But I am biased by my own experience of being unable to find a way to move until I skilled up in development. "Idealistic physics grad with a spotty academic record who wants to help the Earth" didn't cut it.

Also, they tend to pay reasonably well (though nurses are scandalously underpaid in too many places, which is shocking).

In many cases, there's a "if you can make more than X you can get in" provision too, generally with some fairly high threshold. Last I checked it was around 154,000 GBP in the UK for instance (remember that dev salaries in the UK and most of the EU, for that matter, are incredibly low compared to the US).

Most of the more restrictive EU countries (e.g.: UK, Ireland, etc.) have barriers to getting immigration stamps, which the most oft way of immigration is through employment and the most labour available to foreigners is either tech or medicine.

For example, in Sweden, a position must be listed as a highly qualified skill, the role must be listed for 20 days (I think it is) - so that EU citizens can be afforded an opportunity before the role is given to an immigrant, and then the employment contract must be agreed upon by the labour union before it can be approved.

You're not getting an employment contract, for example, to work in Burger King in Stockholm because it wouldn't pass the labour market needs test.

So, this is presumably why the OC thinks that medicine and tech make you immigration eligible.

Worthy of note is that tech or medicine are the best ways to get the EU Blue card (the equivalent of the US Greencard); so, the assumption isn't without its merits.