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Migration in the European Union

Press Release of July 23, 2014

The mobility of the labor force within the European Union - measured as the proportion of EU foreigners in EU-15 countries to the total EU labor force - increased by approximately one-quarter to almost 3.1 percent from 2007 to 2012. This is primarily due to increased migration of persons from the new eastern European EU member states such as Poland and Romania and, to a lesser degree, due to increased migration of persons from the countries in southern Europe most affected by the crisis. In2012, around 7.4 million economically active persons from the EU-27 were living in an EU-15 country outside their home country. Germany, in particular, has recently seen a substantially increased influx of foreign nationals from EU member states, resulting in an increase in annual total net migration of EU-27 nationals to Germany to more than 260,000 people as of 2012. Our empirical analysis shows that the level of migration to Germany is linked to both unemployment and the gross domestic product per capita in the countries of origin, and to the degree of free movement of workers. The overall picture reveals that the mobility response to the gap in EU unemployment rates in the wake of the crisis was low. This suggests that recent migratory movements could reduce regional (labor market) imbalances to only a limitedextent. The income differences between eastern and western European EU countries appear to have had a greater impact on recent migratory movements than the crisis. If these differences are not significantly reduced in the short term and if recent labor market imbalances within the EU continue for some time to come, annual net migration of EU foreigners to Germany is expected to remain high in the near future.
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