting skilled labour may prove difficult while anti-immigrant, far-right parties are gaining strength and power across Europe. They hold positions in the governments of Croatia, Finland, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands and Slovakia. In Sweden, the far-right has a support arrangement with the government, while in Austria, the far-right FPÖ emerged as the largest party in the 2024 elections. Many of these parties built their platforms and success on strong anti-immigrant sentiments.

Yet, despite far-right parties denouncing immigration and opposing strong climate action, they are opening the door to labour migrants, who are needed for Europe’s energy transition.

These workers enter through legal routes and arrangements between the country of origin and the country of destination.

“It is not a topic widely discussed in right-wing circles but if you, for instance, read the most recent FPÖ party manifesto, they vaguely mention the need for qualified migration,” Kohlenberger told Clean Energy Wire.

The Italian government announced in 2023 that it would allow just under half a million immigrant workers, including plumbers and electricians, into the country to fill labour shortages.

Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orbán has said in the past that his country “does not need a single migrant for the economy to work.” Nowadays, he is bringing in large numbers of migrant workers as the country aims to become one of the world's largest manufacturers and exporters of electric vehicle batteries, Huckstep said.

“Despite their famous anti-migrant and anti-green rhetoric, Hungary spotted a market opportunity.”

Huckstep explained that many of these people, who mainly come from Asian countries, are not integrated into society and that there is little interest in protecting their rights. Many of them face dangerous working conditions, such as exposure to hazardous chemicals, he said.

“For many migrants, the possibility of coming even to quite an unwelcoming place is economically transformative to their families and their communities. They are likely to find it attractive to enter European countries through legal migration routes, almost regardless of the rhetoric prevailing in those countries,” Huckstep said.

The workers in Hungary often get temporary visas only, but Kohlenberger questions whether that means they will leave, despite the bad conditions they face. This is also due to pressure from companies that need them. “Now that companies finally found the workers they need, they don’t want to send them back.”

Growing pressure from private companies will also play a role in other European countries, Kohlenberger continued. “Companies will ask their governments what they are doing to attract workers, and how will they make it easier to find workers from third countries.”

One of those companies is ASML, an important player in the global green transition as its advanced lithography machines produce semiconductors that are needed for wind parks, photovoltaic systems, electric vehicles and heat pumps.

If European countries want to remain competitive in key industries, they should not restrict inbound migration, according to ASML CEO Christophe Fouquet.

“We have built our company with more than 100 nationalities, so bringing talent from everywhere has been an absolute condition for success and this needs to continue,” Fouquet said at the Bloomberg Tech Summit in 2024.

The company operates with 40 percent foreign workers. It has its headquarters in the Netherlands, where a new government was installed in 2024 after the far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) won the election and formed a coalition with three other parties that all ran on anti-migration platforms. Several other companies in the Netherlands have expressed similar concerns about the new government’s “toughest migration policy ever,” and highly skilled migrants have been experiencing growing anti-immigration attitudes in recent years.

These attitudes come against the backdrop of increasing competition for skilled labour.

Europe is not the only region struggling with skills shortages, and in the coming years competition will only increase. For the energy transition, this means “competition at different skill levels,” said Huckstep. “Both for highly qualified engineers and for vocationally trained welders.”

The rise of anti-immigrant sentiments in many European countries may deter the most sought-after migrants: those with qualifications that allow them to choose where to go, explains Kohlenberger. 

“Even if the rhetoric in a country is mainly aimed at a specific group of migrants, for example refugees, it scares off other people who want to migrate. Several studies show the people whose skills are most needed in the labour market are more likely to be deterred by anti-migration rhetorics because they have options, they know their skills are in high demand,” she said.

In 2023, New Zealand was the most attractive OECD country for highly educated migrants, followed by Sweden and Switzerland. In the top ten of 38 OECD countries, only three are EU countries.

The United States ranked as the eighth most attractive destination. According to Huckstep, it is hard to predict at this point what U.S. president Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant and anti-climate policy shift will mean for labour migration. It could result in many qualified migrants choosing another destination, but it could also exacerbate Europe’s skill shortage, and push up the costs for making the region more climate-friendly. 

“Decreased U.S. investment in the green transition might divert more investment towards the EU, increasing labour demand, or reduce economies of scale and learning rates, making the green transition in the EU somewhat more expensive.”