Background information

According to OSKA (Estonian Labour Market and Skills Monitoring and Prognosis system), the Estonian labour market will be short of approximately 1,400 top specialists and 700 skilled workers every year over the next decade, and these needs cannot be met by Estonian graduates of formal education.

In order to provide relief to labour shortages in various sectors, the government plans to increase the quota of skilled workers migration to Estonia.

According to the the ruling coalition representative, they plan to move forward with the amendment as quickly as possible with July 2025 the earliest.

Content of measure

The planned change to Estonia’s immigration quota will allow companies to bring more workers from third countries. The quota is set to increase from 1,300 people per year (0.1% of the population) to a maximum of 2,600 people per year (0.2%).

According to a government representative, the new quota will be introduced in stages and its size will fluctuate based on economic conditions. Initially, an exception for 1,300 people will apply. If economic growth exceeds two percent, an additional 1,300 places will be added.

The immigration quota primarily regulates labor and business migration from third countries. It does not apply to employees in the ICT sector, foreigners working in start-ups, family and study migration, lecturers, major investors, or top specialists earning at least 1.5 times the national average salary. It also excludes foreigners granted a temporary residence permit for short-term employment or work in a growth company. Additionally, the quota does not apply to EU citizens and their family members, or citizens of the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan, as well as applicants for international protection.

Use of measure

No information available yet.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Does not apply to workers	Does not apply to businesses	Migrants or refugees

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government Employers' organisations	No special funding required

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Consulted	Consulted
Form	Any other form of consultation, institutionalised (as stable working groups or committees) or informal	Any other form of consultation, institutionalised (as stable working groups or committees) or informal

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• Social partners jointly
• Main level of involvement: Peak or cross-sectoral level

Involvement

Peak level social partner, Employers Confederation, is one of the main proponents of increasing immigration quota. The EO has a working group on labour market, and one of the aims of the working group is worded as 'We stand for increasing the quota of foreign workers by at least 0.1% + 0.1%'. They also give feedback to policy drafts, express their views and support increasing immigration quota in discussions regarding labour market and economy.

Views and reactions

According to Employers Confederation, the quota could be three to four times larger, 5,000 people per year, because labour shortages are prevalent in a variety of sectors including ICT, social services, manufacturing/industry, construction, etc.

The representative of Trade Union Confederation emphasised that there should be less manipulating with gray areas to bypass the quota limitations, such as using temporary work agencies to recruit migrants. The representative emphasized that the same salary should be paid to locals and immigrants: ,,If we start endlessly importing labor because our own labor seems expensive to us, then the country's development will not be the way we would like''.

Sources

• 05 February 2024: According to entrepreneurs, the quota for foreign labor could be several times highe (www.err.ee)
• 14 March 2025: Government moves forward with plan to increase foreign labor forc (www.err.ee)