Abstract

The case focuses on the issue of immigration from the new member states who joined the EU in 2004 into the older member states of the European Union. It traces the process of European integration from the period after the Second World War, and the formation of the European Union and its subsequent expansions. The case further discusses the different approaches adopted by the older member states of the EU to deal with the expected flood of job seekers from the newly independent states from Central and Eastern Europe, which joined the EU after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. While Ireland, the United Kingdom and Sweden were fairly open to immigrants from these countries, the other EU members imposed many restrictions on the movement of workers from the new member states. The case then compares the impact of immigration on the three EU member states that chose to allow immigrants in, with the countries which followed a more restrictive approach. It ends by examining the issue of the expected eventual decrease in the EU’s population in the coming years/decades and the need for these countries to supplement their indigenous labor markets with immigrants.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Understand why people migrate from one place to another
• Gain insights into the origin
• Understand the economic and cultural imperatives that encouraged people from the new member states of the EU to emigrate
• Understand the reasons why some of the older EU countries were reluctant to allow in migrants, while a few others were more welcoming
• and Recognize the interplay between an ageing workforce and population, declining fertility rates, unfilled gaps in the EU’s labor market, economic stagnation as well as the role of domestic electoral politics in the development of attitudes and policies

Keywords

Immigration within EU, EU enlargement, EU labor markets, Movement of labor, European community, Copenhagen criteria, Immigration curbs in EU