The economic impact of east–west migration on the European Union

Abstract

This study contributes to the literature on destination-country consequences of international migration, with investigations on the effects of immigration from new EU member states and Eastern Partnership countries on the economies of old EU member states during the years 1995-2010. Using a rich international migration dataset and an empirical model accounting for the endogeneity of migration flows, we find positive and significant effects of post-enlargement migration flows from new EU member states on old member states' GDP, GDP per capita, and employment rate, and a negative effect on output per worker. We also find small, but statistically significant negative effects of migration from Eastern Partnership countries on receiving countries' GDP, GDP per capita, employment rate, and capital stock, but a positive significant effect on capital-to-labor ratio. These results mark an economic success of the EU's eastern enlargements and free movement of workers in an enlarged EU.

Labour market impacts of post-enlargement migration on hosts and stayers in EU labour markets

“…This discrepancy may decrease with years since migration and vary across immigrant cohorts; however, de la Rica (2010) shows little adjustment of post-enlargement migrants over time. Kahanec and Mýtna Kureková (2016) argue that the prevalent profile of Slovak out-migration has changed from young and educated before the Great Recession to older and medium-educated during the recession; with the degree of downskilling being lesser for migrants with the latter profile. Hence, changing patterns of downskilling may interfere with simple implications about changing patterns of migrants’ skills as measured by their formal educational attainment.…”

A “Win-Win Exercise”? The Effect of Westward Migration on Educational Outcomes of Eastern European Children

“…Kahanec (2013), on the other hand, finds no significant evidence of "brain drain," even in the most significant sending countries of Romania and Poland. Kahanec and Pytliková (2017) estimate the economic impacts of both post-enlargement member states as well as Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries. 2 Although they replicate the small positive impact of member state enlargement on receiving countries' economies, they find modest negative effects from EaP migration.…”

“…Galgóczi, Leschke, and Watt 2013;Zaiceva and Zimmermann 2008). Although some scholars characterize the labor integration of Eastern European migrants as "seamless" (Kahanec 2013, 148) and find net positive effects for economic growth (Kahanec and Pytliková 2017), others find that skills gaps for Eastern European migrants create barriers to integration (Verwiebe, Wiesböck, and Teitzer 2014), and Eastern Europeans often end up doing the "dirty work" of the West (Gregson et al 2016). Little research, however, has focused on school-age Eastern European migrants in Western Europe.…”

The Social Inclusion and Inequality Nexus: EU versus non‐EU migrants

“…Besides non‐EU immigrants’ flow to EU, there is a rising flow of immigration from new EU member states, which is a serious challenge to income inequality in Europe (Kahanec and Pytliková, ). As a result of European integration, there are fewer barriers between Western, Central and Eastern European (Boje et al., ).…”