EU expansion didn't bring migrant worker wave: EC Employment Report
Worker
(BRUSSELS) - The long-feared Polish plumber phenomenon, an invasion of workers from eastern European countries taking jobs from their EU neighbours, has not materialised, according to a report released on Tuesday.
The report, compiled by the European Commission, shows that since 2004 workers from eastern European nations have helped meet job demand in older EU countries and do not appear to have displaced local workers or hurt their wages.
The number of workers on the move and the countries they go to also depend on where the right jobs are, with people tending to move on once better opportunities appear elsewhere.
When the EU expanded to include 10 new members in 2004, fears grew in the oldest 15 member nations of a veritable invasion of cheap labour from eastern post-communist states. Bulgaria and Romania joined the bloc in 2007.
Poles, Lithuanians and Latvians among others did move in search of better paying jobs after the EU's big bang enlargement, with most choosing Britain and Ireland (making up 1.2 percent and five percent of their populations respectively).
Many also moved to Austria and Luxembourg.
But while the number of citizens from the 10 new members who are living in the 15 oldest states has risen by around 1.1 million since 2004, more people have migrated within the 15 old states or come in as foreigners from outside the EU.
The commission believes that these minor movements are a good reason for EU member states to lift their remaining restrictions on the free circulation of workers, as the nations have promised to do.
Brussels believes that lifting restrictions also brings the number of undeclared workers down, and limits the undesirable consequences of black market labour.
On July 16, Germany decided to keep restricting free access to workers from the new EU member states until 2011, even as businesses complained of a chronic lack of highly trained workers such as engineers and computer programmers.
In a move that put it at odds with almost all other EU countries, Berlin cited fears that a flood of cheap labour would put Germans out of work due to its geographic proximity to the new member states.
At the other end of the spectrum, France suffers from a shortage of skilled labour, particularly in the building and restaurant sectors and has been gradually opening its job market to workers from the east since May 2006.
In principle, restrictions should be lifted by April 30, 2009, with an extension until December 31, 2011 for Bulgaria and Romania, whose workers face hurdles in 15 nations.
Around 1.6 million Bulgarians and Romanians had moved into their 25 European neighbour countries by the end of last year, many to Spain and Italy.
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