A few blocks from the bustling Mobility Days trade fair, academics gathered at the Austrian Academy of Sciences on 19 November for the opening of the Wittgenstein Centre’s three-day conference “Demographic Perspectives on Migration in the 21st Century.” Researchers from Southampton to Seoul are presenting new modelling techniques that aim to predict refugee flows, labour-migration gaps and the knock-on effects for pension systems.
Why should corporate HR care? Because several panels drill into Austria’s own skills-shortage mitigation strategies, notably refinements to the Red-White-Red Card points system and regional quotas for critical sectors such as nursing and semiconductor manufacturing. Early findings suggest that, absent higher inflows, Austria’s working-age population could shrink by 6 % by 2040—putting upward pressure on minimum-salary thresholds that multinationals must meet when transferring staff.
![Vienna Hosts Wittgenstein Centre Conference on Migration: New Data Tools for Mobility Policymakers]()
Day Two will unveil a prototype “Mobility Stress Test” dashboard that lets policymakers and firms simulate what would happen if ETIAS or Schengen border checks slow down commuting times along the Slovak and Hungarian frontiers. The tool was co-developed with IIASA and funded in part by the EU Horizon programme.
Corporate attendees—including HR heads from Infineon Villach and Novartis Kundl—told Global Mobility News they plan to feed the data into workforce-planning software to fine-tune expatriate budgets. A policy brief is expected by year-end, giving stakeholders an evidence base ahead of Austria’s 2026 migration-quota review.
Why should corporate HR care? Because several panels drill into Austria’s own skills-shortage mitigation strategies, notably refinements to the Red-White-Red Card points system and regional quotas for critical sectors such as nursing and semiconductor manufacturing. Early findings suggest that, absent higher inflows, Austria’s working-age population could shrink by 6 % by 2040—putting upward pressure on minimum-salary thresholds that multinationals must meet when transferring staff.
Day Two will unveil a prototype “Mobility Stress Test” dashboard that lets policymakers and firms simulate what would happen if ETIAS or Schengen border checks slow down commuting times along the Slovak and Hungarian frontiers. The tool was co-developed with IIASA and funded in part by the EU Horizon programme.
Corporate attendees—including HR heads from Infineon Villach and Novartis Kundl—told Global Mobility News they plan to feed the data into workforce-planning software to fine-tune expatriate budgets. A policy brief is expected by year-end, giving stakeholders an evidence base ahead of Austria’s 2026 migration-quota review.
