Returning Home at Times of Trouble? Return Migration of EU Enlargement Migrants During the Crisis

Eastern enlargements of the European Union to eight Central and Eastern European countries (EU8) together with Cyprus and Malta in 2004 and Romania and Bulgaria (EU2) in 2007 were unprecedented in many aspects. Leaving aside Cyprus and Malta, the large population size of the acceding block and substantial income differentials between the old and new EU members generated fears of a huge influx of Central and Eastern European migrants who would settle permanently in the old EU15 countries, leading to benefits shopping and negative impacts on the receiving countries’ labor markets. However, a significant proportion of these migrants considered and indeed stayed abroad temporarily (Pollard, N., Latorre, M., & Sriskandarajah, D. (2008). Floodgates or Turnstiles? Post-EU enlargement migration flows to (and from) the UK. London: Institute for Public Policy Research; European Commission. (2008). The impact of free movement of workers in the context of EU enlargement, Report on the first phase (1 January 2007 – 31 December 2008) of the Transitional Arrangements set out in the 2005 Accession Treaty and as requested according to the Transitional Arrangements set out in the 2003 Accession Treaty. Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. Brussels, 18 Nov 2008; Eurofound. (2012). Labour mobility within the EU: The impact of return migration. Dublin: European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions). Overall, immigration from the EU8 and EU2 has increased the EU15 population by approximately 1 % after the enlargements, with around 1.8 % and 4.1 % of the respective regions’ population having moved into the EU15 (Holland, D., Fic, T., Rincon-Aznar, A., et al. (2011). Labour mobility within the EU – The impact of enlargement and the functioning of the transitional arrangements. Final Report. Study for the DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion. European Commission, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, London; Brücker, H., Damelang, A. (2009). Labour mobility within the EU in the context of enlargement and the functioning of the transitional arrangements. Analysis of the scale, direction and structure of labour mobility, Deliverable 2. Nürnberg: IAB.