Labour market potentials of the freedom of movement for workers
author: Wido Geis
The freedom of movement for workers is one of the core principles of the European Union and most Europeans have positive attitude towards it. 75 percent regard it as a good and only 9 percent as a bad thing. Nevertheless, the number of persons moving from one EU member country to another is still small. In 2016, only 3.57 million inhabitants of the EU between 25 and 35 years had the nationality of another member state. This equates to a share of 5.4 percent and is less than the number of third country nationals in this age group with 4.69 million or 7.1 percent. If labour mobility would be enhanced, this could be helpful for all countries. On one hand, it could help the economically strong countries to avoid skill shortage and, on the other hand, it could relieve the burden from the social systems in the countries with high unemployment rates, especially in southern Europe. This does not necessarily hold true for migration flows from the eastern to the western EU member states, as, in this case, the crucial factor is not the difference in the labour market situation but at the welfare level.