Five years after the global economic crisis began in earnest, economic growth and employment remain at the top of the policy agendas worldwide. Some immigrant-receiving countries are still mired in economic crisis, others are balanced on a thin edge between recovery and renewed recession and a few have seen steady but unimpressive growth. Across all of these countries, however, the crisis has refocused governments' attention on the fundamentals upon which their economices are built. At the top of the agenda is human capital: the challenge of ensuring that workers have the skills and abilities to find productive employment and contribute to growth, innovation, and competitiveness in a constantly changing labor market. The ninth plenetary meeting of the Transatlantic Council on Migration, co-convened by the Spanish Ministry of Employment and Seocial Security in Madrid, focused on how public and private-sector actors can make smart investments in underutilized workers- including immigrants. The goal was to discuss how to maximize the potential of those with skills of all types - including the often-overlooked middle skills
