The partner who wasn't in the job offer
Households decide, not individuals
A job offer goes to one person. The decision to accept it, and later the decision to stay, is usually made by a whole household. That simple fact is missing from most of Europe's talent strategies.
A new report from Migration Policy Institute Europe, From Afterthought to Asset (October 2026), puts the partner back into the picture. It shows that recruitment and integration support in Europe typically goes only to the principal worker: the person who receives the offer, applies for the permit and counts towards hiring targets. Everyone who moves with them is largely left to work things out alone.
The evidence says this is a costly blind spot. In a 2022 survey of partners of highly skilled international employees, 94 per cent said countries where partners can work easily would be attractive destinations. Two thirds said they would probably or definitely not relocate to a country where getting a work permit for a partner is difficult.
The effect continues after arrival. In the Netherlands, highly skilled migrants whose partner had a job were about 18 percentage points more likely to still be there five years later. Data from Norway point the same way: how the spouse fares in the labour market is linked to whether the principal worker stays.
A highly qualified workforce left on the sidelines
Accompanying partners are not a side issue. They are often as educated and experienced as the person who was recruited. A 2021 to 2022 survey of partners across more than 100 countries found that 88 per cent held at least a bachelor's degree. Most wanted to work, yet 53 per cent were unemployed after relocating.
An earlier study across 54 host locations showed a similar gap. Four in five partners had built a career before the move, but only around a third could continue it afterwards. That is a large pool of skills arriving in countries that say they are short of exactly those skills, and then going unused.
The scale is significant. Nearly half of all new permanent migrants to OECD countries in 2024 moved for family reasons, and 10 per cent came as accompanying family members of labour migrants.
There is also a clear gender dimension. Women make up between 60 and 80 per cent of family migrants in the EU and often face extra barriers to work. They rarely challenge unfavourable decisions on recognising their qualifications, likely because of limited information, cost and marginalisation. A talent strategy that ignores partners is, in practice, a strategy that sidelines highly educated women.
Why the right to work is not enough
The first step is legal access. Families should be able to reunite quickly, and partners should not face a separate, burdensome work permit process. Some countries are moving in this direction. Luxembourg has removed labour market tests for certain family members, and Ireland now gives eligible spouses and partners automatic access to employment. The revised EU Blue Card Directive also names family reunification and partners' access to work as key to attracting skilled workers.
But the report is clear that a permit is only one piece of the puzzle. Even with full rights, many partners struggle to find work that matches their qualifications. The barriers are language, slow recognition of foreign qualifications and, above all, the lack of a professional and social network in a new city. Research from the United Kingdom found that many skilled partners moved down the career ladder despite having the right to work.
Some cities have started to respond. Copenhagen runs a municipal career programme for accompanying spouses, with separate tracks for partners with and without higher education. Helsinki has its own Spouse Program. In Austria, the Carinthian International Center combines language training, qualification recognition, career guidance and employer matching for dual-career couples. Austria's national WORK in AUSTRIA platform also advises on family members' employment, education and settlement.
These are promising models, but they remain the exception. Most partners still arrive without a path into local working life or local community.
Recruiting the household, not just the hire
MPI Europe recommends a whole-of-family approach as the standard, not a perk for a small group of senior professionals. Partners should have access to language learning, qualification recognition, career guidance and local integration services from day one, just like the principal worker. Talent portals and one-stop shops should serve partners too, not only applicants.
Employers have a strong reason to act. In a survey of global mobility professionals across 64 organisations, 91 per cent said their ability to attract qualified workers rose when the host country let partners work. And 84 per cent said their ability to retain talent rose as well. Employers can support partners through clear pre-arrival communication, dual-career planning and funding for local programmes, without becoming the only gatekeeper to help.
The missing piece in most of these efforts is the local network. A partner who has no colleagues yet needs another way into the city: people to meet, ways to contribute, and recognition for what they bring. That is the layer ELSSSE is building. Newcomers and locals take part in the same neighbourhood projects, share their skills and are recognised by the people around them. For a partner with a career on hold, contribution builds the trust, references and local connections that often open the next professional door.
When the partner belongs, the household stays. If you recruit international talent, or shape how your city welcomes it, get in touch to explore how ELSSSE can support the whole family. Read more about our work with employers and universities and cities and governments.
Sources
Figures are drawn from Jasmijn Slootjes and Abigail Goldfarb, From Afterthought to Asset: Leveraging integration policy to attract and retain talent (Brussels: Migration Policy Institute Europe, October 2026), and the studies it cites. These include the Permits Foundation International Dual Careers Survey Report 2022 (Parts 1 and 2), Statistics Netherlands (2025), Yvonne McNulty (2010), the OECD International Migration Outlook 2025, Isaakyan and Triandafyllidou (2021) and Föbker (2019).
ELSSSE material: For Organizations, For Cities & Governments, The Solution.