European migration governance remains structurally anchored to a model developed in the post-war industrial economy: employment as the primary pathway to integration. For decades this mechanism provided economic participation, social structure, and community entry points for newcomers. However, automation, digitalisation, and artificial intelligence are progressively reducing entry-level employment opportunities, particularly in sectors that historically absorbed new arrivals. This paper develops a theoretical framework for migration integration in high-automation, post-labour economies, where employment can no longer reliably function as the central integration mechanism. The study introduces the Engagement Integration Track (EIT) — a governance architecture that replaces employment-based integration with structured civic participation supported by institutional incentive alignment across governance levels. The framework consists of five integrated components: • Structured Engagement Pathways enabling immediate participation in language learning, civic orientation, vocational training, digital literacy, and community contribution.• Behavioural Filtering Through Participation, where engagement patterns reveal integration intent through sustained participation rather than administrative screening.• Municipal Stability Credits, providing outcome-linked funding to local governments based on measurable integration indicators.• Origin-Nation Partnership Track, incentivising governance improvements in origin countries through transparency-linked development partnerships.• Portable Human Capital (Skills Wallet) allowing participation, competencies, and skills to be recorded and recognised across jurisdictions, facilitating circular migration and development returns. The framework integrates insights from migration studies, behavioural economics, fiscal federalism, and development economics to propose a system that aligns incentives across migrants, municipalities, national governments, and origin countries. Rather than treating migration as a one-directional flow, the model conceptualises migration as a circulatory development system, in which skills accumulation and governance improvements generate long-term benefits across participating societies. The paper is theoretical and proposes an institutional architecture intended for future empirical testing through municipal pilot programmes and policy experimentation. This paper consolidates and extends earlier conceptual work published in Zenodo record 18184015, developing the framework into a comprehensive institutional architecture for engagement-based migration integration. https://zenodo.org/records/18184015

This paper proposes the Engagement Integration Track (EIT), a governance framework for migration integration in advanced economies where automation is reducing the employment opportunities that historically supported integration. The model replaces employment-based pathways with structured civic engagement, portable skills recognition, and outcome-linked municipal funding. The framework aligns incentives across migrants, municipalities, and origin nations while enabling integration in post-labour economic conditions.